Best water and water filter to get?

[blackjack]

What kind of water and filter do you recommend for the house?
Im considering a whole house filter or maybe getting the delivery drinking water (cystal springs)
My water has lots of junk lots of chlorine, fluoride, etc.

[matchewed]

Does it contain unsafe levels of chlorine and fluoride? If not then I wouldn't spend money on fixing not a problem.

[zataks]

What are you primary goals and concerns regarding the tap water?  Is chemical removal your only goal?  Or is the problem, as with most people, the aesthetic (taste and odor) issues that go along with chemicals? 
What is your price range?
What is your skill level?  Are you willing to perform routine maintenance on a water filtration system or would you rather use disposables?

[blackjack]

I want pure drinking water.. I dont want to consume tap water with fluoride and of course taste good.. I did sometimes fill up jugs at local springs (findapspring.com) but its not really convienent.... I do currently use berkey water filter but want something such as RO or having it delivered.
money is not really an issue..
"Are you willing to perform routine maintenance on a water filtration system" yes

[surfhb]

A water dispenser and a couple 5 gallons containers last me a good 2 weeks before I need to go back to the purified water store.  Use this for cooking and drinking.   What comes out of the faucet should be used for bathing only

[zataks]

What is the source of your water?  Is your tap water from a municipality?  If you're willing to share, I can look at their info and to better analyze the drinking water constituents.

So many (too many!) people say they want RO.  Permeated water is not ideal for drinking; you might as well drink distilled water.  You want water with natural minerals in it. 

Make sure that your water system is actually flouridating and is using chloramination as a means of chlorinating.  If they are using a free chlorine residual as a disinfectant, you'll likely be wasting money on RO as the free chlorine can destroy the membranes.


Also, use the search function on this forum, there are a couple of other threads going over this.

[LouisPritchard]

If you just want to filter and remove fluoride and chlorine and the like I'd look at the Berkey filters. I have one and we really like it. It's pricey for a filter but they last forever. Beats replacing the brita types all the time. Also if worried about fluoride check and make sure they even add fluoride to the water in your area before you add on those filters.

[dragoncar]

I highly recommend liquid water.  It goes down much smoother and works with any filter.

[Annf]

We have a culligan filter. It's a separate faucet and works great. We drink a lot of water so the bottles ended up costing more. If you drink more than 30 gallons a month, it's better to do the house filter.

[greaper007]

From what I understand, fluoride is difficult to get rid of with cheap filters.    I think you need something like the Berkley filters to really get rid of it.


What's your major concern with fluoride?     Are you just a big Dr. Strangelove fan?

[blackjack]

What's your major concern with fluoride?     Are you just a big Dr. Strangelove fan?

NO reason to debate the pros and cons of fluoride, i dont want that in my water.. just want it out..

[Tieke]

What kind of water and filter do you recommend for the house?
Im considering a whole house filter or maybe getting the delivery drinking water (cystal springs)
My water has lots of junk lots of chlorine, fluoride, etc.

My understanding is that if you want to get rid of fluoride, you need a reverse osmosis filter.  The downside of these is that they remove almost all of the minerals from your water that you need, as well as the contaminants that you don't.  They also waste a huge amount of water in the process of filtering.  If you were going to get a filter of this type, I think it would be smart to look for one that ran the water through a re-mineralisation layer after filtering, so that you're not missing out on essential minerals.

I was looking into filters a little while ago for myself, and it seems to be a real minefield - there are a huge number of filter companies making claims that they can't back up with any actual evidence.  They're happy to claim that it's all been tested - but they hardly ever seem to provide any proof of this, or of what the RESULTS were.  The conclusion I came to was that I wouldn't buy any new filtering system unless the company could provide certification of its claims from an independent laboratory (not just vaguely claiming it meets standards).

As a side point, I'm not that convinced about Berkey water filters for this reason - their website seems to have a lot of OTT claims with no actual evidence and they're now promoting their filters as a means to prepare for the supposed ebola outbreak.  wtf??

[blackjack]

I guess theres some debate over the berkey..

Might be best just to get it delivered which will solve alot of headache over filtering it out

[okashira]

I guess theres some debate over the berkey..

Might be best just to get it delivered which will solve alot of headache over filtering it out

Def stay away from those overpriced filters

http://123filter.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=70_1_65

That's what I run.
Filters are good for a year. The RO membrane for 2-5 years.
Water tastes great , just like bottled.
Used very heavily and the water is still registering TDS it was 8 months ago.

Note this is a RO system, so it "wastes" 2 gal for every 1 gal of filtered water. Great for those of us with cheap water (~~$0.003/gal here)
You can recover the wasted water to water garden, wash clothes, dishes, etc.

[mariejm]

Promo life filters remove fluoride and can be under sink or attached to sink

Watershed.net refurbished ionizers remove all pharmaceuticals and 50% fluoride, you can buy a fluoride prefilter to remove 100% of fluoride. This is what I do, and what I prefer for my brother. This investment is only $100 more if you find the cheaper refurbished unit. Amazing water from this machine.

