What H20 purification system do you use?

[hguru]

Originally Posted by dreamofmonterey

I have read that if you are in an inc. city they still allow lead levels: what is the best water purification system everyone uses? And what health dangers are there in not using one?

For drinking water, I just use a basic KDF/Charcoil filter system. It cost less than $100 from a number of online venders. It will remove about 99% of the bad stuff from the water.

[dreamofmonterey]

Originally Posted by Art123

Here in Greenville, I found out that 22% of the tap water tested FAILED to meet EPA standards for LEAD! Yikes. The EPA standard isn't all that stringent either. Because we are currently renting, I am trying to find a good quality filter system that isn't a permanent installation on our sink. I put one of those little filters on their for now, that says it takes out 99% of the lead. We have installed some pretty inexpensive filters on the showers as well - mainly to cut down the chlorine. It's tested to get rid of 75% of the chlorine. Our skin is clearing up after just a few days of use. My girlfriend is elated at this, and her hair is doing better too. I can actually see a difference in her hair-and that's saying something!

Have you tasted copper/ or maybe other metallic taste in tap water? we noticed it when first moved here.

Whats the best system for kitchen tap water purification?

[jaijai]

Originally Posted by dreamofmonterey

Have you tasted copper/ or maybe other metallic taste in tap water? we noticed it when first moved here.

Whats the best system for kitchen tap water purification?

My goodness ... talk about a delayed response.

I'm house sitting for a bit and their tap water is horrible.
Obviously i'm not going to get a filtration system and i don't want to buy water so i was just going to get one of those Britta pitchers.
I assume they're o.k. for short term?

[lucknow]

I have had watertreatment in my houses now for almost 25 years. For the whole house I have a watersoftener with an added carbon bed. That way I get perfectly soft water with all of the chlorine and most of the organic compounds removed. Now, for drinking water you just can't beat a good reverse osmosis system. A 5 stage system will remove over 99% of everything from the water. I have a generic brand but I also used to sell water systems so I know enough about them to know it's a good system. For the layman I don't think you can go wrong with a Culligan system. My experience with RO systems is that they require very little maintence. I check the 5 micron prefilter every couple of years and it's usually still clean but remember I have a mixed bed softener ahead of it removing most things before they even get to the RO. I would never be without one. There is just too much contam in our water these days. Heavy metals are always a concern and a 5 stage RO takes good care of them. Pesticides and herbicides are also in most drinking water supplies and the solid block carbon filter in the 5 stage takes care of them. most people don't realize but all the chlorine in our water is killing for sure. There have been many studies done that prove that without a doubt. Chlorine is probably the biggest risk to our health in most municipal water supplies. It's absolutely necessary though, to chlorinate the water in a system because without the chlorine the water would be full of pathogens. So let them bring the bug free water to your house and then YOU take the Cl. out. The inital cost of good systems can be a little painful BUT if you are one of those people who buy drinking water it will cost you a small fraction of what you spend buying water. Not only is there poor quality control in the bottled water industry there is also the hassle of getting the water and even using it I find a chore. A good RO will give you about 5 gallons a day depending on your feed water and that is enough for all your cooking and drinking. I also use it for my plants and aquariums.

Don't even get me started on why people should SOFTEN their water. The advantages are just so great that once I got into a persons house and gave them a demonstration my closing rate was over 90%. They save every single thing in your house that water touches. They reduce your soap and cleaning supplies by at least 80%. They reduce the ichyness in your skin because our clothing is full of soap that hard water can not rinse out. Opps, I said I wouldn't get started and here I am selling water softeners. LOL

[dreamofmonterey]

Originally Posted by lucknow

I have had watertreatment in my houses now for almost 25 years. For the whole house I have a watersoftener with an added carbon bed. That way I get perfectly soft water with all of the chlorine and most of the organic compounds removed. Now, for drinking water you just can't beat a good reverse osmosis system. A 5 stage system will remove over 99% of everything from the water. I have a generic brand but I also used to sell water systems so I know enough about them to know it's a good system. For the layman I don't think you can go wrong with a Culligan system. My experience with RO systems is that they require very little maintence. I check the 5 micron prefilter every couple of years and it's usually still clean but remember I have a mixed bed softener ahead of it removing most things before they even get to the RO. I would never be without one. There is just too much contam in our water these days. Heavy metals are always a concern and a 5 stage RO takes good care of them. Pesticides and herbicides are also in most drinking water supplies and the solid block carbon filter in the 5 stage takes care of them. most people don't realize but all the chlorine in our water is killing for sure. There have been many studies done that prove that without a doubt. Chlorine is probably the biggest risk to our health in most municipal water supplies. It's absolutely necessary though, to chlorinate the water in a system because without the chlorine the water would be full of pathogens. So let them bring the bug free water to your house and then YOU take the Cl. out. The inital cost of good systems can be a little painful BUT if you are one of those people who buy drinking water it will cost you a small fraction of what you spend buying water. Not only is there poor quality control in the bottled water industry there is also the hassle of getting the water and even using it I find a chore. A good RO will give you about 5 gallons a day depending on your feed water and that is enough for all your cooking and drinking. I also use it for my plants and aquariums.

