Pentek FreshPoint U440

[cwall21]

Does anybody have any experience with or opinions on this unit?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Jimbo]

Not familiar with that, or with water supplies which might need that. But for $2500, it doesn't look like it does much !

 

[Sponsor]

 

[NHmaster]

Looks like a RO filter to me. I'm suspicious of products that don't get too detailed as to what and how they do what they are supposed to do.

 

[cwall21]

I don't think there's anything to be suspicious about, the documentation I found shows it's an ultrafiltration process vs. RO. From Wikipedia:

"Reverse osmosis is similar to the membrane filtration treatment process. However there are key differences between reverse osmosis and filtration. The predominant removal mechanism in membrane filtration is straining, or size exclusion, so the process can theoretically achieve perfect exclusion of particles regardless of operational parameters such as influent pressure and concentration".

I'm interested in whole-house filtration under 1 micron, mostly due to my own suspicions about pharmaceuticals and everything else in the water that municipalities don't tell you about. Also I work in wholesale distribution so I pay a lot less than street prices.

I am open to alternative suggestions as well, feel free to give me some ideas! This is low-quality Florida water, so far I've designed a sediment filter, softener, charcoal filter and need something else to take out the rest of the junk.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Jimbo]

The specs on that unit mention it does not filter ionic compounds, metals, and pesticides. I wonder if that includes pharmaceuticals.

 

[cwall21]

A great question, I really need to find an expert/chemist who can tell me "xx% of pharms dissolved in water are above n microns" or pesticides, etc. For now I'm stuck looking up info one at a time for naproxen, ibuprofen, etc!! There's got to be a better way than this.

I'd appreciate anybody else's insights who might have the same concerns or knowledge.

Chris

 

[Jimbo]

I would start with your local water authority. Most likely they publish an annual report on water quality. I just don't remember on the last one we got here what specific chemicals it mentioned that they test for/ Here is the 2008 report for the City of San Diego. No mention of pesticides or pharmaceuticals.>>http://www.sandiego.gov/water/quality/pdf/waterqual08.pdf