Water Filter Advise

JBarca wrote:

Red,
Here is what I know. If we happen to have a RV'er who is a water treatment person or a microbiologist they may add some more.
Hope this helps
John

Thanks for some more excellent info. This seems to be a whole new area of RV-ing that never occurred to me. I thought all you ever needed to do is hook up to city water and you are good. We are primarily weekend campers until DW retires so water may be in the system far a week or two or three between use. Have only had to use the holding tank once. We wouldn't drink the water on the rare occasion we need to use it.

I had no idea what the effect of a carbon block filter can be from chlorine reduction on the downstream water. I am going to go back to the drawing board on the "whole house" filter I bought, a Pentek Floplus-10. I chose it because it's 0.5 microns, is designed for a high flow rate and it combines carbon, sediment and micro-organism filtering all in one. While it does have a polypropylene media, it does not have KDF or silver in it. I just looked at the fine print that I didn't see before and it says "Warning: For drinking water applications, do not use with water that is microbiologically unsafe or of unknown quality without adequate disinfection before or after the system." It sounds like if you are not using water from a treated municipal system and the water quality is unknown, this filter is not a good choice.

I grew up on chlorinated city water. After being on well water for 20+ years, when we go anywhere that has chlorine in the water, it seems almost overpowering at first. We don't find it offensive enough though to make a carbon filter a must. It seems like the carbon particles aren't just there for the chlorine though.

I still want a decent flow rate filter with a lower micron rating and with KDF or silver to prevent bacterial growth. I was looking at a 10" Pentek whole house filter that has KDF in it but it is 4.5" in dia. and retails for $80, so that's not an option. Perhaps two filters would be a good choice - a main whole house one and a separate one under the kitchen sink just for drinking water? I drink a lot of water straight out of the tap.

In reading your links on KDF and Silver, it seems like KDF would be a good choice. I don't know what that does to cost or dimensions.

Here is a photo of the strainer out of the water inlet fitting on the exterior of our TT. This is how it looked 2 months after winterizing at the end of the season. It looks to be about 50% or more covered in something. Interestingly, the strainer at the end of the hose at the CG faucet is perfectly clear. I always check the one at the faucet end but never thought to look at the one on the inlet. I have no idea what the material on the strainer could be. Algae? I don't exactly relish the thought of ingesting the stuff whatever it is. Could the stuff also be somewhere in the water dist. system inside our TT?

Related to this thread, I came across the below article recently on Legionnaires disease in RVs. When I looked into to it, it seemed highly improbable that this would be a concern in RV systems because it normally occurs in highly complex water systems such as in large buildings; in systems with lime scale, sludge & rust buildup; and in holding tanks where there are elevated temps (68F and higher) for long periods. And then you need to inhale the infected water, not drink it. Not really conditions present in an RV. The article cites a case of an RV-er that contracted the disease but was already in a higher risk category to start with and it doesn't include any evidence on exactly how and where he might have contracted it. If it was a problem in RVs, I have to think you'd hear a lot more about it. In reading through the article, it doesn't seem particularly credible the way it was written.

Legionnaires disease in RVs