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Compare our best shower filter systems
Honorable Men’s Shower Filters
Photo: Matthew Corvage
Filterbaby Diamond Series Shower Filter for $113: This in-line filter was able to reduce overall chlorine levels to undetectable amounts, and is one of the few filters on the market able to do this – and the fact that it is an in-line filter means that you will be able to keep your existing shower head and open this filter between the pipe and the shower head. However, it’s a bulky filter, which means your showerhead will be about 4 inches lower than it was before, and the installation system is a bit awkward: It’s one of the only shower heads that you actually needed a wrench to install properly. The replacement filters are designed to use minimal plastic, but they’re also more expensive than most, at $42 every three months.
ShowerClear filtering shower head, as installed in a WIRED reviewer’s home.Photo: Matthew Corvage
ShowerClear Shower Head for $139: Okay, you got me. This is not a filter. ShowerClear is instead designed to solve a problem you may not have thought about but now may be keeping you up at night: potentially infectious bacteria called mycobacteria, which are prone to causing lung infections in the respiratory tract, enjoy growing inside showerheads and are resistant to chlorinated water. They grow in colonies, somewhat similar to fungi. Hence the name. Worse still, if you can’t open your shower head, you won’t be able to see them or even know they’re there. Gives you the willies. Anyway, this Clear Shower has a hinge and a latch. This means you can open it, look inside, and clean the entire interior with soap, vinegar, or disinfectants. This is a very rare quality even among filtered shower heads. I would be happier if the ShowerClear’s water flow was a little better, or if the latch was less of a specific design feature. But what’s all this for a little peace of mind? (However, if you want a filter to remove chlorine, you’ll also need an inline filter like the Weddell Duo.)
Photo: Matthew Corvage
Croix Filtered Shower Head for $129 and Croix Handheld Shower Head for $129: Croix Shower Filter Company was founded by chemical engineer Spencer Robertson, a longtime expert in water purification. The fixed shower head is beautiful, and the handheld shower has a wider range of spray settings than most — including a fun, extra-wide spray setting that’s similar to a very powerful mister. However, the KDF-55 and calcium sulfite filter was unable to filter even close to the majority of the total chlorine levels from the chloramine treated water system. Based on the results I reviewed from Croix’s internal testing, I would likely recommend this device for chlorinated systems like the one in New York City. WIRED was able to review internal testing showing that Croix filters were successful in filtering out most free chlorine from water, according to NSF standards. Replacement cartridges and filters are affordable and recommended once every four months, which is a longer period of time than most brands on the market.
Photo: Matthew Corvage
The included Aquasana filter is $150: The Aquasana’s ridiculously puffy two-layer filter removed the majority of the total chlorine in my chloramine-treated system, and it was also one of the only shower filter companies to offer independent testing data backing up its claims for chlorine-based systems. So far, so good. So why isn’t it near the top of our list? A flimsy shower wand with poor spray power and radius, a slight but unfortunate tendency toward leaking at the shower connection, and unforgiving geometry that means it doesn’t bond well with all shower heads as an inline filter. However, it works and has been laboratory proven to remove chlorine free, and I would gladly recommend it.
Photo: Matthew Corvage
Jolie Filtered Shower Head for $169: Jolie Showerhead pioneered the influencer-centric, testimonial-based marketing model that has made shower filters so dominant in the public conversation. Its design, which looks a bit like a giant Monopoly playing piece and comes in chrome, gold, black, or red, is very popular. The device offers a water spray and a soft dotted front panel that feels luxurious in the strangest of ways. But Jolie did not respond to requests for independent testing when we asked in 2024, and our own testing put it somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of removing total chlorine from a chloramine-treated system.
Not recommended
Photo: Matthew Corvage
Spruce! Filtered hand shower for $148 ($120 with subscription): Sproos is a quirky and innovative shower brand aimed squarely at young “renters and DIYers” – offering a rainbow of bold colors for its handheld filtering shower heads. But the filter test was in the middle of the pack. Also, the valve on the heavy, side-mounted Sproos filter broke under its own weight after a couple of days when we tested it in 2024, causing an alarming bang and a bit of a mess.
ColorSync for $150: Kohler is a revered brand in Wisconsin and has a number of water treatment options for showers and faucets. The Cinq filtering showerhead is impressively classic, and its five-layer filter looks equally promising, with KDF-55 and activated carbon particularly advertised. However, home testing did not show great results with chloramine-treated water, and for the price I felt entitled to high expectations. Requests for independent laboratory test data in 2024 received no results.
