Whole House Water Filter for Camping Use???

[darleyhavidson]

I lease a permanent campsite that I will be at for the foreseeable future. I have always used the inline Camco brand carbon filter coming off the spigot. The water source is a private well system. Since the camper is not moving I can have a semi-permanent water filtration setup.

What is the consensus on using a Whole House Water filter coming off the spigot? Any practical experience with which canister to use and what type of filter to utilize?

dh

[exintrunk]

In your case the real question is what the quality of the water coming out of the well? It can vary greatly and could even be dangerous. My first suggestion is to get the water tested at a local lab (sometimes you can get a water treatment place to do it for you).That will then tell you ph levels, hardness,radium levels, as well as possible biological issues. Depending on the depth of the well and quality of the aquifer that feeds it, there are any number of contaminates you could be exposed to. At minimum I would use a particulate filter followed by a charcoal filter for the basic water and consider a small reverse osmosis under sink unit for drinking and cooking.

[darleyhavidson]

BarneyS wrote:
We have had no problems at all with the brass fittings leaking and have noticed no water flow restriction. We use a high quality pressure regulator at the hydrant end that keeps the pressure around 50psi all the time and always allows excellent water flow.

When the flow slows down (rarely happens) then we know the filter is plugged up and time to replace the element.
Depending on location, we can go a whole winter or summer on one filter element.

In addition to the whole house filter outside, we have an under counter water filter with a separate small faucet on the kitchen sink for drinking water. It uses a special, quite expensive ($20-30) filter that we replace every year.:)
Barney

Ok, good to know. I will do some research to see what is available locally. The RVWaterfilterstore.com seemingly has what I need though.

[darleyhavidson]

myredracer wrote:
If at a semi-permanent or permanent site, I'd get the well water tested to see exactly what needs to be, or can be filtered. No point in using filters that won't help anything. Is the water treated? If a private well with few users, likely not. Carbon filters are used to improve taste and odor when chlorine is put in the water and won't help much otherwise. Well water can be great or really bad and I'd rather know what's in it.

Whole house filters may not be needed in terms of flow rate, but will def. make them last longer between replacing them.

Two 10" whole house filters is a good setup. Use a 5 micron sediment cartridge first followed by one with a rating of 1 micron or less. Don't use a paper type cartridge because bacteria like to grow in them. Use a "string wound" one. Doulton makes some excellent ceramic cartridges and have ones to remove various different things. Get ones that are NSF certified otherwise the manufacturers can make exaggerated or false claims. For the final 1 micron filter, get one with an "absolute" rating not "nominal". The Doulton cartridges are nice because when they get plugged up, you just take a Scrotchbrite pad and clean the outside off. Doulton has a lot of excellent info. and is worth some googling. Use a regulator. Water quality, filtration and cartridge types can be quite complex if you get into it. Don't grab whatever just happens to be on the shelf at an RV dealer or big box store.

I installed a 63 micron sediment "prefilter" followed 3 10" whole house filters under the sink. One is a 5 micron sediment, next is a 1 micron Doulton ceramic and the last is a 0.2 micron "ultrafiltration" used for drinking water only via an RO type faucet at the kitchen sink. It all easily fits under the sink at the back of the cabinet and doesn't interfere with anything.

Good information. Thanks for the break down.

[BarneyS]

We have had no problems at all with the brass fittings leaking and have noticed no water flow restriction. We use a high quality pressure regulator at the hydrant end that keeps the pressure around 50psi all the time and always allows excellent water flow.

When the flow slows down (rarely happens) then we know the filter is plugged up and time to replace the element.
Depending on location, we can go a whole winter or summer on one filter element.

In addition to the whole house filter outside, we have an under counter water filter with a separate small faucet on the kitchen sink for drinking water. It uses a special, quite expensive ($20-30) filter that we replace every year.:)
Barney

[myredracer]

If at a semi-permanent or permanent site, I'd get the well water tested to see exactly what needs to be, or can be filtered. No point in using filters that won't help anything. Is the water treated? If a private well with few users, likely not. Carbon filters are used to improve taste and odor when chlorine is put in the water and won't help much otherwise. Well water can be great or really bad and I'd rather know what's in it.

Whole house filters may not be needed in terms of flow rate, but will def. make them last longer between replacing them.

Two 10" whole house filters is a good setup. Use a 5 micron sediment cartridge first followed by one with a rating of 1 micron or less. Don't use a paper type cartridge because bacteria like to grow in them. Use a "string wound" one. Doulton makes some excellent ceramic cartridges and have ones to remove various different things. Get ones that are NSF certified otherwise the manufacturers can make exaggerated or false claims. For the final 1 micron filter, get one with an "absolute" rating not "nominal". The Doulton cartridges are nice because when they get plugged up, you just take a Scrotchbrite pad and clean the outside off. Doulton has a lot of excellent info. and is worth some googling. Use a regulator. Water quality, filtration and cartridge types can be quite complex if you get into it. Don't grab whatever just happens to be on the shelf at an RV dealer or big box store.

