Can we talk Water Filters again?

Acampingwewillgo wrote:
OK, let me start out with the point that I've always been a bottled water type person when it comes to the RV, both for my consumption and the dogs. At times I'd use campground water for the dogs after being filtered by two outside sediment filters and a carbon filter and an under sink ADC filter...never any issue.

Water Filters again? Well. 1st question I'd ask is what contaminants are you concerned about that *might* in the water? Bacteria, viruses, micro-organisms, chemicals, heavy metals, or?

IMO drinking CG water straight out of a CG faucet isn't a good idea, esp. if you get around to many unfamiliar CGs in unfamiliar places. Even if a CG is connected to municipal water and treated according to federal requirements ("allegedly" as Colbert would say), it doesn't mean it's going to be perfectly fine. Below is a "biomass" on the filter screen of our city water inlet after being at a CG connected to municipal water. It was the CG's failure to flush their system at the start of the camping season. Who wants to ingest this stuff, even if not harmful? Some CGs can be on a private system supplied by a well or lake and you'll have no idea what the water quality is at any given time.

I installed a 4 stage filtration setup - 2 sediment filters, a 1 micron Doulton cartridge and sub-micron ultrafiltration (UF) cartridge rated at 0.2 microns as in the photo below. Fits nicely below the sink against the back wall and doesn't interfere with anything. The UF filter is connected to an RO style faucet for drinking water only. This has worked great for 4 seasons now and haven't gotten sick or died yet and our 13 year old dog is healthy and happy.

Some sediment filters (paper type) promote pathogen growth and some (string-wound) prevent it. A carbon filter is there to primarily remove chlorine and improve taste and odor. You want chlorine in your RV's water system to help prevent growth of pathogens. Do you know what type of sediment filter you use? Are they NSF certified? Do you know what their rated life is, their temp. limitations or rated flow (in gpm)? KDF or silver that is in some cartridges doesn't remove bacteria, it only reduces growth inside the filter. RO filtration is indiscriminate in what it removes, will taste flat and the water will lack some minerals essential to the body like iron and manganese. RO will not remove some solvents, pesticides, chlorine & other VOCs because the molecules are small enough to pass through the RO membranes.

Water filtration, microbiology and treatment is a somewhat complex field and choosing the right cartridges and filtration method can be a challenge. It bothers me the way companies like Watts, Camco and others promote their filters to the uninformed public at large. Bottled water can be a solution but there's no guarantee it's going to be better than plain tap water.

Here's some basic info. from Doulton on water issues related to RV-ing.