Whole House Water Filtration

[Muhammad]

Hey Guys,

Just moved into a new place in San Diego. Unfortunately, they have city water here. Smells like chlorine (and whatever else is in it). I get spring water delivered for drinking, but for everything else, I would like to filter it.

While I've had experience with whole house filtration systems, I'm looking for something simple and inexpensive (and easy to remove). Mainly I'd like to remove the chlorine, but the more filtration I can get in a small filter, the better.

If I had to give simple price criteria, I'd say up to a few hundred dollars for the filter... if that would make any difference over, say, the $50-$100 filters out there.

So, what are my options? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[_RaT_]

What? You moved again? San Diego has got to have the finest weather on the planet. Heres a quick comparison for most readily purchased filters. Water Filter Comparisons

 

[slowrev]

I use the cartridge type of whole house filter. Omni filter I believe, about $40-50. I use the charcoal cartridges, which also remove sediment, etc. Works pretty well, costs about $10 every 60 days for a new cartridge.
If you need more filtration you can put two filters in series.
When I was on a well I had 2 in series, a sediment cartridge and then a charcoal one.

Ben

 

[gws]

Before you can filter anything you need to know WHAT to filter. You need to get a good water test done. Not the one the water salesman does or the one the little strips at lowes will allow you to do. A lab run test.

Now you can look for a filter that combats your issues.


Now my question. WHY are worried about filtering non-drinking water? Your tolet doesnt care. If you were on a well there are benefits to whole house filtering but if your on city water I dont see a reason.

test it then decide. Keep in mind your $100 might get you a filter but your going to be putting $10-20/month into it for filters.

 

[GaryQWA]

First you should know how much of what is in the water that you want to remove or reduce. Then you need to know how many gpm you want to treat. You can test or look at the water company's annual CCR (consumer confidence report) on their web site

You mention chlorine but... although it smells and tastes bad, that won't harm you but... its disinfection byproducts (THMs) can if there are any. And you'd only want to remove/reduce them from water you are going to ingest or cook with. You should look into a shower head filter too.

It is not a good idea to remove chlorine on a "whole house" basis because that can cause bacteria and odor problems. So you should look into point of use (POU) filters for the kitchen sink, 'fridge and a shower head filter. The kitchen could use under counter or counter top filters in from 1-4 stage with a separate faucet on the sink such as those used for RO (reverse osmosis). In many cases you can tee off for the 'fridge.

IIRC San Diego and surrounding areas has some fairly hard water although I can't recall the grains per gallon. So maybe a softener is in order.

All independent local and internet water treatment dealers have non-proprietary 'off the shelf' equipment for far less than the proprietary national brands.

Gary Slusser

 

[Devildog]

Muhammad,
A lot of good info here. If you just want to get rid of the chlorine I would do as Ben said and get an omni filter with a carbon element. As Gary stated you take a chance of bac"T" growth but only if you have break and or some plumbing done and they do not disinfect properly when they fix it. Also here is the best one we find out where most of our bad samples come from is the consumer does not follow the directions on how often to change the carbon element (filter) in there whole house or POU (point of use system) Bac"T" will grow like crazy if not changed according to the manufacturer. Also due to more and more stringent standards your water supply system should be testing and also better optimizing the plant to reduce THM"S (Trihalomethanes). But for a cheap easy solution go with the whole house filter with a carbon element as said earlier and change the filter to the manufacturers directions.

 

[Egon]

Have you considered a reverse osmosis system for the drinking and cooking water. It's what we have in our house which is on town water. These systems will not work in high TDS situations but this is not normal for town systems.

More expensive but removes a lot more than just chlorine.

Egon

 

[GaryQWA]

The reason whole house chlorine removal (with carbon) is not a good idea is due to the carbon providing a great place for bacteira to live. It has huge surface area and it removes organics that bacteria thrive on. And actually you don't need a break in the plumbing etc. to have bacteria in the water. The water is chlorinated to kill bacteria but the amount of chlorine will increase and decrease; possibly daily, and in many cases there won't be enough free chlorine residule to kill all the bacteria. So the carbon becomes colonized and bacteria get past the cartridge into the down stream plumbing. Free chlorine is different than total chlorine, it is what is still capable of disinfection.

Carbon filter manufacturers' suggestions of cartridge replacement schedules do not take bacteria into accounnt. But they do caution to not use carbon on waters of unknown microbiological content. And time or how a cartridge looks is not the proper way to determine when to change any filter cartrdige, unless it is a carbon block cartridge etc. in a POU or separate faucet type drinking water filter or RO; which should be replaced on a time basis; because you can't measure the pressure loss. Replacement of main line filters should be done based on the pressure loss across the filter. usually stated as a 15 psi pressure drop.

To remove chlorine on a whole house basis, KDF is a much better choice than carbon.

Gary Slusser