Well water is a different problem
Test first. Everything else depends on the result.
Municipal water arrives treated and monitored. Private well water does not — you are the water utility. Roughly one in ten Canadian households relies on a private well, and the contents vary enormously between properties, sometimes between neighbours.
Health Canada recommends testing well water for bacteria at least twice a year, and for chemical parameters periodically. Provincial labs handle this, and in many provinces bacterial testing is free. No filter recommendation is meaningful until you have those results in hand.
What the results usually point to
Bacteria (E. coli, coliform)
Filtration alone is not the answer. Disinfection — UV or chlorination — is what addresses this. Treat it as urgent.
Iron & manganese
Rust-coloured staining on fixtures and laundry. Needs an oxidising or greensand filter, not a carbon cartridge.
Hydrogen sulphide
The rotten-egg smell. Same family of treatment as iron, often handled by the same unit.
Hardness
Scale on kettles and taps, soap that will not lather. A softener, not a filter, is the tool for this.
Sediment & turbidity
Visible particles or cloudiness. A sediment pre-filter protects everything downstream and is cheap.
Nitrates & arsenic
Common near agricultural land. Reverse osmosis is the usual household answer.
The usual order of treatment
Well systems are built in stages, and sequence matters. Sediment removal comes first so the finer stages are not clogged by grit. Iron and sulphur treatment follows. Softening comes after that. Disinfection — UV in particular — goes last, because UV needs clear water to work; suspended particles shade bacteria from the light and the unit stops being effective.
Whole-house systems for wells
Aquasana’s Rhino range includes configurations aimed at well water, some combining filtration with UV and a salt-free conditioner. These are substantial installations rather than cartridge swaps, and they ship from the United States.
See Aquasana whole-house and well water systems →
Buying in Canada? Filters shipped from US retailers can attract provincial duties, taxes and carrier brokerage fees payable on delivery. Buying from a Canadian-fulfilled seller avoids those charges entirely.
Disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices and availability are shown on the retailer’s site and may change.