Questions about Whole House Water Filtration Systems

[andrewjp]

I recommend iSpring WGB21B, this whole house water filter works great, installs easily, no leaks. I am very surprised about the difference of water, can drink our water now! My toilet and shower are no longer yellow!

 

[TheMan419]

Softener is a must have where we are. The 12 for hardness what scale? Grains is how they measure it here usually. 12 would be pretty hard.

 

[geteh]

I would like to know how your determining your numbers are bad? If your listening to your salesmen, remember he wants to sell you his system.
I am going to assume that your TDS, & Hardness numbers were measured in PPM (parts per million) or mg/L (milligrams per liter). PPM & mg/L are equal to each other. If this is true, your hardness is 12ppm, which is not hard at all, that is very much so on the soft side. Very soft water can also attack interior plumbing and appliances such as iron or copper. Putting a softener on your home would not correct this problem, in fact only make it worse. Your TDS is alittle on the high side depending on what source its coming from. At our water treatment facility, we have two commercial wells on site and also take in surface water from a near by creek. Both of our wells have a TDS of around 200 which is considered to be on the normal side for ground water vs our surface water that has a TDS of around 100. A precipitation test is obsolete these days because of how inaccurate results usually were because of the amount of variables in the water tested. The only people still using precipitation tests are water treatment system salesmen as a visual test to convince customers that their water was bad and that they needed equipment to improve the quality, although the minerals precipitated are harmless. You did not list what the pH or alkalinity of the tested water was? Low pH water will also attack household plumbing. Alkalinity is the waters ability to resist pH changes. If you want to eliminate the chlorine taste install a whole house carbon filter, but when purchasing make sure you pay attention to the capacity of the filter. Most filters are only rated for so many gallons or months and after that it will begin to re release the taste back into the water.

Did they do a salinity (salt) test on your water from Steve's Plumbing & A/C? If there is a high amount of salinity in the water entering your home its going to taste bad and attack everything metal it touches no matter how perfect your TDS, pH, or hardness is. I mentioned this last cause this is highly unlikely to have salt water since its coming from a treatment facility.

AJ
Licensed Water Treatment operator.

I’m not afraid to drink our tap water but nobody in my house does regularly. We’ve got a Brita in the refrigerator which is enough for everyone to be happy with the water quality.

We have a non-functional instant-hot in the granite counter that I want to remove AND an icemaker accross the kitchen (attached to a sketchy needle valve). I’m thinking that I can probably install a single water filtration device (activated carbon, or maybe Reverse Osmosis) that can feed both a new filtered water tap (replacing broken instant hot) and the icemaker by running hose through the basement to the icemaker. This will double as keeping the icemaker filter fresh too since we will drink the water regularly.

I’m not looking to spend a fortune on this, and especially don’t want to spend too much on filters every year.

This will be my first time ever choosing a water filtration setup, and I’m open to all options.

I also look forward to not worrying about water spilled, fridge door held open, and an empty Brita that I find myself filling multiple times every day.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
The poster you are asking hasn't been here in almost 21/2 years, so I doubt you will get a response.

 

[oosik]

My water comes from a spring. Been in use since 1892. First by the homesteader and now me.

This spring flows at 350 gpm this time of year. Caused a little sediment but not really objectionable.

I'm most fortunate - the water is of superior quality and never has objectionable tastes or odor.

 

[Ibrahim]

I'm pretty happy with the filtration system I have. But I get city water that I'm happy to filter out whatever they put in it. I also have a Reverse Osmosis next to my kitchen tap for drinking. I miss having well water, but those are the breaks living in the suburbs instead of out in the country.

 

[gegawo]

I’m not afraid to drink our tap water but nobody in my house does regularly. We’ve got a Brita in the refrigerator which is enough for everyone to be happy with the water quality.

We have a non-functional instant-hot in the granite counter that I want to remove AND an icemaker accross the kitchen (attached to a sketchy needle valve). I’m thinking that I can probably install a single water filtration device (activated carbon, or maybe Reverse Osmosis) that can feed both a new filtered water tap (replacing broken instant hot) and the icemaker by running hose through the basement to the icemaker. This will double as keeping the icemaker filter fresh too since we will drink the water regularly.