Reverse osmosis is dehydrating, the water clusters are too big. Firsthand experiences. City tap water is gross!

[Joggernot]

I highly recommend liquid water.  It goes down much smoother and works with any filter.

I use dehydrated H₂O.  It is much more convenient, easy to pack, easy to carry, and can be reconstituted at your final destination just by adding water.

On another note, we used an RO for several years at our previous house, because of the taste.  The locals said, "makes strong bones and teeth, but tastes like s**t."  They were right about the taste.  We thoroughly enjoyed the RO, which was located under the kitchen sink, for drinking and cooking.  It really does waste water, so be ready for an increase in usage.

[Dee18]

I complained so much about the strong chlorine taste in the tap water that my SO gave me a water filter from New Wave Enviro.  It is great!  It hooks up to the faucet and sits on the counter ( which I realize some may not like).  It has a little metal tab you pull when you want the water to go through the filter, but if you are using water to wash dishes, etc, it doesn't have to go through the filter.  It cost about $80 and the inside filter needs replacing every two years at the rate I use water. 

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

We also had a countertop filter. The TapMaster Jr. F2 removes fluoride.

[GuitarStv]

What's your major concern with fluoride?     Are you just a big Dr. Strangelove fan?

NO reason to debate the pros and cons of fluoride, i dont want that in my water.. just want it out..

Actually, there is good reason to debate it.  You're spending a lot of money to fix something that's not a problem.  Similar to digging a pit, adding some money each day, and then burning it every month . . . I would expect some debate on the issue on this forum.

[RetiredAt63]

I get to quote Paracelcus!  The dose is the poison.

Small amounts of minerals are actually "good for you", moderate quantities are neutral, large are bad.  The question is, where are your values relative to recommended guidelines. 

If your values are within recommended norms, the discussion is ONLY about aesthetics.  And for chlorine, it will outgass, so you can just put tap water in a jug, put it on the counter or in the fridge, and after a while it will be fine.

[merrell33]

I'm on well water and I'm currently eyeballing US Water Systems stuff.  They have a nearly overwhelming selection of choices for filtration.  I would call a representative and tell them all the details of your situation to simplify the selection.  I'm going to probably get a system with a UV setup to make certain that bacteria is destroyed.  One thing that I would definitely think about is the outside temperature during the winter.  If you get a whole house setup, you need to make sure that you are not going to have to worry much about a filtration system cracking and bursting if it gets frozen.  You'll probably need to get a little pipe heater to keep it from happening if you live far up north.

I'm thinking about a triple housing setup with charcoal and sediment filters with a UV lamp setup.  That, however, isn't really a mustachian move.  I think I tallied up the price to be around $700.

[zataks]

I'm on well water and I'm currently eyeballing US Water Systems stuff.  They have a nearly overwhelming selection of choices for filtration.  I would call a representative and tell them all the details of your situation to simplify the selection.  I'm going to probably get a system with a UV setup to make certain that bacteria is destroyed.  One thing that I would definitely think about is the outside temperature during the winter.  If you get a whole house setup, you need to make sure that you are not going to have to worry much about a filtration system cracking and bursting if it gets frozen.  You'll probably need to get a little pipe heater to keep it from happening if you live far up north.

I'm thinking about a triple housing setup with charcoal and sediment filters with a UV lamp setup.  That, however, isn't really a mustachian move.  I think I tallied up the price to be around $700.

If you need filtration and disinfection on a well, especially of that magnitude, it's time to change sources.

[Nords]

What kind of water and filter do you recommend for the house?
Im considering a whole house filter or maybe getting the delivery drinking water (cystal springs)
My water has lots of junk lots of chlorine, fluoride, etc.

As other posters have asked, you should either post your water quality report or a link to it.  If you're concerned whether the report matches what's coming out of your tap then you should have your water tested for fluoride & chlorine content.

Otherwise I'm not sure how you know that your water has the chlorine & fluoride in it, and different water filters handle different types of issues.

[Dicey]

I'm thinking about a triple housing setup with charcoal and sediment filters with a UV lamp setup.  That, however, isn't really a mustachian move.  I think I tallied up the price to be around $700.

My BIL has had a kidney transplant and they're on well water. This is the system that the transplant board insisted on prior to transplant. So, perhaps not all that un-mustachian, under the right circumstances.

[Annette]

I have a Strauss T6 WaterBar that I bought from best Brands http://www.bestbrandappliance.ca/. It has a jug fill function and a hot water child protection lock with energy saving modes for automatic wake-ups.It’s about 12.2” in width, 13.78” in height and 12.6” in depth. The hot water flows at 1.3 litres per minute.

[Dicey]

Funny that this thread has been revived. I'd forgotten I'd even commented on it.

We just bought a house with a RO system that we suspect is at least ten years old. The original owner was a retired dentist, so maybe he wanted the flouride gone as well.

It's going to be a rental property, and it's in the desert, so we can't stand the idea of wasting that much h2o. Based on re-reading this thread, I think we're just going to remove it. Thanks for the bounce, Annette!

[dragoncar]

It was eevived by a spambot