I installed a 63 micron sediment "prefilter" followed 3 10" whole house filters under the sink. One is a 5 micron sediment, next is a 1 micron Doulton ceramic and the last is a 0.2 micron "ultrafiltration" used for drinking water only via an RO type faucet at the kitchen sink. It all easily fits under the sink at the back of the cabinet and doesn't interfere with anything.

[MFL]

Mine also came with a whole house filter. It filters water from tank, and city water hookup. It is mounted just inside the pass through door. The cheap box store filters may slow the flow/pressure, even though they appear similar. If you use a quality filter, I get mine from the water filter store, the pressure is the same as not having a filter installed. The water filter store filters do not cost a lot more, and last a long time.

Give the WF store a call, talk to a very knowledgeable real person. They are very helpful. Phone: 602-625-1875

Jerry

[dodge_guy]

My trailer came with one from the factory. Works great. The only issue is I have to buy brand recommended by the filter manuf. I tried a Home Depot whole house filter as it’s the same size. It works great when hooked up to a water source, but the pump
Isn’t powerful enough to move he water through it. It’ll do it, but the flow is way to low, you can’t shower with it.

If your in a campground seasonal site with water hook up it will work just fine!

[darleyhavidson]

wills670 wrote:

BarneyS wrote:
I have been using a whole house filter, purchased at Home Depot, for the past 14 years. I use a charcoal filter in it which filters finer and also takes out any funny taste in the water. Change the filter as needed. I put the whole thing in a plastic milk case and then on the ground under the edge of our slideout. I use brass quick connect fittings on all hoses. That keeps it out of the sun and also keeps it cooler. This has worked well for us for many years, lasts longer, and is not expensive like the smaller inline filters are.
Barney

I use the same thing a whole house filter with the charcoal filter but I purchased fittings for an inline hookup to my hoses and use a short hose to run from the faucet and just place the filter on the ground. Then as an extra precaution to getting bugs and stuff I drain the water out and hook the short hose back up to the other fitting.

Did you notice any water flow restriction with this setup?

[wills670]

BarneyS wrote:
I have been using a whole house filter, purchased at Home Depot, for the past 14 years. I use a charcoal filter in it which filters finer and also takes out any funny taste in the water. Change the filter as needed. I put the whole thing in a plastic milk case and then on the ground under the edge of our slideout. I use brass quick connect fittings on all hoses. That keeps it out of the sun and also keeps it cooler. This has worked well for us for many years, lasts longer, and is not expensive like the smaller inline filters are.
Barney

I use the same thing a whole house filter with the charcoal filter but I purchased fittings for an inline hookup to my hoses and use a short hose to run from the faucet and just place the filter on the ground. Then as an extra precaution to getting bugs and stuff I drain the water out and hook the short hose back up to the other fitting.

[darleyhavidson]

kerrlakeRoo wrote:
As was mentioned before, well water quality can be questionable.

Add on, the guy that does the you tube site Love your rv just did a video on the two stage unit he mounted on his 5er's rear bumper.

That filter setup (in the youtube video) is pretty pricey. It is compact and organized, just not sure it is worth the asking price. Thanks for sharing.

[darleyhavidson]

BarneyS wrote:
I have been using a whole house filter, purchased at Home Depot, for the past 14 years. I use a charcoal filter in it which filters finer and also takes out any funny taste in the water. Change the filter as needed. I put the whole thing in a plastic milk case and then on the ground under the edge of our slideout. I use brass quick connect fittings on all hoses. That keeps it out of the sun and also keeps it cooler. This has worked well for us for many years, lasts longer, and is not expensive like the smaller inline filters are.
Barney

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Do you have any problems with the quick disconnect fittings leaking?
Thanks again.

[BarneyS]

I have been using a whole house filter, purchased at Home Depot, for the past 14 years. I use a charcoal filter in it which filters finer and also takes out any funny taste in the water. Change the filter as needed. I put the whole thing in a plastic milk case and then on the ground under the edge of our slideout. I use brass quick connect fittings on all hoses. That keeps it out of the sun and also keeps it cooler. This has worked well for us for many years, lasts longer, and is not expensive like the smaller inline filters are.
Barney

[rbpru]

The system does not care where the water goes. The water volume, purity and end user taste preference,determine the type of filter.

[kerrlakeRoo]

As was mentioned before, well water quality can be questionable. My well water at home is slightly hard, and contains mica. Because of this my drinking and aquarium water is filtered. For the fish I use the same filter you are using, (blue inline Walmart) and it stopped the problems I had when filling tanks and pond. But I only get about 5000 gallons through one before flow slows way down and the filter gets heavy. At that point its cheap and easy to change.
In the house we use the one from the refrigerator, spin on GE canister.
You may want to just watch your flow and as it slows down change what you have, those seem to work pretty well. I dont know if they block light well enough to avoid algae growth, but you could cover it with a blanket or tarp if that concerns you.

Add on, the guy that does the you tube site Love your rv just did a video on the two stage unit he mounted on his 5er's rear bumper.