Whole-Home Water Filtration in Athens, GA

$2,499 installed covers homes with 1 to 4 bathrooms. Homes with 5 bathrooms are $2,699. That price includes the whole-home carbon tank, the drinking-water filter with its own faucet under the kitchen sink, every pipe and fitting the plumber needs, sales tax, and a licensed plumber to put it all in. Nothing gets added on install day.

You hear the full price on the phone call, before anyone comes to the house.

Athens-Clarke County's water system serves about 125,000 people, drawing from Bear Creek Reservoir and the North Oconee River. Athens-Clarke disinfects the water with chlorine (not chloramine, a related chemical some other utilities use instead), and chlorine leaves chemicals behind once it's done its job.

Here's what the Environmental Working Group's Tap Water Database shows for Athens, using Athens-Clarke County's own published results from 2015-2023:

Those numbers are what's behind the chlorine smell in the shower and the taste in a glass of tap water. None of this means anyone will get sick tomorrow - it's about every glass and every shower, year after year, measured against a guideline set well below what shows up in the water.

Data from the Environmental Working Group Tap Water Database, using Athens-Clarke County's own published results, 2015-2023. Of the 17 contaminants the database detected in Athens water, 10 are above the independent health guideline.

For Athens water, the right equipment is straightforward: a whole-home carbon tank where water enters the house, plus a drinking-water filter under the kitchen sink.

The whole-home tank is made by AFW Filters. It's a tall tank filled with carbon; water flows up through it on its way to every tap, shower, the washer and the water heater. It runs with no electricity and no drain line - nothing to program, no salt to buy. For 1-2 bathrooms we size it with a 1.5 cubic foot carbon tank; for 3-4 bathrooms, a 2 cubic foot tank. The carbon takes out the chlorine and the chemicals chlorine leaves behind - the pool smell in the shower, the taste in the glass.

Under the kitchen sink, an iSpring 6-step reverse osmosis filter (a filter that pushes water through a very fine membrane) handles drinking, cooking and ice from its own small faucet. It's certified under an independent standard, NSF/ANSI 58, and its last step adds minerals back so the water doesn't taste flat. It catches what the carbon tank alone doesn't, including chromium-6, and it takes out fluoride too. It serves that one faucet only.

Together, the two pieces cover the whole house: the carbon tank handles every tap, shower, the washer and the water heater, and the under-sink filter handles the one faucet you actually drink and cook from.

Athens-Clarke's own quarterly tap-water analysis, sampled March 2026, measured hardness at 32 parts per million - soft. We only recommend a water softener at 121 parts per million or higher, so Athens city water doesn't need one, and we won't sell you one for it.

If your water carries rust or sediment, for example from old galvanized pipes, the no-power tank isn't the right fit. In that case we'd put the carbon on a valve that flushes the tank on a timer instead - a paid upgrade that needs a nearby outlet and drain. We give that price on the call once we know what your water's carrying.

We give a firm price on a 5-minute phone call - no salesman comes to sit at your kitchen table. A $500 deposit holds the equipment and your install day; you pay the balance the day it's installed and running, by card or Zelle. We don't offer a payment plan. Most installs take a few hours, and we usually get to it within about a week of booking.

You'll hear the same number on the call that you pay on install day - the phone quote is the final price, not a starting point for someone to negotiate up once they're standing in your utility closet.

Everything we install carries a 1-year warranty on parts and labor - if it leaks, breaks or quits in the first year, we come fix it free. After that, the manufacturer's warranty keeps going: 10 years on the tank, 5 years on the valve head at the top of it, and we handle the claim for you.

The carbon in the whole-home tank wears out and needs replacing every 3-4 years; our carbon swap is $495 and keeps your same tank. The drinking-water filter's cartridges need changing once a year - we'll do it for $175 with filters included, or you can do it yourself for about $80-100 in filters. Filters and carbon wear out by design and aren't covered under warranty.

Southern's Water is run by the same owner as Southern's Appliance Rentals, a local business based in Winder, GA. We serve towns within about 25 miles of Statham, GA, including Athens, Winder, Monroe, Jefferson, Watkinsville, Statham, Bogart and nearby.

Call or text the same line our appliance customers use, 706-995-6964, and you talk to the owner's business directly - not a national call center.