Local tap is dubious at best and leaded at worst so we fill 5gallon jugs at a filter station the next town over. I’m getting tired of transporting and paying for water, so I’d like to make a filter that won’t just clog up with hard water in a week. Anyone have recommendations on where to start?
If you go the RO option (not necessarily the best), be aware that if the tap water is chlorinated you need an active carbon filter before the RO membrane as the chlorine will otherwise damage it. And that active carbon filter will likely need replacement quite often.
Anecdotally, I put in a small under-sink carbon block filter for the kitchen which claimed it was good for 20,000 gallons. I thought that would be a really optimistic claim and I’d have to replace the filter every few months, but its been over a year and it still has the same amount of flow as it did when it was new, and seems to be removing the chlorine still (I can’t taste it, anyway).
Oh that’s definitely something to make note of, thank you!
Get your water tested. You can throw all sorts of filters and treatments at it, but unless you know what’s in your water, you won’t know what’s important.
Your local government might have people that can test your water. You really want someone who will actually come over and collect the water themselves, it’s really easy to do it wrong and end up contaminating the collected water.
There are companies that can design a good treatment setup for you. Or you can do some research and get your own.
You can also check your utility’s consumer confidence report (CCR). It will show the test results of water leaving the water plant. It won’t reflect lead levels at your home, which are impacted by your own piping. (It may include lead sampling at random locations around the distribution system.)
Collecting your own sample is perfectly fine. There are special instructions if you are specifically testing for lead that your utility should be able to provide to you. Contamination is really only a concern when testing for PFAS, but that test alone may cost more than your treatment system. Look at the PFAS data from your utility if you are concerned and realize you may be getting more exposure to PFAS from other sources than your water (Teflon cookware, food packaging, cosmetics, etc.).
In general, someone in the business of selling home treatment systems is has an incentive to tell you your water is poison and you absolutely need their system.
That’s a good place to start for getting the finer details mapped out. As for that last part, that’s why I’m here really. My household is very neurodivergent and even if the tap water was proven to be the actual fountain of youth we’d still avoid it because we can’t take the taste. Unfortunately, the only refill station that meets our preferences is in a Walmart the town over. Even shoplifting the water does cleanse the ick of setting foot in the store so I’m willing to do more if it means less of that.
If taste is your only concern a carbon filter like a Britta can do a lot. If hard water buildup clogs up the filters very quickly maybe consider a water softener (ion exchange or RO). With an RO softener you probably wouldn’t need the Britta filter.
I bought RO water filter service kits, pump, valve, power supply, and cutoff valve for about $40. It contains the following filters in order: Spun polyproplyene pre filter, sediment filter, pre-carbon filter, ro membrane, post-carbon filter, uf filter, mineral filter. Feed water is brackish groundwater, 2000 TDS. Output is pure water at 100 TDS. Pre filter replaced every three-four months, rest once a year. RO membrane once every two years. Pump and parts as needed. Makes 30-40 liters of water a day. I always keep spare filters and parts on hand.
Any chance you could point me to where you got it? I can’t seem to find just the filters for less than $50
Well, I did convert the local prices to USD. Maybe try alibaba?
We have a softener and a “commercial” reverse osmosis unit with a built-in diaphragm pump and a 14 gallon pressure tank. We have been doing yearly changes on the filters. Household of 3 though.
The softener is a puronics brand, the RO unit is Ecosoft RObust 1500.
Not needing to tackle hard water stains and build up every 2 weeks made it worth it, but it was a significant investment (plus we ran RO lines from the garage/tank to the kitchen).
And with the pump set to 60psi, I can have infinite carbonated water without another expensive setup.
@Postmortal_Pop https://www.aqsolutions.org/charcoal-biochar-water-treatment/
Scroll down for the 300L treatment. This can be modified to be smaller in diameter, not depth (sand should be about 400mm deep). Pre-filter, slow sand filter, biochar filter, drinking water in that order.
If I was getting a setup with that many barrels I would think of looking at rainwater harvest/storage and treating that instead of making a massive treatment setup. Sediment filter and if you are not going to boil it a UV filter too.
I’ll likely scale it down and use it to refill our 5 gallons, we go through about 3 a week, that’s about 69L (nice) where the 4 barrel setup is is 300L a day. That’s about 233 times the amount needed.
Though if I had the ability to install a well on my property, I’d probably build the whole thing and put a drinking fountain on my fence for the local homeless. Be cheaper than handing out bottles.
I take it this is just water that is consumed either for drinking or in cooking? That isn’t very much water otherwise. Of course water used for cleaning doesn’t need to be quite so clean as any soaps used should do the job there.
Strictly drinking and cooking. The utilities say it’s safe stuff but honestly it’s nasty if it isn’t boiled first. That said, I don’t often get bathwater in my mouth so it’s not really a problem there.
Now I am thinking of more aesthetically pleasing options. A pond? Stores vast amounts of water and some plants can also help remove contaminants as well. Then a small filter to pass water through before consumption
Now that, that’s something I can do. That’s something I can do really quickly.
