There are only two locations ("points") you can install a water treatment system: Point-of-Entry and Point-of-Use. Which of the two systems you need depends upon what you hope to accomplish?
Water softener is generally used to remove Calcium and Magnesium from water to produce soft water. Soft water has many benefits including longer lasting appliances, softer hair and skin, and reduction of cleaning supplies.
Water filters are mostly Carbon based and mainly remove Chlorine and organics from water.
There are only two methods known for purifying water and they are:
- Distillation is the process of boiling the water and cooling the steam to remove all impurities from water, producing pure water.
- Reverse Osmosis method uses pressure to pass water through an ultra-fine membrane removing inorganic contaminants. RO water is also soft water as it contains no Calcium and Magnesium.