Hi guys, I hope someone here can give some advice/recommendation on buying a countertop water filter for my apartment.

• - I noticed the "hard" quality of water in my building, i.e. occasional brown water in bathtub, brown color water when I refilled drinking bottle. Once I saw an insect (is millipede an animal or insect?) climbing in my sink.
• - Been to Homepro and spoken to the reps a few times over the past couple weeks, each time with different product recommendation, depending on what is on sale on that day, and which company representative was on the floor.
• - I live in a small condo, so I only need filtration for drinking and occasional cooking, consequently I am opting for the countertop type.
• - Upon research, I believe that a 3 stage system--Ceramic-Resin-Charcoal--may be sufficient for clean drinking water without taking out too much minerals.
• - Would appreciate if anyone who has knowledge or experience in buying one to recommend the type, brand, and the costs associated with countertop filters, so I can at least use as benchmark when shopping next time.

Thank a lot!

3 stage Ceramic-Resin-Charcoal will be more than enough. You could also go with just a 2 stage Charcoal-Resin, or just a ceramic.

Charcoal alone will remove bacteria but not the minerals that make the water hard, for that you need resin.

Ceramic will also remove bacteria and much of the hardness but not all. Ceramic only countertop units are likely to be smaller and thus may be more convenient. You'll need to manually clean the ceramoc filter pretty often as sludge will build up on it.

Whatever brand you get, buy plenty of filter refills as there is a tendency in Thailand for brands to quickly go out of stock and you end up with a perfectly fine filter you can no longer buy refills for,. Happened to me twice.

No need to pay Home pro prices, Tesco Lotus usually has these.