I’m not looking to spend a fortune on this, and especially don’t want to spend too much on filters every year.

This will be my first time ever choosing a water filtration setup, and I’m open to all options.

I also look forward to not worrying about water spilled, fridge door held open, and an empty Brita that I find myself filling multiple times every day, especially after reading about how helpful Brio Water customer service can be with filtration solutions.

It’s starting to come out that here on Long Island, where I live, there are some growing concerns about water quality. Apparently, our area has higher-than-average levels of 1,4-dioxane and possibly PFAS. From what I’ve read, 1,4 dioxane isn’t easily filtered out by standard home systems, and even reverse osmosis may only remove about half of it. Has anyone here installed a system that actually works? Most setups I’ve seen are point-of-use filters for sinks, which makes sense since I wouldn’t want to waste filtered water on washing cars or watering the lawn. But what about vegetable gardens? Is that safe? Any insights?

 

[ponytug]

It’s starting to come out that here on Long Island, where I live, there are some growing concerns about water quality. Apparently, our area has higher-than-average levels of 1,4-dioxane and possibly PFAS. From what I’ve read, 1,4 dioxane isn’t easily filtered out by standard home systems, and even reverse osmosis may only remove about half of it. Has anyone here installed a system that actually works? Most setups I’ve seen are point-of-use filters for sinks, which makes sense since I wouldn’t want to waste filtered water on washing cars or watering the lawn. But what about vegetable gardens? Is that safe? Any insights?

You might add your location in your profile. It helps folks.

Good for you for knowing what's what with your water!

I'm not a water professional, but my two cents on vegetable gardens on most of Long Island would be I would think about not doing it, given all of the water quality issues (plus septic contamination in many parts).

Getting rid of PFAS is lots of charcoal filters changed regularly, but the size and contact time is going to vary by what the contaminant load is. 1,4-dioxane (or do you have TCDD?) is probably UVC/ozone, followed by charcoal filtration, but different parts of Long Island have very different water issues, and it would pay to know what you are up against. None of that is exactly cheap, and some of it requires more than a little space as well.

All the best,

Peter

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I have an ISpring whole house filter. I need to replace my filters about yearly and that time is coming up so I have been looking around. It is a 3 stage system where you can get different filter combinations. I have noticed there is a PFAS filter you can buy, claims it removes 99.9% of PFAS chemicals. The systems are very reasonable around $450.

 

[bdhsfz6]

It’s starting to come out that here on Long Island, where I live, there are some growing concerns about water quality. Apparently, our area has higher-than-average levels of 1,4-dioxane and possibly PFAS. From what I’ve read, 1,4 dioxane isn’t easily filtered out by standard home systems, and even reverse osmosis may only remove about half of it. Has anyone here installed a system that actually works? Most setups I’ve seen are point-of-use filters for sinks, which makes sense since I wouldn’t want to waste filtered water on washing cars or watering the lawn. But what about vegetable gardens? Is that safe? Any insights?

When I drilled my well in 1979, the water was tested and found to be within EPA drinking water standards. A simple A.O. Smith whole house particulate filter was all that was needed. In the last decade or so, an abnormally high number of people living in the valley here developed cancer. No cause has been found but some suspect the well water in the area.

As a result, we had our well water professionally tested for 142 of the most common contaminants, including radon dioxane and PFAS. I won't go into all the details and the results were within EPA standards but just barely. The arsenic and bacteria levels were marginal but the dioxane and PFAS were well within limits. As a result, we installed a Waterdrop reverse osmosis system for drinking & cooking water only. No need to put in a whole house system. Out of an abundance of caution, we also installed a rain water collection system for the vegetable garden.

A subsequent test of the filtered water showed a large drop in contaminants with some eliminated completely. The 1,4-dioxane level however did not drop significantly. The lab suggested we use a granulated carbon filter to further remove the dioxane. In our case though, the levels weren't high enough to warrant the extra filtration.

If you're really concerned about the quality of your water, consider getting it tested by a reputable lab.