tested the blue camco filter with a TDS meter

way2roll wrote:
For potable water I plan on installing an RO with PH balancing stage. The PH adds calcium and Mg back into the water - since RO strips out everything.

Excellent idea. I just started using this "remineralizer".

way2roll wrote:
I plan on installing the RO in a bin rather than under the sink and run the lines for supply. I have not pinned down what I will do with the wastewater. The units I buy are 1:5 waste water to filtered. Normally in a house the wastewater goes down the drain. In an RV I may capture it and recycle it or just let it drip on the ground. Happy to hear from anyone who's handled this.

I suggest under-the-sink unless it's impractical.

I run my RO waste water back into my water tank. Zero waste.

way2roll wrote:
Some - if not most of you - probably think it's way overkill.

Hardly. Here's my water filtration system:



A = Watts pressure regulator + separate back flow preventer.

B = Big Blue 5-micron sediment filter. Why 5-micron? Because that's the smallest recommended size that can be cleaned over and over.

C = Big Blue carbon block filter.

D = Water softener.

E = Water flow meter (for the UV filter).

F = 8 GPM UV filter.

Actually one and the same bottle of water might differently affect stomachs of different people. Last year my husband brought home one strange thing. I don't know how to name it, but we used it to check the quality of water. We took bottled water, water from filter and tap water. We expected tap water to be the worst one, but in reality it was a little better than bottled one. Water from filter (we had Berkey filter) was the best one. Probably the result might had been better, if we had taken bottle from another company, but who knows.
Anyway even today we still prefer to drink filtered water, and stay away from experimentations.

My wife and I lived on our boat and traveled extensively all over the waters of the U.S., the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Central America. Our water came from wells, cisterns, and municipal water supplies. We only used sediment filters and we drank the water, washed, and cook with it. We have never been sick or had any ill effects from the water. We do the same with our RV and have traveled all over the U.S, and parts of Canada. We have never seen folks more obsessed with water issues than we have with RV folks. I'm not sure what everyone is so afraid will happen, but everyone has to do what makes them comfortable. For us, there are plenty of other issues to perseverate over. You have no idea or control over the filtration process of the bottling process in bottled water. Plus the pollution index for plastic bottles is off the charts. But that's really not something to be concerned about. Chuck

Here's a good article, IS YOUR BOTTLED WATER WORTH IT?: HOW BOTTLED WATER IS TREATED

And here is more for you bottled water fans, Bottled Water vs. Tap Water

You will not get high quality drinking water from an inline filter, other than RO.

The best is to get a counter top filter like the Berky. These are charcoal filters that have about the highest filtration you can find. You can also add a fluoride filter to take out other toxic waste contamination.
I use a Berky travel filter, it does not "travel" as easy as the name says, but is maneagble.
There are others in plastic containers that use what looks like a Jerry can and those look like they travel better.

The just use the sediment filter if desired to keep junk out of your tanks.

We are in the market for a new MH, and when I get it I plan on replicating the setup I have in the S&B.

For the whole house/RV I plan on installing a 2 stage - 1 a sacrificial particulate filter and 2 - a catalytic carbon filter. While catalytic carbon is expensive it removes Chlorine and Chloramine (among other things). Most carbon filters remove Chlorine but more and more municipalities are using Chloramine to "sanitize" water and catalytic carbon is the only way to filter that. They are expensive though, the replacement cartridges hover around $100. For potable water I plan on installing an RO with PH balancing stage. The PH adds calcium and Mg back into the water - since RO strips out everything.

I plan on installing the RO in a bin rather than under the sink and run the lines for supply. I have not pinned down what I will do with the wastewater. The units I buy are 1:5 waste water to filtered. Normally in a house the wastewater goes down the drain. In an RV I may capture it and recycle it or just let it drip on the ground. Happy to hear from anyone who's handled this.

Some - if not most of you - probably think it's way overkill. But my wife has an autoimmune disease and RO water helps to mitigate risk. Also, after living in the Cape fear region I have learned not to trust any public water source. There's also the math, the money spent on making your own clean drinking water is recovered in a pretty short time by not buying bottled water. There is also zero environmental impact.

Finally got a 2.5" filter setup. The housing was $20. 2 pack of filters $11-14. 2 adapters each about a buck.

Wonder the best method for storage. Can go months without using it.

ken56 wrote:
So it does nothing. Got it. If you need a filter there are better systems out there. They just cost more.

TDS means DISSLOVED Solids. no longer solid can pass through any "Filter" since they are dissloved.

Reverse Osmosis, though we call it a "Filter" it's a bit more complex.. way way more complex in fact in how it works.. Looks like a "Filter" and we call it a filter but the membrane is far more than just a filter.

Yeah but the Camco filter looks so cool at the city hookup, got one.
Was drinking Starbucks coffee the day I grabbed it.

We refill used gallon milk jugs with city water from the house. We use that for cooking and coffee. Bottled water for drinking. Bath and toilet water from the campground. Don't use a filter.

CincyGus wrote:
I use the Camco filter, not to make campground spigot water drinkable but to remove small debri particles from what goes into my camper. I'm more concerned about a rust flake from plumbing from a old campground plumbing system that may have been built 50+ years ago getting into a check valve or my water pump and causing a problem.

I haul my own drinking water for week long trips and use a pitcher filter for longer ones.

exactly what we do and why. i buy the incline "camco" style filters off amazon.

i usually only use about 4 a year. i have had the filter stop enough debris coming into the RV water system from one particular campground spigot to the point of clogging up the filter so much that water would not flow out of the filter.