I am considering adding a whole house carbon filter (back-wash type) and have a few questions and concerns.
First, my biggest concern is that removing the free chlorine from my water lines will make them susceptible to bacteria growth. However I have an interesting idea and wanted to see what you guys thought of it. What if I put the whole house carbon filter right before the water softener? Then it would only be used for the softened lines (excludes outside spigots and kitchen cold lines). I already have an under counter type filter in the kitchen for consumption. The idea being that the water used for consumption will remain chlorinated all the way up to the point of use, thus reducing the risk of bacteria in the drinking water. It also means that everything after the carbon filter can be easily disinfected routinely. Obviously I should still strive to keep the softened lines free of bacteria, but it would make any increase in bacteria less of a health threat.
What do you think? Is it even worth having the whole house filter on the soft water line? Should I just not mess with it and just use an under counter filter in the kitchen? The chloramines are not good for the softener, and some say it is not healthy for showering, but I'm not sure whether it is worth adding a whole house filter.
Next, here is the FUN question. What got me thinking about adding the whole house filter is that I just replaced my water softener. The old one needed the resin replaced and it was a little under sized. It was also one where everything is shoved inside the brine tank and encapsulated with plastic that makes any kind of service a PITA. Since the control valve was still good, I kept the control valve and resin tank and threw out the rest. I am considering converting it to a whole house back-washing carbon filter. Obviously the regular softener recharge cycle is not ideal for back washing carbon, but I am a software engineer, so it wouldn't take much to throw out the existing control board and replace it with a $10 micro-controller that has been programmed to skip all the unnecessary stages and only perform the backwash and flush stages. So in theory, I could throw together a whole house back-washing filter for $10, a couple hours of programming, and the cost of a cubic foot of catalytic carbon.
Anything I am overlooking with that idea? If I decide to do it, I will need to research the ideal back-wash/flush timing and intervals, but I see no reason the softener control valve wouldn't work other than dumping a little extra water down the drain while it turns past the unnecessary stages.
Thanks for any input!
First, my biggest concern is that removing the free chlorine from my water lines will make them susceptible to bacteria growth. However I have an interesting idea and wanted to see what you guys thought of it. What if I put the whole house carbon filter right before the water softener? Then it would only be used for the softened lines (excludes outside spigots and kitchen cold lines). I already have an under counter type filter in the kitchen for consumption. The idea being that the water used for consumption will remain chlorinated all the way up to the point of use, thus reducing the risk of bacteria in the drinking water. It also means that everything after the carbon filter can be easily disinfected routinely. Obviously I should still strive to keep the softened lines free of bacteria, but it would make any increase in bacteria less of a health threat.
What do you think? Is it even worth having the whole house filter on the soft water line? Should I just not mess with it and just use an under counter filter in the kitchen? The chloramines are not good for the softener, and some say it is not healthy for showering, but I'm not sure whether it is worth adding a whole house filter.
Next, here is the FUN question. What got me thinking about adding the whole house filter is that I just replaced my water softener. The old one needed the resin replaced and it was a little under sized. It was also one where everything is shoved inside the brine tank and encapsulated with plastic that makes any kind of service a PITA. Since the control valve was still good, I kept the control valve and resin tank and threw out the rest. I am considering converting it to a whole house back-washing carbon filter. Obviously the regular softener recharge cycle is not ideal for back washing carbon, but I am a software engineer, so it wouldn't take much to throw out the existing control board and replace it with a $10 micro-controller that has been programmed to skip all the unnecessary stages and only perform the backwash and flush stages. So in theory, I could throw together a whole house back-washing filter for $10, a couple hours of programming, and the cost of a cubic foot of catalytic carbon.
Anything I am overlooking with that idea? If I decide to do it, I will need to research the ideal back-wash/flush timing and intervals, but I see no reason the softener control valve wouldn't work other than dumping a little extra water down the drain while it turns past the unnecessary stages.
Thanks for any input!