Hi!
I’m doing a major remodel on my house, and I’m wondering about whether to install a whole house water filter. I live in San Diego, whose tap water is notoriously hard and icky-tasting, and builds up mineral deposits in pipes and on faucets. I don’t want a water softener–makes the water feel slimy and sends all those salts downstream–but I can’t find anything about whole house filters except proprietary sites that tell me how fabulous they are. Do they produce water quality worth the money? Are filters durable and easy to change? Will they extend the life of my very expensive plumbing and faucets? Will I still have to filter the incoming water further to get it to drinking water quality? Roughly how much should I expect to pay for one? I’ll appreciate any objective information or personal experiences. Thanks to all!
Sincerely,
BTC
Replies
Depends on what's in your water & what you want to take out of it.
I have fairly decent water & use a 10 micron whole house filter that I need to change every year.
At my kitchen faucet I have a 3 stage 5 micron filter ( Starbucks filter) with one of the stages being a charcoal base.
A cleanable cartridge pre filter can do wonders on extending the life of your filters.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
Thank you for your reply. I'm trying to learn my way around this subject. Is your water pressure affected by the filter? What is a cleanable pre-filter? (I gather it cleans some major stuff out of the water before it gets to the filter itself, kind of a two-stage process?) I am hearing that they will not remove minerals, but I do have a tabletop carafe filter that makes our nasty tap water taste just fine, when it's fresh. I have been assuming that the whole house version is the same only bigger.Thanks again,BTC
The pressure is not affected, but the flow is.
A filter does not reduce the pressure, but it does restrict the flow.
& when it's towards the end of it's life the flow can look like the flow coming out of a coffee maker.
A pre filter like this 30 micron one will extend the life of the more expensive filters that have smaller openings.
http://www.waterfilters.net/Pentek/wholehouse/Sediment_Filters/R30-BB.htm
A filter will remove minerals depending on the size of the minerals---- 30 micron will remove minerals 30 micron in size & larger & so on & so on.
I come from the commercial world & mainly deal in Everpure¯, Aquapure¯ is the residential equivilent. These are not the only two brands available but they are quite reliable in my expierence.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
THanks again. I will check out Aquapure.Happy New Year!BTC
My water supply is separated when it enters my house. All outside water on one line everything else on the other. This was done to save sewage charges on water used outside for my garden. I installed a larger two cartridge sediment filter on the inside of the house line where it T's off this allows me to filter water only used on the inside, I then installed a carbon filter followed by a finer sediment filter to the kitchen cold water line. We supposedly have clean city water. The dual cartage sediment filter gets pretty grungy and has to be changed once every quarter. The carbon filter and second sediment filter every 6 months, but this could go longer. The reason for the second sediment filter behind the carbon filter was I use to run an electro plating line and it was standard operating practice to put a sediment filter behind all carbon filters. It might not be necessary for drinking water. Jay
Filters won't do anything for hardness. Unfortunately, for hardness you must have a softener. You could soften only your drinking and washing water, not your toilets or outside faucets. In any case the backwashing will increase your water usage. If your water tastes that bad, why not bottled water?
We had our whole-house water conditioner system installed in 2001 for (if I recall correctly) about $1500. It includes a water softener, acid neutralizer, and timer/controllers.
The system greatly improves the water quality, works reliably, and is fairly low-maintenance. You add salt every few months, add neutralizing media (calcite + MagOx) about once a year, and reset the timers after power outages. Neutralizing/filtering tanks may need to be cleaned about once a year as unpurged sediment builds up.
Water discharges outdoors onto the grass and does not seem to have harmed it at all. The "slimy" quality you mention is something you get used to very quickly, and may even come to appreciate. What you are noticing is less of the soap scum caused by chemical reaction with unsoftened water, and a little more of your natural body oils. Small amounts of soap lather up and clean better in softened water.
These systems do increase water usage (considerably) due to the purge/recharge process.
I went with fiberglass tanks and Fleck controls put together by a small local company specializing only in water conditioning. It's imperative to get your water tested because there is such a variety of conditions that can influence water quality (Ph, iron, calcium and other minerals, sediment). Each condition requires a custom approach. Best to work with a sales/tech person who understands the science and is not too pushy about selling equipment. If they try to sell you some all-purpose water conditioner without even testing your water, walk away. It's a good sign if they ask some questions about your situation such as, "How much water do you use each day?", "Do you see any stains or corrosion around fixtures and pipes?", "Does your water smell strange?" etc.
When I was researching equipment, Fleck controls were metioned over and over again as superior equipment by people who seemed to know what they were talking about, and had no particular stake in the product. I suspect some of the nice-looking, all-in-one cabinet units you see are hiding cheaper, less reliable controlers and flimsier tanks.
Good explanation, I would like to add that softners tend to last alot longer if they are installed in a conditioned space, damp basements can be hard on the electronics.
I occassionaly get called to work on Fleck valves that are 25 and 30 years old, the parts are still easy to find.
Fleck valves are used by many softner system manufacturers.
Filters are primarily to remove sediment, though some expensive cartridges help with taste/odor. Basically, you install the filter body ($20-100, plus installation) and then pick the type of cartridge you want for it -- coarse, fine, carbon (for odor), some really expensive metal-removing filters, etc. Cartridges run from $3 to $100 or so, and are good for 1-6 months.
