Water Filters

[lwmcguire]

I have worked in the water treatment industry over 40 years with a major company

Chromium, lead, trichloroethylene, gasoline, gasoline additives and I could make quite a list have all been huge money makers over the years

All of these in municipal water systems

Coliform is common in a vast number of industrial and municipal systems

Trailer parks are notorious for Cousin Eddie people which use the same hose for black tank flush attached to the hose bib you get your drinking water from

So is it really over kill to sanitize the hose bib and keep your potable hose ends from touching the ground?

Same goes for filters, safe or sick?

Water is used and reused and the quality will continue to get worse as the population explodes

Sure it is treated, but have you ever heard of raw sewage spills due to floods? Power outages , mistakes, systems over capacity?

Where do you think wast water goes?

Usually back into the river for the next community to use

All of us grey beards have drank from a hose and many from a hand pump or cistern

We were younger and the water wasn't as contaminated

Look up the huge issue with Nitrates facing many communities

Uninformed folks shouldn't criticize others

[RKins]

Originally Posted by LaurenC

First it goes through the water softener to the RO system then into the main tank then pumped through the 3 stage filter system then into the house. There is also a filter on the kitchen tap and the ice maker. We have clean water where ever we go.��

I think you have the order reversed - the softener should be after the 3-stage filter (and I guess the RO) before filling the tank. Get rid of all the crap before you soften it, easier on the resin - I think that is in the instructions of the softener. You should also have a way to bypass the softener & RO so you can inject chlorine into the tank, which will be removed by the filters you mentioned by the sink.

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by RKins

I think you have the order reversed - the softener should be after the 3-stage filter (and I guess the RO) before filling the tank.

I think they were talking about their house, not their RV's, water system, and I don't think they were describing their actual filtration sequence.

Undersink RO systems typically have a small holding tank (3 gal). Unless you have a whole house (or RV) RO system with a large RO holding tank, you're going to have some mighty slow (and short) showers.

Also, for a whole house or RV RO system, you would not need a water softener -- RO softens water.

[Journey39n]

Wow, isn't camping life wonderful. Room for everyone to do their own thing. No criticism for others, some of those systems look pretty great.

But for me, I use a single activated charcoal canister filter, change it once a year, chlorinate my system once a year, travelled all over the country, and never seemed to mind the local water too much. Although in AZ we do buy the 25-cent gallon jug fills for drinking water.

I do cover my pressure-regulator/hose end with a disposable glove when stowing for travel. And I do have some sanitizing wipes to wipe down the faucet end before connecting. Other than that, for 9 years, we just keep driving on.

[zzotte]

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

How many filter will make you feel safe? Unbelievable! Maybe you paranoid people should just fill your tanks with bottled water. Or maybe just stay home!

Not a bad idea, any suggestion how to get 65 gallons delivered? It would sure make things a little easier. Because right now my toad it’s a water buffalo ( old military term for water tank)

Zzotte

[CaptainGizmo]

FYI...

As per the rep at ON THE GO, a Pre-Filter is NOT necessary. Their resins was will last 7-10 years.

Yes, they sell “specific” filters for pretty much every environment yet feel it’s unrealistic to use them when you’re traveling all over.

I think I’ll slide “water filtration” above the “Spartan vs. Freightliner” argument. Oy.

[tnedator]

Ok, after a week of trying to solve the challenge of the small Ventana wetbay, this is what I think I will do if it fits, which I think it will.

First stage will be a 5" x 2.5" 30 micron pleated sediment filter. This is just to remove large sediment. I'll mount above hose reel and below FWS shaft. This should be about 10 gpm.

Second stage a 10" jumbo canister with a Doulton Rio 2000 ceramic filter

Third stage will be four (or five if five fits) 5" × 2.5" canisters plumbed in parallel, probably with 1 GPM carbon block filters. This should give me roughly the same flow as the jumbo ceramic. These I think I can mount above the FWS shaft. I'll probably need to get some aluminum rectangular tubing to shim the mounts out, since the filters will be too long and need to clear the shaft.

If I had a larger wet bay, I wouldn't mess with the small, 5" canisters, but I think using those in parallel is my best option for high flow and highly filtered water.

Since with this setup I probably won't use my tank water near as much, by having the 5" filters after the jumbo, I can take one of those filters out and use the housing to add bleach, or more likely puregene, to my holding tank and still fill with filtered water AND Puregene.

[Sky_Boss]

As usual, threads like this bring out the negative comments and snide remarks. I don't really care if I (or you) did drink water out of a hose or a hand pump from a well. That was then, this is now.

Consider this...many/most of us ARE GETTING OLDER. As you get older the vast majority of us with aging bodies find it harder to fight off all manner of ailments, viruses and such. The average human body is over 50% water. It would make sense to take some measures to protect it from "bad" water.

