Water Filter System (UPDATE)

I store mine in the fridge until the next time I use it

The problem with an RO system in an RV is that the line pressures involved make it =extremely= inefficient. At home, provided we don't go < 60 psi, our system is about a 2:1 water-use ratio, meaning that it takes 2 gallons of waste water to make 1 gallon of RO water in the tank. With the low pressures in an RV, that will go to about 4:1 or even 5:1, meaning that it will take up to 5 gallons of fresh water to make 1 gallon of RO water. While nowhere being close to Muad'Dib, I simply won't waste that kind of water for an in-house RO in my RV; I'll schlep bottled water first.

Lyle

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

The problem with filters is that once they have been used bacteria may start to multiply in them. Some units attempt to control that by (IIRC) having silver nitrate in them.

I use bottled water for all my potable needs.

Didn't that bottled water go through a similar system?

Our system has a total capacity of 16 gallons and I filter ALL of the water going into the tank with two stage 10" filters. The first is a scrub-able Dalton ceramic which has silver embedded and a .5 Micron carbon block filter.
Trusting water from a municipal source. The brand new white ceramic filter ended up a slimy brown the first time I used it in Hocking Hills.
Try RV Water Filter Store

my original setup was two filters in series, roughing and final. after cutting the water flow down to a trickle, I changed them to both final filters in a parallel setup.
bumpy

I suggest that you first visit the RV water filter store and do some reading.

I visited Home Depot, bought two of the standard full size filters (do not get the clear ones), some PVC pipe, hose connections and PVC glue and built my own.

I get my filters from the RV Water Filter Store. The first filter can be a sediment filter and the second can provide more specific filtration. They sell several different types. Buy a short hose from him to connect between your house inlet and the filters and you're good to go. Depending on your needs, you can probably get by with just one of the cartridges and some kind of combination filter. He will also sell you the cartridges if you prefer not to make your own.

When not in use, make sure to disassemble.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

The problem with filters is that once they have been used bacteria may start to multiply in them. Some units attempt to control that by (IIRC) having silver nitrate in them.

I use bottled water for all my potable needs.

I would pull my filter cartridges out between trips and store them in the refrigerator. seemed to slow down growth a bit.
bumpy

I built a system using 2 GE whole house filters and a 2 gallon pressure tank. One filter is wound fabric sediment type and the other iirc is more carbon based type. We snowbird so I had planned on one time a year which would be 6 months but it depends on what type of water we run into and much of it is well water.

Well water brings up a whole different issue that I ran into last year. To keep this short I will just say that my tank had some water in it when we stored it while staying with my son. You cant drain it 100 %. I put more water in it and flushed the lines and started to drain it again and there were little globs of black stuff on the cement as it drained. I removed the bottom cover panel and with a flashlight could see a black/dart witness mark in the tank. I pulled the tank and realized that it looked like mold or slimey black globs. Not a huge amount but any at all is no good. I put about 10 pounds of misc nuts and bolts in the tank with bleach water and tipped and turned it over and over to scrub the inside . What a huge pita but I got it spotless clean.

Before that I figured we were putting so much water through it that it was fine but this year I'm making more frequent stops at camp grounds after I heavily bleach the tank and agitate it while driving. That is one of the problems of leaving home or being at one place, traveling all over exposes us to unknown water quality and where and when were we exposed. I'm going to be much more careful about it now. In fact, you can call me the bleach guy. :) We had been running all our drinking water through a Berkey traveler too.





The valving allows me to use the winterizing port to suck water out of a 5 gallon jug on the ground when my neck and back were messed up. I prefer not to use it as I bleached the hose and everything before sticking it in the water jug.

We use a triple filter from the RV Water Filter Store. They also have very good information about choosing a system and filter cartridges.

Good Luck!

darsben1 wrote:
We have an under the sink water filter with a separate faucet in the galley.

I do not need filtered water in the shower or the head..

We also use one of these at the kitchen sink for cooking, drinking water etc. We are full time and this cartridge lasts us 1 year. We also have a standard sediment whole house filter at the water entrance to the fiver. I change the cartridge in it quarterly and it only costs about $5 each.