Top 8 NSF Drinking Water Filtration Standards

Water filters can claim to remove or reduce contaminants, but certification from an independent group can give you assurance that the product really does what it says it will. Luckily, you can easily confirm if a water filter is certified by looking for a seal on the product’s label or packaging. The seal may be from the NSF, or another group like IAPMO or the WQA with details about the standards they’ve been tested to. Here’s what the seals look like for each of these groups:

For all NSF certified products, look for the following seal or visit their database.

For all IAPMO certified products, look for the following seal or visit their database.

For all WQA certified products, look for the following seal or visit their database.

To see if a water filter is certified, look for these seals and check which standards they’re certified to. Some water filters may be certified to NSF Standards by other groups, or they can be certified to the testing group’s own standards. Typically, you can find the seal on the bottom of the water filter system on the product sticker. This product sticker will also include the flow rate, manufacturing information, and any electricity specifications. If you’re unable to find the seal directly on the system, check the owner’s manual in the data specifications section and/or the product's Performance Data Sheet. 

If a company wants to become certified by NSF or to any of the other third-party testing entities, they first must submit an application for the filtration system. This application must include important information about the product materials  such as materials  used to make it, where it is manufactured, and most importantly, what claims the company plans on making regarding contaminant reduction.

Next, the experts at the testing facility evaluate the filtration system for structural integrity, safety, and filtration efficacy. Through this rigorous testing, they can determine if your filtration system does what it says it’s going to do. This testing includes water pressure tests, contaminant testing, and filter replacement.

During this time, the certifying body must also review any literature that includes their seal. This can be anything from owner’s manuals, to website text, to system labels. All certifying bodies have specific language you can and cannot use when referencing their certification.

If the system passes all testing, NSF, IAPMO, or WQA will send the company a certification contract. Once signed and returned, the seal can be used. All certifying bodies also add the filtration system to their website and include the standards the filter met.  

While certifications aren’t required to sell a water filtration system, at Aquasana we believe it’s incredibly important. All of our water filtration systems are third-party or independently tested to meet NSF/ANSI Standards and the vast majority are certified. The cost of getting a filtration system tested and certified by a third party costs upwards of $100,000 per product, so while this is a major cost for our company, we believe that providing peace of mind to our customers that each of our product’s claims are rigorously tested is worth the investment.

We offer two whole house systems that are WQA certified to NSF/ANSI Standards 42 and 61. Both the Rhino® and Rhino® Max Flow feature a 1,000,000 gallon capacity (or up to 10 years) that reduces 97% of chlorine from every faucet in your home, though the Max Flow offers 2x the flow rate (14 GPM).

If you live in an area where Chloramines are an issue in your water, our Rhino® Chloramines and Rhino® Chloramines Max Flow are tested and certified to NSF Standard 42 to reduce 83% of chloramines and 97% of chlorine. 

And finally, our OptimH2O® is IAPMO tested and certified to tackle lead, cysts, PFOA/PFOS, chlorine and chloramines, making it our most powerful whole house system available. 

Aquasana will continue to lead the industry by engineering and earning our product certifications that meet NSF’s rigorous standards. We will be on guard against whatever pollutants and contaminants are threatening our water, and continue to be the best solution to aging water infrastructure, so you can experience the cleanest, healthiest water, and peace of mind for your whole family.