Whole House Water Filtration Systems

[BrettGC]

28 minutes ago, JJReyes said:

Australia had developed a purification system for swimming pools that was very popular in Hawaii.  A small amount of salt was added and the water passed through an ultraviolet device.  No chlorine added, so eye irritation was less, and it did not bleach your hair.  The skin on your hands did not wrinkle.  The original use was for military water supply.  

Yes, it's been widely available in Australia since the 80's.  That's when my parents switched their pool over.  Public and lager scale fitness centre pools still use chlorine though due to turnover of use.  Smaller gyms etc are on salt. It's a little brackish for drinking but I'm sure it can and has been modified.  Naval ships exclusively use reverse osmosis for potable water production.  Army has water purification tablets for when they're in the field.

Edited April 30, 2023 by BrettGC

[Possum]

Commercial ships use evaporators and UV sterilization along with re-hardners as the distilled water is too pure. Some use RO units, it depends on the design.

Due to the lousy quality of the water supplied where we live we went with softener [hard water is tough on stainless, copper and bubble baths] and filters due to to the solids in the water. We finally treat with a UV sterilizer. The city water in other places I lived here was always suspect due to frequent outages. In many countries after an outage they advise the public to boil consumable water for a day after the outage. The reason is when there is no pressure on the water line the buried pipes may allow contaminants from the soil to enter. In the Philippines I'd say that's a good guess but it happens so often people would go broke boiling. I have never tasted chlorine in the water here.

[Lee]

We have city water that fills a cistern. A 20" 5 micron filter catches the water before it hits the pump. In the kitchen (under the sink) a 10" 5 micron filter catches  the water before the faucet. We have never had to buy bottled water for drinking .Every 3 months we purge the water in the cistern and the house and change the filters as required. 

Couple of drawbacks. The 20 inch filter costs 1600 Php to replace; the smaller filter costs about 300 Php. The thin metal bracket that mounts the large housing to the wall is undersized as it flexes when the pump comes on. Might consider having a stronger one made or brace the filter from the floor. When buying the large filter assy look for one that has a brass/bronze fitting for attaching the water lines. The cheaper filter assy simply attach the water line to a plastic fitting and can cause trouble over time. See the attached pic.

[Tommy T.]

6 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Reverse osmosis, ultraviolet and chlorination are the only effective ways to remove bacterial pathogens.  All other filtration methods only remove impurities/dirt, chorine etc.   

 

3 hours ago, Lee said:

We have city water that fills a cistern. A 20" 5 micron filter catches the water before it hits the pump. In the kitchen (under the sink) a 10" 5 micron filter catches  the water before the faucet. We have never had to buy bottled water for drinking .Every 3 months we purge the water in the cistern and the house and change the filters as required. 

Couple of drawbacks. The 20 inch filter costs 1600 Php to replace; the smaller filter costs about 300 Php. The thin metal bracket that mounts the large housing to the wall is undersized as it flexes when the pump comes on. Might consider having a stronger one made or brace the filter from the floor. When buying the large filter assy look for one that has a brass/bronze fitting for attaching the water lines. The cheaper filter assy simply attach the water line to a plastic fitting and can cause trouble over time. See the attached pic.

I lived aboard a yacht for well over 20 years. In that time I only tanked up with city water a handful of times. I did not filter the main "house" system, but did filter the drinking water side. From experience of other "yachties" and some shore installations, it appears to me that a combination of the two above described systems seems to be the most economical and safest.
I filtered the drinking water first through a coarse filter - I think 20- micron(?) to take out sediments, bug shit and any other coarse contaminants. Then It went through a fine, carbon element filter that was maybe 5 microns (so long ago, I don't remember....sorry). The fine nature of the filter took out all but the smallest contaminants. The carbon removed the chlorine taste. There was chlorine taste since I periodically added precise measures of chlorine bleach, tailored to the size of the tanks. Additionally, there were the few times where I took on water from shore sources there the chlorine smell was noticeable. Were I to sail again today, I would add a UV sterilizer to handle any viruses or other impurities coming from bird poo or other airborne  items. I would still add chlorine to my tank water if catching it as I did with a big awning or if in doubt about the quality of the shore water.
For home, I would do exactly the same thing - coarse filter for the chunky bits, fine, carbon filter for the tiny bits and chlorine and, finally the UV irradiator to kill anything leftover. Reverse osmosis is, of course, the best, in my opinion, but is trickier to handle, requires careful maintenance, is power hungry (that may have changed in recent years?) and is expensive (that may have also changed?).

Meanwhile, here we drink bottled water. The tap water seems safe, but definitely gives off chlorine odour, especially when heated in a zip-pot. 

[JohnGalt84]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:38 PM, Joey G said:

I think you mean... chlorine is not added...  The majority of bottled water I see in the store doesn't originate from chlorinated municipal tap water.  

Side note... Many USA municipalities also started adding fluoride to the drinking water.... and my dentist says thats likely why I have so few cavities :)

 

No chlorine there- snap! Haha