There is a vast number of water treatment & quality scenarios out there. That doesn't even count the folks that take no precautions when handling and working with public fixtures like CG water and sewer hook ups. When folks like us roam the whole USA, it doesn't seem dumb or even overkill to consider upgrading our water systems to manage these factors.

So, for those folks that are tossing out ideas on how they manage their higher expectations for "good" water in their tanks...keep them coming. Everyone has to be comfortable with what they are doing and perhaps suggestions from others might help clarify what is a better/best way for them.

I'm certain some folks think my whole RV RO system is overkill. That is OK...however it is MY choice. If you have recommendations on how to improve it...have at, I'm listening. OTOH, if you think my approach, or the approach other might choose is silly, maybe you should find a different thread that trips your trigger. In the end, it is MY system, it is MY $$$ that I choose to spend on it and it is my family that I want to protect.

[NealC]

I think something that's probably more important then water filtration is FRESH water. You may run through 27 filters to get water into your fresh water tank but imagine that water sitting in the tank for 3 months in the summer. I'm not talking about not using your RV, if you don't use your water pump exclusively and you are connected to city water, you are letting your fresh tank grow all kinds of goodies to pair with your food.

So again, while you are focused on filtration, don't forget actually keeping your fresh tank cycled and sanitized. How often to sanitize? I don't know, but I bet many here focused on filtration are failing on the water storage side of this story. "Food" for thought.

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by tnedator

What size flex house votes Newmar user to connect to water filter? I've seen several filter housings have 3/4" female port. So, I would be a 3/4 male to what? A 3/8" or 1/2" barb or something like that?

If I recall all the info and frustrations I assimilated while building my RO system I reverse engineered a few things for NEWMAR coaches.

First, they used 3/4" PEX to bridge from check valves to flex tubes. There are 2 check valves on my coach. One behind the water panel and one out of water reel. The check valve coming out of the water reel on my coach has a short section of blue PEX that push connects into the check valve. On the other end of that PEX they used a 3/4" straight connector to join the 3/4" PEX to 5/8" ID flex hose with a 3/4" PEX clamp over the flex tube end. I found out that 3/4" PEX connectors works well to join 3/4" PEX with 5/8" ID flex hose and that is why I think Newmar did this.

There is a mix of 5/8" ID and 1/2" ID flex tubing. I think you will find that the 5/8" ID flex tube is what was used for most of the stuff you will mess with. I have to admit that I've slept a month our 2 since I reworked my wet bay and didn't really make notes to 'splain what I did..

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by NealC

I think something that's probably more important then water filtration is FRESH water. You may run through 27 filters to get water into your fresh water tank but imagine that water sitting in the tank for 3 months in the summer. I'm not talking about not using your RV, if you don't use your water pump exclusively and you are connected to city water, you are letting your fresh tank grow all kinds of goodies to pair with your food.

So again, while you are focused on filtration, don't forget actually keeping your fresh tank cycled and sanitized. How often to sanitize? I don't know, but I bet many here focused on filtration are failing on the water storage side of this story. "Food" for thought.

While I disagree a bit with your point about filtration/conditioning, I absolutely agree with you about, in effect, water rotation. Now that I have a whole RV RO system, all water used in the coach comes through the RO system and out of the tank.

We use RO water for everything from drinking to laundry. I'm estimating that I probably use at least 40 gals of RO water every day. Since we are full timers, I see no change to that pattern.

I did set my wet bay up to accept city water without going through the RO system but at least I doubled the filter count. Why did I do this? There MIGHT be a FEW situations where I need to add water more quickly than my RO system does. That would also hinge on whether or not I feel I can trust the water source. However, since Flint residents got poisoned by city water, I'm not sure I feel so good about municipal water.

[Pine Stump]

Change..I used a # 3 filter under the sink for the little single cold drinking water facet replacing the old one and it does not work no water flow
...Any ideas

[Steele]

Originally Posted by NealC

It is kinda funny especially the video above (post 77 I think). It's kind of like the antibacterial hand cleaners people use all the time which actually has a counter effect and I wonder if all of this filtration someone will find the same. Our bodies have to be subjected to "things" to counter those "things" and if we remove those "things" our bodies will no longer know to or be able to counter those "things". If you want to live in a sterile bubble you will at some point be required to live in a sterile bubble to survive. Our bodies are made to handle the "filtering" and countering of these "things" so keep that in mind. Take them away and you may actually be doing yourself more harm then good.



Removing lab coat, seminar over.

As always Neal C. makes a well thought out comment. As I started reading this thread the beauty and brains of this coach made the same point!

John (Not the aforementioned B&B)[emoji3][emoji3]

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by Sky_Boss

I'm certain some folks think my whole RV RO system is overkill.

How long does it take to fill your water tank?