Water Filter Advise

myredracer wrote:
JBarca,

More good info. Seems like all of your info. would be good for a sticky...

Apologies for asking more questions... :)

Hi Red,

Ask away. Glad to help as I can. I do not know it all but will add what I know. Sorry this took so long.

1. What does a carbon block filter do to chlorine in your water after the filter? If I install a carbon block filter that filters the entire TT, is that possibly detrimental? It seems like some RV-ers use a carbon block filter. In our case, the water inlet is right below the kitchen sink (only a few feet of pipe) while the bathroom sink is 10'+ away but the only time you'd ingest water in the bathroom is a small amount when brushing your teeth.

Carbon filters tend to "reduce" chlorine and a good number of other bacteria, tastes etc. Notice I said "reduce". How much they reduce depends on how fine they are and what the chlorine ppm was when you started. Each time you fill up the camper, the source you are drawing from can have a different ppm of chlorine to start with. If it is 3 to 4ppm, a 0.9 micron carbon filter can reduce it pretty far. Maybe down to 1.0ppm. If you start with 1.5 ppm you may end up with almost nothing.

From my use/testing/background, yes, stripping out almost all chlorine in the camper is a concern. This is why I spike it back to levels that create a stable system again. You do not need much on a clean system to keep it clean. 0.5ppm free chlorine if you can hit it that close, is good. 0 ppm chlorine starts raising the risk. You may not have a problem right away, it will take some time to become a problem after an infection starts. The good part is, the carbon filter did strip out a lot, if not all of the food source so that can slow down reproduction. If it is cool out, the cooler temps help too. The concern is if the bacteria gets out of control and then you ingest them. The only way I know how to stay ahead of that is by a good water program of both filtering and then checking and adjusting chlorine as needed.

2. I noticed at the end of the last camping season (51 nights), that the little screen filters on the hose and water inlet were plugged up with some kind of crud. Not sure if it is sediment and/or algae. Any idea what it is and what the negatives are? Would it originate from a public system or private well system?

It is hard to say without seeing a pic of it or seeing it directly. By chance did you smell anything foul? Or was it slimy/gooey? Bacteria smell bad.. I'm mean really bad when they are alive and well. At least water borne varieties I have dealt with. Our micro lab managers says "follow your nose"... and it has truth to it. If the screen plugged from pipe rust, hard water calcium, dirt etc, those particles can clog but they do not stink.

3. Just how good is bulk filtered water that you buy at stores or bottled water compared to city water that you'd use at a CG? I seem to recall reading that it's not as good as they make it out to be. We get bulk water in 5 gal. bottles for DW as that's all she will drink. The bulk water comes out of the filling machine pretty quickly so I am guessing the level of filtration isn't that great? I'm pretty sure they are supplied by city water.

I'm not a bottle water expert however since it is sold as a public water source it should be potable. There are all kinds of bottled water. Some are made by taking standard city water and running it through a reverse osmosis (RO) system. And RO water really does not taste very good as it is so pure. If it is what they call 1st stage permeate, it is the cleanest and purist and many folks do not like water that pure as far as taste. By having some level of good minerals in it, it helps the taste. Some times on the back of the label they tell how it was made. As far as speed, that all depends on the size of the filter system. At work we can made 350gpm of RO water and we have multiple systems generating up to 1,000gpm. The little home RO systems are tiny and may only put out 1/2 gpm as a point of use system at the sink.

I've been drinking well water for about 20 years at home. One was 300' deep or so and artesian. Our current well is a recently built shallow one (30'). When you build a new house here in Canada that has a well, your municipality requires you to meet "Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality". Link below. I think some provinces have their own regs. for public and semi-public water distribution systems. For private homes at least, they don't require any on-going testing. If you construct or drill a new well, there's no testing requirements which seems odd.

In our state/county the Department of Environmental Conservation keeps track of all wells dug in the county/area going back a long time. And they have a copy of the well drillers report and if you call them, it is open the public. We are building a new home that we have to have a well on so I'm up on this local area. Once a well is drilled, we have to sanitize the well and home piping and do a water test that has to pass for our health dept. as part of the occupancy permit. So it needs to be clean at least once at the start. After that it is up to the home owner.

A 30 ft well, that can be a concern. A shift in water table due to a municipal reservoir etc can some times leave you on reduced water capacity. However we have several older country homes like this.

Our area is on lime stone which is good and our new well is estimated to be at about 150 feet. The neighbor next to us has 50 gpm...a t150 feet which is a boat load for a normal 3 bedroom house. In eastern OH that area is on a lot of shale and that is a higher concern for sulfur wells. They are going gang busters now with natural gas in that area.

John