Purified Water

[American_Roadtr]

Does anyone have any tips or know of a water purification system that you can install in your rv that gets out chlorine and flouride? So far what I know reverse osmosis is the best, but can be difficult and costly to install in an rv. We usually fill jugs with reverse osmosis water from the stations at Walmart and Publix, but not every town has this, and it can be a pain to have to refill jugs every few days.

[Sport45]

Say you install an RO. How are you going to know it's removing all the fluoride? Is there a simple titration test for that? Or do you just trust it's working?

[drsteve]

rockhillmanor wrote:
And they don't add chlorine and fluoride to well water!!

They don't have to. A lot of well water already contains fluoride, and a small percentage contains levels that exceed limits set by the CDC.

[ncrowley]

You are correct that the reverse osmosis filtering system removes everything. We have a filter after the reverse osmosis process that adds minerals back in the water. Adding the minerals also makes the water alkaline. If you were going with a reverse osmosis system, I would get one that wastes as little water as possible. The one I have at home is 1:1 which means it wastes as much water as it creates. Many of the systems are 3:1 or more where they waste 3x the water as they create.

[SparkDr]

American Roadtrip wrote:
SNIP...So far what I know reverse osmosis is the best...

I would question this assumption in the original post before going too much farther. RO water, while probably the safest water to drink, is certainly not the "best" water. The RO process removes everything from the the water including the "good stuff" like minerals etc that our bodies need. What is left is a purified water that reads rather acidic on a ph scale and is therefore not as good for the body as a ph neutral water such as a quality spring water. Major brands such as Dasani, Evian, & Nestle are all highly hyped and marketed purified RO waters.
We ran a whole battery of tests here locally as an experiment based on curiosity to see where our municipal water stacked up against the big boys. In all, we tested 23 brands of purified, spring, municipal tap, and well waters. Our admittedly less than perfect scientific analysis actually found Fiji spring water to be the "best" with Poland Spring (a regional brand) a close second. Even no-name gallons of spring water off the grocery store shelf scored better than RO waters. Our municipal water scored toward the bottom of the middle group of the spring waters. One caveat to remember is that spring waters are usually from municipal sources and multiple sources can be used under one label. For example, Poland Spring can come from any one of at least 4 different municipal sources so variations will occur. BTW, when in doubt, read the label. Bottlers are required to denote whether it is purified or spring water on the label.
I won't enter into the Chlorine / Fluorine debate. Smarter people than myself have already chimed in with some great information on this to help us all make the best decision for our own needs. For what it's worth, I use a twin canister carbon and KDF system for my home drinking water and a single canister in-line Carbon/KDF for the TT. One thing to remember about KDF is it's propensity to solidify if left to dry (i.e: between uses or seasons). Keep it wet if you go this route. I bought some caps for the filter and store it full of water between uses and replace it annually ($30) rather than wet store it in the off-season.
And lastly, distilled water is not for drinking. Save it for the iron, powersports batteries, and cigar humidor.
Sorry to be so long-winded. I hope to at least have added some value to the conversation.

[down_home]

Carbon filters will remove synthetic flouride added to water. They will not take out naturally occuring flouride.
On the net you cn find carbon filters with .5 micron filtering and silver etc additives, for the standard 10 inch whole house filter housing.
The list of contaminents, they remove is depending on the filter extensive.
The blue one at Camping world, for use in the Culligan, I believe, housing at 32.00 or so is 25 micron but get several contaminents.
Charcoal Half micron or even 1 micro should get chlorine, iron, sulfides,sulfur, suspended calcium and gather some dissolved calcium.
The best one I've found on line is about 29.00.
The filter Store.

[AmericalVette]

I have a "Life-Mist" water distiller. That is what I use for drinking, cooking, washing vegetables.

[rockhillmanor]

The Pure faucet filter takes out the most unwanted stuff in water.

BUT, read the labels carefully on these types of filters. Most if not all proudly state they do 'not' take out fluoride. Of course because the gov has stated it's good for your teeth! :W

Unless you are filling your fresh tank up 'only' from your home city water source I'm here to tell you almost all CG's use well water! And they don't add chlorine and fluoride to well water!!:B

[GoPackGo]

I am also a fan of the RV water filter store.

I bought 2 of the whole house filter housings that accept the common 10 inch filters, hooked them up in series with PVC pipe, added the necessary hose end connections and then got sediment filters for the first one and more advanced filters for the second one from the RV water filter store. He has a PLETHORA of different filters.

* If you go this route, make sure to not get clear housings (algae will form) or else paint them before using.

[American_Roadtr]

Fresno Tundra Driver wrote:

NRALIFR wrote:

American Roadtrip wrote:
.........There is approximately 1 liter of flouride to a gallon of municiple water...........

If that were true, all of us municipal water drinkers would be dead.

The United States Health and Human Services Department recommends a maximum of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter.

:):)

X2. The Fluoride is measured in ppm or ppb. "1 liter" must be a misprint.

For our purposes, 35,000 milligrams/Liter is the same measurement as 35,000 parts per million.* Both
measurements tell us how many parts (milligrams) are present in every million parts (Liter).

[wilcamp]

We use an in-line blue filter as a first-stage system between the water source and the camper, whether filling the FW holding tank or using city water hookups. We also utilize a small white Brita filter on the kitchen sink faucet for drinking and cooking.

[D_E_Bishop]

Of course we did, sometimes we just ignore you.

Just kidding Gordon.

Actually I know a solution to the OP's problem. There is neither chlorine nor fluoride in wine, beer or spirits. See problem solved.

[American_Roadtr]

ncrowley wrote:
You can buy a portable reverse osmosis system. We use a reverse osmosis system at home but when we are on the road, we buy the water from Costco - it is RO water.

Thanks. That is pretty much what we are looking for.

[American_Roadtr]

NRALIFR wrote:

American Roadtrip wrote:
.........There is approximately 1 liter of flouride to a gallon of municiple water...........

If that were true, all of us municipal water drinkers would be dead.

The United States Health and Human Services Department recommends a maximum of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter.

:):)

Sorry, I made a typo. It is approximately 0.7 to 1 mg per liter. I have been doing a lot of typing. You are right, if it were a liter we would all be dead. I will avoid any debates. I was not looking to start a discussion on flouride, but was just looking for a filter I could install that would filter it out for my own personal preferences.

[ncrowley]

You can buy a portable reverse osmosis system. We use a reverse osmosis system at home but when we are on the road, we buy the water from Costco - it is RO water.