Water Filters

Campfire Time wrote:

ependydad wrote:

But, they're expensive at $250.

For full timers this is probably a good investment. But it's exactly why I recommend to "weekenders" to use gallon bottles of water. I can buy many years of gallon bottles for my trips and still spend far less than that.

Agreed. BUT- we've been working hard towards getting rid of disposable bottles. There's just so much waste with them.

I think if we weren't fulltime and had a home, we would still use our Berkey water filter and would just refill containers from it. Take it to the camper when we go camping.

ependydad wrote:

But, they're expensive at $250.

For full timers this is probably a good investment. But it's exactly why I recommend to "weekenders" to use gallon bottles of water. I can buy many years of gallon bottles for my trips and still spend far less than that.

ajriding wrote:
Berkey filters. It is a counter top filter. Use it for ingesting. Use it at home and for traveling.

Distilled is fine if you are making drink mix, but plain distilled water is not for drinking as it will leach out minerals and salts from your body's cells. This does not mean death, but it is not ideal to stress your body this way. Your body pulls what it needs out of your cells to mix into the incoming water to bring your pH and minerals back to balance. Tap water is more neutral, even with all its toxins.

Bottled water can be as toxic as tap water in some instances. You are better off using a quality filter if you care about your water. But most of you drink tap so this is of no concern.

I agree here, too. We have the ClearSource on the hose so that we have clean water coming into the rig- from teeth brushing to showering, etc.

But, for drinking we have a Berkey Water Filter. We easily run 2 gallons a day through it for my family of 4. We like cold water, so we'll fill containers and put those in the fridge. Always have 2 going- one that we serve from and one getting cold.

We even made it a happy little shelf in the camper so that it doesn't take up usable counterspace.

Works well for us.

I got two whole house filters and put them together. First filter is a simple 5 micron sediment filter, the second is a carbon filter. I made a bracket so they hang under the camper when in use in case of leaks. Set up costs about $50 and then less than the throw away filters for replacement cartridges.

We use bottled water or gallons of RO for drinks and ice, but it is nice to keep the junk and smells out of the lines and faucets.

Berkey filters. It is a counter top filter. Use it for ingesting. Use it at home and for traveling.

Distilled is fine if you are making drink mix, but plain distilled water is not for drinking as it will leach out minerals and salts from your body's cells. This does not mean death, but it is not ideal to stress your body this way. Your body pulls what it needs out of your cells to mix into the incoming water to bring your pH and minerals back to balance. Tap water is more neutral, even with all its toxins.

Bottled water can be as toxic as tap water in some instances. You are better off using a quality filter if you care about your water. But most of you drink tap so this is of no concern.

We have had built in water filters on our last 3 RV’s. Our last trailer I had installed a dedicated drinking water filter at the kitchen sink. So I had 3 filters. However the blue and whole house filters are only sediment filters. The drinking water filter was the one that filtered out the bad stuff.

Never had an issue with water.

TechWriter wrote:

ependydad wrote:
Honestly, they're a little expensive but I absolutely love our ClearSource RV Water Filter System. Water pressure doesn't take a hit. And it makes central Florida's swamp water palatable.

Video installation + review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlxUhCvkaV8

Full write-up + review:
https://learntorv.com/clearsource/

But, they're expensive at $250.

Your web site appears to be a monetized site -- many links to Amazon products. Did/do you receive any compensation for your ClearSource review?

Yep.

Copied & pasted from the article:

Disclaimer: I received a Clearsource RV water filter in exchange for a review. As I’ve written before, I do my best to remain impartial. I won’t recommend something I don’t use.

That said, I just received my first order of replacement filters as I don't get a discount or compensated for them at all. I continue to use the water filter and am as objective/unbiased as I can be.

I do also receive a small commission if people purchase things after following many product links on the site. These mostly come from Amazon and not directly from the manufacturer of the products (though, I'm sure the expectation of commission is baked into their fees for selling on Amazon).

Thanks for everyone's response. I have a lot of choices now.

We use a sediment cartridge in a Hydrolife HL-200 outside.

Under the kitchen sink we use a Culligan housing with a D-30A cartridge which supplies a separate drinking water faucet.

I don't like the idea of removing chlorine/chloride prior to the point of use. Chloride keeps the pipes free from possible yuck.

10" filter housings with 5 micron string wound sediment cartridge followed by a Doulton 1 micron ceramic cartridge would be a very good setup. Doulton ceramic filters can be cleaned repeatedly with a scotchbrite pad and will last a long time. String-wound cartridges are quite inexpensive. Could do this for around $100 -$150 or so including a few fittings.

A regulator before filters is recommended as they can be damaged by high pressure in some cases, but recommended regardless. Pressure can be very high in some RV parks.

Depends on exactly what you want to achieve and remove from the water tho. Carbon block filters remove chlorine but that can leave piping inside an RV unprotected. A POU (point of use) carbon filter at a sink is a solution if you want to improve taste & odor. Chlorine can be on the high side in some locations and bothersome to some people.

Filters with KDF or silver prevent bacteria growth in it but will still pass bacteria through it. Pleated paper sediment filters encourage bacteria growth. A filter with a 1 micron will remove parasites and some bacteria.

I would get filters that are NSF listed otherwise the manufacturer can make unfounded claims or filters may not have any specs provided for them and you won't know what the performance is.

Physically larger cartridges will generally last longer. Some are rated in gallons of use. Quality filter cartridges will have detailed specs.

Doulton has info. on filtration for RV-ers here.