If you want to drink clean, healthy water to your family, you would want to maintain a clean filter. Water filters are very similar to the filter that is located within your air conditioning system. As water passes through the filter, the filter catches particles and impurities, keeping them from coming through to your glass.

A water filter can be clogged with particles and minerals. To keep a filter functioning properly, you need to change it regularly, and as such, you should always have a replacement filter cartridge on hand. The particles within your tap water are generally so small, you can't see them. But a good quality water filter can catch them. This will make your water clearer, tastier, and healthier. Of course, for the most part, anything in local tap water will not be immediately harmful.

When a water filter takes particles, chemicals, and minerals from the drinking water, all of these things stay with the filter. the impurities build up on the filter after a long time. If you don't replace a cartridge, eventually water won't even be able to flow through the filter and you will risk damaging your plumbing.

A sure sign that a water filter cartridge needs replacing is a sudden drop in water pressure. If you don't replace your filter regularly and the water still makes it through, you may be drinking water full of impurities that came from a clogged filter!

I've never used a water filter, and don't intend to start. Other than the water being very very hard around here, it's very good. It's not done me any harm in almost 40 years!

I guess it depends on where you live. In Washington the water is pretty good too out of the faucet, but I still use a filter. However, when I used to live in California, that was a different story. The water had this yellowish tinge to it and it tasted more like metal than water. A filter was a must!

When I used to live in my apartment, in Tacoma, if I went away for the weekend, whenever I got back and turned on the water it would come out brown at first... I guess all the stuff built up and then it would get clearer as I let it run. It was gross but I drank it anyways... didn't kill me or anything.

Ewwww Y's Guy, that's awful I can't believe you drank it like that.

I remember when I was in my early 20s there would be times when I was painting a house and nobody was home so when I was there without the van/truck while someone went to get materials or something I would end up drinking water out of the spigot outside. I've choked down some pretty nasty stuff out of sheer thirst a few times.

Well water is the absolute worst, I stuck my head in someones pool and drank that water once because of how horrid their spigot water was.

I was looking at the water purifier machines outside the grocery store the other day and realized that despite all the things that have changed since I was a little kid, the price of water in those fill your own jug machines has always been 25 cents a gallon.

Really? You drank water out of a pool? Wasn't there chlorine in the pool???

Yep. It hadn't been freshly shocked, there wasn't a lot of chlorine in the pool. It was better than the spigot water and tied me over until I could get to the store.

If you live in a heavily populated area there's probably low levels of chlorine in your tap water.