My wife is pushing for one of these very expensive home water treatment/filtration systems, but it all feels like a scam to me. No one I know has one, so turning to random strangers on the internet for opinions.
Edit: We’re on city water in a decent area. No well water. It’s more about removing the chlorine and microplastics than anything.
The real issue for many people is lead. Lots of houses built between WWII and the 1970’s will have lead pipes as steel was reserved for military purposes in many places.
Like I said: GET A WATER TEST! if you don’t know what you are working with you can’t treat it.
I personally am replacing the copper pipes (lead solder) in my house with PEX. There is some copper left, but not much. If you can do the work yourself this is likely cheaper than the treatment system. (but I drink RO water anyway because of taste)
Lead solder does not contact water, and if it did, it’s a fraction of a percent of the area in a pipe.
What happens to old PEX plastic? We will find out. PEX is about fast and cheap plumbing.
Copper slowly dissolves in tap water, so the pipes are only expected to last about 70 years. While we don’t have long term data on PEX, it so far is looking good and plenty of experts expect it to last longer than copper.
Copper lasts well over 100 years in my area. Plumbers love PEX because they leak in about a decade. Rodents love to chew the plastic. I’ve never see a PEX install without copper connectors or unions.
PEX is cheap labor, but full of real-world issues.