Act+Acre Shower Head Filter for $120: This filtered shower head from beauty company Act + Acre didn’t perform as well as others in a home test for total chlorine. We also didn’t fall in love with the shower head itself, which looks a bit like a gooseneck desk lamp and hangs awkwardly from the shower pipe. The shower head was listed as out of stock when we checked in several times during 2025, but it is back in stock as of November.
Frequently asked questions
How we tested it and what we tested
Photo: Matthew Corvage
The filtered showerhead market is still young and largely unregulated, and performance claims are rarely publicly supported by independent data. We submitted a lot of requests, but only a few shower filter companies delivered their lab results. Thank you Rorra, Aquasana, Weddell, Croix and Curo for being exceptions.)
Some manufacturers told us that independent laboratories and certifying bodies were supported, and that data was forthcoming. Many of them offer customer satisfaction surveys or anecdotal studies instead. All of this means that some skepticism is warranted.
So I also got testing kits at home. I first test total chlorine levels in unfiltered water, which is a measure that includes either chloramines or free chlorine that reacts with whatever is in your pipes. Then I test the filtered water with the shower head. I run each test several times to account for inaccuracies or fluctuations in the test and in municipal chlorine levels. In most cases, I do this over several days after the initial test to account for any inconsistencies in my water supply.
For testing, I avoided the painfully unreliable home test strips, instead getting fairly poor chemical indicators and using digital and chemical tests designed for pools and aquariums.
We also tested total dissolved solids using a TDS meter, and separately tested the effects of the filters on pH in order to quantify the effects but also to verify the reliability of the chemical test results.
The effectiveness of filters decreases over time, of course, depending on how much pollution is filtered out of the water, which is why filters should always be changed. As we update this guide, we continue to test the most effective shower head filters to see how their effectiveness changes over time — and we add any new shower filters we can recommend.
What does a shower filter do?
The biggest thing most shower water filters address, in a measurable way, is filtering out chlorine and chlorine compounds, often through chemical reactions. Almost every American city adds low concentrations of chlorine or chlorine compounds to drinking water to kill potentially harmful bacteria. This is all well and good when there is still water in the pipes. But chlorine isn’t exactly good for your hair or skin, and few people like to drink it. Some are also particularly sensitive to taste or smell, or are prone to skin reactions.
The most prominent home shower filters are based in part on a zinc-copper alloy called KDF-55, which is known to be highly effective in neutralizing “free” chlorine in chlorinated systems. Other common materials used for chlorine treatment and chlorine compounds include calcium sulfite and activated or catalyst carbon. The most effective filters use these elements together. The main thing that I have been able to test and verify is the ability of the best shower water filters to remove the total chlorine content of the water coming out of the shower.
We’ve seen little evidence that the most common types of shower head filters have a significant impact on the softness or hardness of the water, or on calcium buildup. In fact, some early academic studies provide evidence not to. The shower filters we tested also had very little effect on the total dissolved solids in our water, as measured with a TDS meter—that is, the filters did not remove a significant amount of substances or minerals from the water.
I was unable to test some companies’ claims that these filters remove heavy metals like lead and arsenic, which fortunately are not in my pipes. We found only one company, Weddell, whose candidate was approved for leader removal. So far, so good! However, if you think you have dangerous lead or arsenic in your water, you probably shouldn’t try to fix the problem with a mail-order shower head. Talk to a water treatment specialist or public health authority in your area.
If you live in a major American city, chlorine is probably not what your city uses to treat the water in its pipes. New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Phoenix certainly use chlorine. But Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston and most major cities in Texas do not.
More than half of major U.S. cities use a substance called chloramine, a more stable and sustainable chemical that is more difficult to filter and test. This is also what was in my water supply. To test, I took out my digital water colorimeter and a rather crappy chemical indicator, then tested each shower filter’s ability to handle any number of chlorine compounds found in the water.
Curious to know if your city uses chlorine or chloramines as a disinfectant in your pipes? Check here for an account of the 50 largest municipal water systems in the United States.
Are shower filters effective for hard water?
No, probably not.
The best shower filters I’ve tested will improve your water quality, largely by removing chlorine compounds and chloramines — and other contaminants that may contain heavy metals.
But shower filters can only do so much. You probably don’t expect these shower filters to soften the mineral hardness of your water or remove most substances, which are mostly derived from calcium and magnesium salts dissolved in your water.
After all, the filter has to be relatively small to fit in the shower head. However, it is required to filter gallons of water every minute, pushing it out at high temperature and high pressure. A shower head filter represents a daunting engineering challenge, compared to countertop water filters that treat only a small amount of water at a time — or a bulky reverse osmosis device that can be plumbed under the sink
The problem of hard water is often solved by specific water softeners, reverse osmosis filters, and whole home water filtration systems. Some early studies show that a number of shower filters may add a small amount of hardness to the water, via calcium sulfate filters.
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