Local tap is dubious at best and leaded at worst so we fill 5gallon jugs at a filter station the next town over. I'm getting tired of transporting and paying for water, so I'd like to make a filter that won't just clog up with hard water in a week. Anyone have recommendations on where to start?

We have a softener and a "commercial" reverse osmosis unit with a built-in diaphragm pump and a 14 gallon pressure tank. We have been doing yearly changes on the filters. Household of 3 though.

The softener is a puronics brand, the RO unit is Ecosoft RObust 1500.

Not needing to tackle hard water stains and build up every 2 weeks made it worth it, but it was a significant investment (plus we ran RO lines from the garage/tank to the kitchen).

And with the pump set to 60psi, I can have infinite carbonated water without another expensive setup.

Get your water tested. You can throw all sorts of filters and treatments at it, but unless you know what's in your water, you won't know what's important.

Your local government might have people that can test your water. You really want someone who will actually come over and collect the water themselves, it's really easy to do it wrong and end up contaminating the collected water.

There are companies that can design a good treatment setup for you. Or you can do some research and get your own.

You can also check your utility's consumer confidence report (CCR). It will show the test results of water leaving the water plant. It won't reflect lead levels at your home, which are impacted by your own piping. (It may include lead sampling at random locations around the distribution system.)

Collecting your own sample is perfectly fine. There are special instructions if you are specifically testing for lead that your utility should be able to provide to you. Contamination is really only a concern when testing for PFAS, but that test alone may cost more than your treatment system. Look at the PFAS data from your utility if you are concerned and realize you may be getting more exposure to PFAS from other sources than your water (Teflon cookware, food packaging, cosmetics, etc.).

In general, someone in the business of selling home treatment systems is has an incentive to tell you your water is poison and you absolutely need their system.

I bought RO water filter service kits, pump, valve, power supply, and cutoff valve for about $40. It contains the following filters in order:
Spun polyproplyene pre filter, sediment filter, pre-carbon filter, ro membrane, post-carbon filter, uf filter, mineral filter.
Feed water is brackish groundwater, 2000 TDS. Output is pure water at 100 TDS.
Pre filter replaced every three-four months, rest once a year. RO membrane once every two years. Pump and parts as needed.
Makes 30-40 liters of water a day.
I always keep spare filters and parts on hand.

If you go the RO option (not necessarily the best), be aware that if the tap water is chlorinated you need an active carbon filter before the RO membrane as the chlorine will otherwise damage it. And that active carbon filter will likely need replacement quite often.

Oh that's definitely something to make note of, thank you!

That's a good place to start for getting the finer details mapped out. As for that last part, that's why I'm here really. My household is very neurodivergent and even if the tap water was proven to be the actual fountain of youth we'd still avoid it because we can't take the taste. Unfortunately, the only refill station that meets our preferences is in a Walmart the town over. Even shoplifting the water does cleanse the ick of setting foot in the store so I'm willing to do more if it means less of that.

Any chance you could point me to where you got it? I can't seem to find just the filters for less than $50

If taste is your only concern a carbon filter like a Britta can do a lot. If hard water buildup clogs up the filters very quickly maybe consider a water softener (ion exchange or RO). With an RO softener you probably wouldn't need the Britta filter.

Well, I did convert the local prices to USD. Maybe try alibaba?

Anecdotally, I put in a small under-sink carbon block filter for the kitchen which claimed it was good for 20,000 gallons. I thought that would be a really optimistic claim and I'd have to replace the filter every few months, but its been over a year and it still has the same amount of flow as it did when it was new, and seems to be removing the chlorine still (I can't taste it, anyway).