Filtered Water vs. Softened Water

Many homeowners think softened water is the same as filtered water—but it’s not. Learn why water softeners and water filters serve different purposes and why only filtration makes your water truly clean and safe.

Intro

When it comes to improving the water in your home, two terms often get mixed up—softened water and filtered water.
While both systems can improve your experience with water, they serve very different purposes—and only one protects your health.

Softened Water: Great for Pipes, Not for People

A water softener’s job is simple: it removes hardness minerals like calcium and magnesium. These minerals cause scale buildup in pipes, spots on dishes, and that sticky residue on skin and hair.

Softened water protects your plumbing and appliances, making them last longer. But here’s the catch—softeners don’t remove harmful contaminants. In fact, they work by exchanging hardness minerals for sodium or potassium ions, meaning your water can actually contain more salt than before.

While softened water can make showers feel silkier and your dishwasher more efficient, it still contains chlorine, lead, fluoride, pesticides, and other chemicals that don’t belong in your body.

Filtered Water: Clean, Pure, and Safe to Drink

Filtration focuses on purity, not softness. Clearbrook filtration systems remove up to 99.9% of common contaminants, including:
• Heavy metals like lead and mercury
• Chlorine, fluoride, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Pesticides, pharmaceutical residues, and microplastics

The result is clean, refreshing water you can trust—whether it’s from your kitchen sink, refrigerator line, or a gravity-fed system in the field.

Where a softener changes how your water feels, a Clearbrook filter changes what’s actually in it.

The Perfect Pair—When You Need Both

If you have hard water, using both systems can be ideal. The softener protects your pipes, while Clearbrook filters protect you. Together, they deliver the best of both worlds—softer water for your home and cleaner water for your family.

The Bottom Line

Softened water might look clear, but that doesn’t mean it’s clean. True peace of mind comes from knowing your water has been purified, not just softened.

That’s why more homeowners are turning to Clearbrook—to enjoy water that’s softer on the outside, and pure from the source on the inside.