By Michael, on April 23rd, 2013 
Erin Steiner is a freelance writer and web content producer from Portland, Oregon.
Obviously you want your water to be as clean as possible. Nobody wants to drink water that will make them sick. Unfortunately, not everybody lives in an area in which drinking clean water is as easy as turning on a faucet. Sometimes you need to install a water purification system to make your water healthy for drinking.
When you first start looking for water purification supplies, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much those supplies cost. Before you panic, don’t forget about the greatest shopping resource ever invented: the Internet! Shopping online is great—you can compare prices and brands without a sales person hovering over you. You can use whatever payment method is most convenient (pretty much every merchant who sells these supplies via the web accepts credit cards online, too).
Here are the best places on the web to shop when you want to buy water purification supplies.
Store Websites
Lowes, Home Depot, etc.—they all have websites through which these supplies can be purchased. The best thing about this option is that, a lot of the time, if something arrives and is wrong or broken, you can return it to your local store instead of having to send it back through the mail.
Amazon
Yep. They sell supplies for purifying water, too. The great thing about Amazon is that you can compare prices from different vendors for the same product. They also usually list items from the major retailers mentioned above. You can get the product you want for the price you want.
REI
REI is a fantastic resource for everything having to do with the outdoors and survival, which makes it a great place to find water purification supplies if, for some reason, there is an emergency or you’re camping and you find yourself needing a portable purification system to keep your drinking water safe. They also sell travel-friendly purification systems if you’re planning on taking a trip abroad or south, to a country where the water is famously unsafe.
The type of water purification system you need is going to depend largely up on the type of water you’re dealing with. Do you have to clear out large amounts of sediment as well as a variety of microbes and bacteria? Do you have hard water or soft water? Has there been an outbreak of something waterborne in your area? The answers to all of these questions will help you determine which purification filter or system is best for you.
It’s also worth noting that there are things you can do to make your own water purifier on the fly. This is a handy skill to have if there is an emergency or if the city decides to work on your neighborhood’s water main for a while and you forgot to prepare yourself for a few days without municipally provided water.
