water filters

[sandbox]

A few years back our area went from centralized well water, the wells considered to hold high honors, to a system today where they mix well, river and desalinized water together run it through filters and pump it down the pipe. At that point i decided to acquire a drinking water filter. I purchased my first one at Sears. At the time there were only two choices, Brita or PUR, and Sears only carried PUR so I got one that attaches to the faucet. It seemed to work well, i would replace the filters about 4 times a year for $50 bucks. In three years it blew a gasket so i replaced it with another and in 1 year it blew a faucet end attachment. So now I have to replace that one as well. Thinking that there has to be a better way, i went looking and found this site. I was already resolved to using a under-the-sink contraption rather than another faucet attachment so it was just a matter of who made the better, Brita or PUR, well much to my surprise I discovered that i had options. interestingly enough I found that Aquasana is the one for me. http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com/wate..._comparison.php

The difference is in the filtration for me, but it gets better!

Then it gets worse, the consumer reports are not good. Now what?

[jcarter]

We too have well water, and used to use the faucet filters, but they really didn't work all that great.
So my husband plumbed in a whole house filter system, and it uses the Aqua-Pure filters.
It works great.
Our well water always tastes of iron, which is harmless. Filtering wont help taste.

 But this winter it got contaminated with road salt, I could even taste the doggone sodium! First time this has happened in 43 years.
So I got our drinking water in jugs from my brothers deep well. By April, it had flushed out, especially after our huge rainstorms.

We also plumbed the entire cellar and first floor with the new plastic piping, whew what a job! (Havent done the upstairs yet.)
But really worth it with the much better taste.
Since our water is very acidic, it eats away the piping, so the new plastic stuff solved that problem as well.
Jane

[sandbox]

Gee, I thought i wrote this on the community side? Must be the virus

Jane, the water tastes fine, it's got high ratings but the though of drinking the river water from Tampa doesn't sit well with me.

I'm going to have to do more research, drinking water is all i need and i refuse to buy an Icebox with a water system.

there's supposed to be a good system at Lowes home center. Maybe i get a chance to check it out.

[jcarter]

I would find out the details from the Tampa DPW, they have to give you the exact figures on the tests and everything.
De-sal water is the best of the best, well water in FL tends to have 'stuff' in it, as I remember as a child, we called it Sulphur because of the smell and taste.
But nowadays that is taken out.
So those 2 thirds are fine, but the river water is what is suspect. Do they treat that?  I think they would have to, you cant just introduce river water into a system and not treat it first.
They have to be up to certain standards. If it is suspect, put 2 drops of clorox in a gallon, let it sit overnight, and you will be fine.
Dont mess around with river water, as one of our kids drank out of a mountain stream in Norway and got Giardia.
I drank the river water in remote parts of Belize and didnt have any problems.
Jane

[sandbox]

Jane, the whole system is filtered and the wells, filled by the aquifer, were know to have some of the best water in the world back in the 80's.

I have had the screaming EB G B's as it's known in some parts from drinking river and creek water on adventures as a dummy. I've chopped chunks of glaciers to suck them down and sucked on roots in the desert.

Our city, county, state tests water quality daily and it's higher quality than the average drop, but i can still fill a PUR water filter with goobers in 3-4 months.

[jcarter]

I was hoping that it was OK, so I think that you are probably safe to drink it.
The PUR filter did take out a lot of stuff from our system too, but seeing that it wasnt harmful, and the water that came out of the PUR had a mouldy taste to it,,,,,,,we decided to use the whole house filter, and chuck the PUR, and the water is great now after we put in all plastic pipes.

A lot of people around here drink bottled water but thats not necessary, as our water comes from the Cape Cod aquifer and one part of town comes from a small lake. But its all filtered, treated, and tested on a regular basis.

I think you are OK with your water, just have it tested in one of those labs that your county might have, once in a while just to make sure that there isnt a 'leak' between the source and your house.
That is unlikely, but possible.

We also have had problems with our local Air Force Base with all the crud they poured into the ground 80 years ago, its created a plume under some parts of town. So those people have had to discontinue their wells, and hook up to the town supply. The town system doesnt service our road though, but our wells are fine.

Think of how lucky we are with water here in USA, and how difficult it is in other parts of the world, the third world countries have to be so careful.
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

Glad you have 'tasty' water where you are sandbox. My wife had an aunt in the St. Pete area and we would never drink the water out of the faucet. Foul tasting, smelly, yuck!!! We had to install a filtration system way back in the '70s when we were in Oklahoma, same 'sulfur' and various chemical orders and tastes. The salt-based system took care of all that. But the water here is so sweet, there are few water filter companies around. Still, our local area has had some problems with the water creating pin-hole leaks in the copper pipes. Only recourse seems to be to replace that with PVC.

I became interested in filtration a few months back when we pulled the frig out for cleaning (we do that every ten years, whether it needs it or not). I found the coil of copper tubing had a kink in it and who knows when it would finally give way (probably in another ten years, when we cleaned back there again!). So I ran down to the hardware store and bought a steel-jacketed, self-closing emergency valve, some-kind-of-plastic tubing set.

