Sorry it took me so long to get back to you Biggins....somehow this thread slipped off my subscribed things.

I use a 2 stage filter....made by Spectra and it works just fine for us. We have well water....not true tap and our water is fairly hard but it does the job for us just fine. I change the filters in them once every six months and don't expose the filters to light (algae forms.)

The type I have literally screws on to a garden hose. I'm about as mechanical as a lima bean so that works perfectly for us.