Don't even get me started on why people should SOFTEN their water. The advantages are just so great that once I got into a persons house and gave them a demonstration my closing rate was over 90%. They save every single thing in your house that water touches. They reduce your soap and cleaning supplies by at least 80%. They reduce the ichyness in your skin because our clothing is full of soap that hard water can not rinse out. Opps, I said I wouldn't get started and here I am selling water softeners. LOL

What do you recommend for drinking water? Thanks you are way ahead of the curve here....Im concerened bcs alot of heavy metals seem to be in the water in my region. The copper taste is terrible.

[lucknow]

Originally Posted by dreamofmonterey

What do you recommend for drinking water? Thanks you are way ahead of the curve here....Im concerened bcs alot of heavy metals seem to be in the water in my region. The copper taste is terrible.

A RO system is usually very effective at removing 90% or more heavy metals from the water. Because good systems also have block carbon filters built into the system, the water produced tastes great also. The bad taste in waster is usually caused by organic coumpounds that are not removed by a membrane so the carbon is a must in good systems.The carbon also removes pesticides, herbicides and other organic POISONS. When I aws selling water systems years ago I would sometimes run into a customer who was not happy with even a 90% removal rate of contam from the water. For them I had an awesome distillation system that removed 99.999%. It was a distillation system for residential use made by westbend. Fot most people this was an overkill and they really didn't require such a system. They cost more to begin with and they require ongoing work to use them. You have to clean them often and they use energy of course. They also have a carbon element as many contaminants that have a boiling tempreature less than water will distill right along with the water into your drinking water.

I was a salesman for most of my life and I find that when I want almost anything my best source of everythinng I want to know is from a salesman. In the case of water treatment I would call 4 different companies, that I had checked out as being good ones. I would call each of them in and listen to their schpiel. Because I would already have done some research on the topic I would question them and their product without mercy. All of the facts and figures regarding the product, IN WRITING showing removal rates, warranties, costs, service plans.

You know, a good salesman will have no problem at all with any of your questions. If you are on a municipal system the salesman should KNOW what contaminants are in that water. In Canada where I live municipal systems are required to have an independent lab check the levels of just about everything you can imagine regularly. These results are public and I always carried a copy of the latest tests around with me.

If you are on a well, that is a different ball of wax all together. WE even had specialists for "Country water" that only dealt with well water and it's particular problems. Many times I have had to tell a customer, "put in a cistern and buy city water because it will be an expensive nightmare to try to fix this horrible water. In most cases though we could come up with a reasonable system that would give acceptable water.

You really have to think of water in two different ways. WE have utility water and we have drinking water and the requirements are vastly different for these two different types. You can flush a toilet with water that you really would not want to drink, LOL. The biggest problem in country water is usually iron and sulphur. These can be sucessfully dealt with but only up to a certian level in PPM. Above these levels it becomes cheaper and easier to put in a cistern. I have seen many misapplications of equipment to fix bad water and the poor customer ends up with $10,000 worth of fouled up useless junk. The thing to do when you are considering fixing your bad country water you need an EXPERT. Get references and it really helps if he has satisfied customers that live CLOSE to where you do. The BAD WATER is usually fairly similar in small geographic areas though not always. I once sold a customer an iron and sulphur removal system that was around $7000. It was a great system for the levels I had tested. He called up a few months later and complained the system was not working. When I went out the levels were 10 times higher than I had tested originally. The company took the equipment back and my boss at the time checked out the fact that on the day of my original sales call we were in the middle of a high pressure weather system. That barometric pressure is enough to hold the levels way down in well water and in future I would be advised to go and take my samples while it was raining. My boss was very successful and well regarded in the water industry. Getting it right is way more important than making a sale.