I was so pleased with myself at catching he potential problem and installing an even better system! That pleasure didn't last long...my wife almost immediately started complaining about the 'plastic' taste. I had to admit that I could also taste it, also... Anyway, she had a weekend trip the next day and I removed the new line, fixed it under the kitchen faucet, turned on the hot water gently and let it run through the tubing for over 48 hours. I even added bleach, detergent and lots of 'hope' during the process. Unfortunately, the taste never went away and Judy grew tired of having half the sink full of tubing and the water bill climbing by the minute.

Still clinging to the technological advancement I had purchased, I browsed through the 'filtration' offerings. I even searched the interweb. Our frig didn't seem to have a built in filter of any kind, but after market types are readily if somewhat expensively available. Then I started looking at the under sink models, even though that really wouldn't help with the ice/cool water dispenser. Let's just say the sky is not the limit when handling that substance that usually comes from under the ground! 8-|

Solution was to buy the >10 buck, "never-had-a-complaint-with-this-stuff" package. Hey! Mama's happy! What else counts?!

Anyone interested in a great, super-safe, no-more-worries-about-a-broken-line-while-out-of-the-house water/frig connection? Shipping costs only! Limit, one to a customer! Please, no dealers!

[sandbox]

At one time, St. Pete and vicinity had wells located on the properties. At some point the City of St. Pete purchased a large plot of land in Pasco County, just north of Pinellas County where St. Pete or The Burg is located. Then they began to pipe the well water to the south. The wells are fed by the Florida aquifer, the same system found in the Everglades.

I have a building that still has the old well and fields in place, but unused since the city joined the central distribution network. I was able to run a test on the wells when I first acquired the property and it was tainted with phosphorous. Some areas of the county were included or opted into the central water system before others, so it makes sense that some would still have local wells while others were on the system.

Pasco County began to grow and the system was sucking the water out of the county, and in some cases creating sinkholes and sinking houses in the process. A suit was filed and logic won the day. St. Pete had to reduce their pumping of Pasco water. Knowing they would lose the suit they dragged it out and began building a desal plant but it wouldn't be enough, so they decided to incorporated the Hillsborough river. Southwest water management was created, we call it Swiftmud.

That's where this story began.

If one was to go back into the 30's and 40's the local wells were pristine, according to stories and records of the day. But after WWll and huge influx of soldiers and their families settled this area. They learnt about the area from the VA hospital network that was located here. Many of the large five star hotels and universities were converted into hospitals and the government built one of the largest VA hospitals in the country, drawing medical professionals from around the world. The new population needed water and the ground water could not sustain such a large population. So in the fifties realizing that the leach fields were bumping into the ground wells, they took actions. When A/C was invented and used in residential housing the population tripled and didn't stop increasing until 2006.

Having lived, worked and played in just about every nook and cranny of this continent, from the southern tip of Mexico to Yellow Knife in Canada, and most points east and west I've seen my share of bad water. Telluride Colorado comes to mind. Where the area is beautiful, and the water looks clean, tastes clean but is contaminated with mining sediment form 100 years ago. I lived in California during the water wars and paid 4 dollars for a glass of water in death valley. When I lived in Maricopa County Arizona I had to hook up a tanker to my dually and drive to the fire department to fill my tank with a weekly allotment for house and horses. Water seems to be a central issue in many places, and getting worse. Not that it's bad here, it's not, I'm just picky.

[jcarter]

Yes, water is a problem, to get good and safe water is a worldwide wish.
I cant complain about our well water here on Cape Cod.
It is rather acidic, thus the holes in the old copper pipes, but replacing it all with the plastic solved that. It isnt PVC, its something else, cant remember the name of it. Its rather expensive, but we did it ourselves to save the labor costs. Not an easy job by any means.
If our power goes out, we have to run the generator to get water, but do have a pitcher pump on an old point just for quick outages, if we dont want to bother with the generator.

Our water system in Maine is a whole different story,,,,,,
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

WARNING! War story ahead!

TDY in Siagon (15 days there, 3 back in the PI, over and over), we had water the color of the diluted Mekong River. But it tasted great! Better than what we had in the PI. Everyone drank it just fine.

Later, we moved to Cam Ran Bay on the beautiful China Sea coast, the water there was clear as a crystals. But the taste was so bad that many became dehydrated because they drank so little of it. Of course, their consumption of beer didn't help with its extra loss of bodily fluids...

Since we were a trash-hauling outfit, with C-130s instead of trucks, we started carrying water jugs with us to collect water anywhere we might stop long enough for someone to run to the water wagon! Who knew where it really came from, but I don't remember ever getting sick from drinking it!

Clean, healthy drinking water is an ever increasing rarity in much of the world. I can easily foresee armed battles over water supplies and its cost approaching what we now pay for gasoline. OTOH, the 'natural balancing' factor of population growth caused by starvation may prevent us from getting to that point...