The efficacy of the method of AlCl3 sedimentation and positive-charged membrane filtration for concentrating viruses was compared in this study. In addition, the efficacy of the two methods was also compared in different waters, conditions and elution. The recovery rate of the sedimentation method of AlCl3 and the positive-charged membrane was 96.0% and 92.0% respectively when tap water served as samples. The recovery rate of the sedimentation method of AlCl3 and the positive-charged membrane was 93.9% and 69.9% respectively when sewage served as samples. Compared with the two concentration methods, there was no obvious difference in tap water but significant difference in sewage. The results showed that the positive-charged membrane was adapted to the water samples with little impurity. According to the experiment results, the two methods could be used to effectively concentrate viruses in tap water. However, the sedimentation method of AlCl3 was recommended to the primary method in other water samples.