There are two sizes, one that takes cartridges about 2" in diameter, the other one about 4" (not to be confused with a pool filter). The larger one is generally more economical, even though it costs about 3x as much. Plus the larger one has lower pressure loss.
Thanks for your response. I'm new to this subject. Is the whole house filter different from the standard tabletop carafe system (like Brita)? It's activated carbon, and works well on our water, especially when the filter is fresh, but it does dribble out pretty slowly into its reservoir. The whole house filter, I gather, does not seem to have a reservoir to dribble into. Am I correct in this?Thanks again,BTC
A whole house filter is conceptually similar to your Britta, except that the filter medium can be any one of several options. There are media similar to the Britta carbon filter but they are expensive and "tight" -- cause a lot of pressure loss.For that type of filtration a better (cheaper to operate) choice is an under-sink filter, with a separate filtered water faucet mounted on the sink top. Unless you have a dog you're not likely to be worried about the taste of the water used to flush the toilet.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
As others said, a whole house filter will not do much if anything for taste (some of the carbon inserts might).
It is a pretty cheap experiment and will help with sediment at least.
We are on an old well and have had at least four different ones over time. The best I have found so far is American Plumber. It was easy to install (use the optional bracket) and very easy to change. It has a shutoff that closes both in and out and "burps" the canister to relieve pressure.
My plumbing supply house stocks them and they would send you one I am sure. They are Heavydutytools.net. This kind of stuff is not on their website but use the contact or call Mark. Tell them "rich man" sent you.
Bob
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate everyone's help. Have you used a "pre-filter", as one person recommended? Is your water pressure diminished by the filter? Our tabletop carafe filter dribbles into a reservoir; dribbling tap water throughout the house would be a real drag.Thanks again,BTC
We are on a well with the pressure switch set to on at 42, off at 60. I do not see pressure loss, it is darn near 100' from my pressure tank to the kitchen faucet. There is a lot of difference in gravity Britta type and pressure. The finer the filter media the quicker it will be to clog and reduce pressure as well as the inherent restriction of the finer media.
Dan hit it all right.
I don't know that this would solve your problem, but we have been using the two-stage whole house filter from American Plumber. The first stage is paper, and it removes stuff. The second stage is charcoal of some type and it removes things like chlorine, so the water tastes much better. I don't know what it would do with hard water overall. It won't soften the water, but it might help some.
The cost of the setup is about $265. A full set of filters is about $100. It does take a standard sized filter, about 4" in diameter. A set is good for about 60,000 gallons, but maybe a bit less if you have more junk in the water.
One thing I would really like in the filter is clear bell housings. Then I could actually SEE when to change the filters. So if you have that option, take it.
I originally got it because we were having small crud in the water that tore up the lavatory fixtures. Since I added the filter, no problem and the water tastes better too!
Thank you for your reply. I will check out American Plumber. Somehow I thought the systems were more expensive than you describe. I will check with some local testing labs, too.Happy New Year!BTC
BTC
Our city has pretty decent water to start with but I added 4 filtering systems in addition to a water softner..
each removes differant stuff and cleans the water better, the final filter is a reverse osmoses filter in the drinking water/ice water into the refrigerator (plus the filter in the frig already so I guess that's 5.
I'm trying to get great drinking water so I'll stop buying bottled water..
Are you stepping up the quality through each filter or just going through multiples of the same?
I saw where you posted different kinds, but like at the end you have a cartridge down stream of the RO system, not sure what type of cartridge it is, but I doubt it's taking anything out since it's down stream of the RO.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
plumbbill,
I started at the street side and each filter is designed to remove more and different contaminates. the first filter, the water softener starts with the big lumps and the final filter, the reverse osmoses filter is designed to remove all of the stuff that gets past the first 4 filters and the water system. .. The filter in the refrigerator really can't pick up anything since it is coarser than the previous filters..
One other thing.
Have you had it tested? Might even think about testing the bottled water & see what's in there---- laws are pretty loose when it comes to bottled water.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
plumbbill,
I buy one brand of water, It's from Buhl Minnesota and it's the sweetest best tasting water I've ever drank.. (plus it's really cheap, less than 90 cents a gallon)
Buhl is up in Northern Minnesota up on the Iron range and the water is simply pumped out of the city well and bottled.. If you drive up to Buhl there is a tap on the side of the pump house where you can get free water!
The water in their aquifer comes from glaciers melted during the ice age and is well below the iron ore deposits and possible contaminants
Any sort of filtration system for arsenic that you guys know of? I have to use bottled water where I live. I am not sure if digging a new well will give me a source with out the arsenic.
Some of the heavy metal filters (expensive) will remove trace amounts, but reverse osmosis is probably the only reliable technique for larger amounts.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
When I was researching filtration systems(been awhile now)I could not find anything with the reverse osmosis to filter arsenic. Maybe I missed something? Could you send me to a site with this explained better.
Sorry, don't have any references. What an RO system can remove depends on the type of membrane used, the amount of pressure, and how many cycles of RO are employed. I think most home units just do one RO cycle, but with the proper membrane should be able to remove the lion's share of any arsenic in the water. The question is whether what remains is still enough to be a hazard.In any event, Googling "arsenic reverse osmosis" turns up a bunch of sites that claim RO is good for arsenic.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader