Whole House Water Filter

We paid out about $2,000.00 for a Hague salt based filter 7 years ago:

Got the top of the line for our size of house and family size. Still use it and supplys the whole house with filtered water. No regrets and the coffee in the morning tastes just fime. Cloths use less soap to clean and all of those other benifits you see are working here.

No problems to date.

Hello ProcessEngr: The average household whole house water filter can be had at any home center for about $60-$70 for the housing and associated fitting to plumb it in line plus about $40-$50 for the filter element. These cartridge type elements will remove the smell and taste of chlorine lasting about 3-5 months. I have had greater success when employing the whole house filter housing at point of use because the element then lasts longer. However there is a limit as bacteria may develop inside a filter not used often enough. I suggest put a reverse osmosis (about $150) at the food and drink locations for safety and health reasons. Hope this helps (:

bwire, I am interested to hear that you suggest fitting a reverse osmosis unit. My understanding (and perhaps this can be cleared up here) is that it is not "safe" (not sure if this is the correct word) to drink RO water as the RO process removes the minerals from the water.

Kind Regards

Mr. W.A Snow

I haven't researched any possible safety issues with RO, but removal of minerals is certainly NOT one. Many places, including the city of San Francisco, use mostly or entirely snow melt water, which is essentially free of minerals.

Distilled water is entirely free of minerals, and although expensive, is perfectly safe to drink. The distillation process will remove most of the dissolved air, and that will make it taste flat, but there are no safety issues I'm aware of. Correct me if I am mistaken!

Similarly, if you are accustomed to the tase of hard (high mineral content) water, soft water may at first taste strange. Personally, I have a strong preference for naturally soft water.

Ah! but you are correct in that it does remove remove remove. Sorry I got stuck Unsafe NO.

Yes take supplements if you prefer or get minerals from food.

I have installed two (2) of these units in two (2) dwellings over the past seven (7) years-with excellent results in both cases. I purchased the first unit from http://www.thewaterexchange.net and I was so pleased with its performance and low cost of maintenance that I purchased a second unit from them for the dwelling that I have now.

Does it work? Yes, indeed it does. The particular type I use removes the chlorine and ammonia (Chloromet) from the water, as well as tiny particles and cysts that exist in most water supplies. I like these units because rather than tossing the entire main treatment cartridge for a new unit, one can order the charcoal, sand, and copper-zinc compound and replace this media at a much lower cost than purchasing a new cartridge.

Mine is a M/N WH-3/4 which essentially means "Whole House 3/4" IPS connections" and is suitable for most residences. It is well to note that I did not have a problem with hard water in either location, so I needed no salt treatment device. Check it out-I think you will like it.

Best Regards,

Ing. Robert Forbus

ProcessEng.

I similarly investigated whole house water filtrations systems 3 years ago. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, my family could not adjust to the highly chlorinated water of the Chesapeake Virginia water system. After several months of research, including talking to several current users, dealers, manufacturers and water officials and civil eng in the process water profession, we purchased and installed a Rhino whole house filter and an under the sink drinking water filtration system from Aquasana. To simplify backflushing, I installed both a sediment pre-filter on the supply side of the Rhino, and designed a simple backflush manifold. Being extremely parsimonious, I backflush into our swimming pool to conserve water.

Our hair no longer feels brittle after showering and the drinking water tastes better than any bottled water. Both systems are NSF certified and most importantly, meet the California State Water Purification Standards (the most stringent state standards for drinking water at the time - I believe still is.) Here is one fairly accurate comparitive web-sites you might consider http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.net/WaterFilter_Comparison.cfm

You should also consider researching the various state standards for drinking water. Good Luck in your further research. Porkman

Thanks for all the advice. I am leaning toward the Aquasana whole house filter. Just trying to justify the price if a less expensive system could provide the same level of filtration and filter replacement cycles.

The equipment needed contains activated carbon. Chlorine is converted to chloride within it, removing the smell. Activated carbon will also knock out organic tastes and smell.

There are dozens of brand names. A little research is called for at a major home improvement outlet, perhaps?

Downstream of an activated carbon unit, its having converted chorine to chloride, there is no longer any resilience against bacterial growth. The water should only be produced when necessary and consumed immediately, unless boiled beforehand.

However, the phrase <...filter replacement cycles...> would suggest that a particulate removal process is intended, and not an activated carbon one, as the latter does not need a <...replacement cycle...>, its action being catalytic and not one of particulate removal.

The Aquasana unit looks impressive, however, if you ever receive a boil water alert how will this system work? System will still run for dishwater and washing machine therefore your unit can be contaminated (bacteria love carbon) therfore you would have to prematurely replace. For water treatment needs go to the source. www.resintech.com and their filter website is www.ariesfilterworks.com. They make their filters in the USA!

My thought would be to start with a 20 inch big blue set-up, heavy but should help maintain whole house water demands. Easy to change out, my personal expirences when the local firecompany performed a drill on the main street near my house killed my filter within hours but only needed to replace filter at less than $20 compared to a re-bed which cost in the hundreds of dollars.