Where I live, the city also runs its own tests and sends the results to residents, although that would only tell you how good the water coming from the treatment plant is and not if you have problems with your own pipes.
It seems like lead pipes are uncommon after 1950, but if your city’s test results are good and you just want to check lead, there are also cheap lead-only tests.
For effectiveness of filtering, it would probably depend on what you’re trying to filter out. When I lived in Baltimore, a standard under-sink filter worked well enough to make drinkable tea but it still didn’t taste a good as Colorado water.
The Wirecutter recommends the Tap Score water quality test as being both accurate and with easy-to-understand results.
Where I live, the city also runs its own tests and sends the results to residents, although that would only tell you how good the water coming from the treatment plant is and not if you have problems with your own pipes.
It seems like lead pipes are uncommon after 1950, but if your city’s test results are good and you just want to check lead, there are also cheap lead-only tests.
For effectiveness of filtering, it would probably depend on what you’re trying to filter out. When I lived in Baltimore, a standard under-sink filter worked well enough to make drinkable tea but it still didn’t taste a good as Colorado water.