Whole house filtration for well water question

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gvajcner

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Hi All - I've tried to find the answer to this question on this forum (or opinion, I guess), but haven't been able to. Any help is appreciated.

We live in a rural area fed by a private well. We had the water tested and everything is safe, but we were thinking of increasing the filtration of our water, both for taste and safety, in case there is a spike in bacteria/viruses etc.

Right now, we have a water softener (the water is quite hard - sorry, I don't have a report on the actual composition), and the toilets get a rim of grey around them when they haven't been used in a while.

Our kitchen has 1 sink that has a hard-water line, all other taps get softened water. The hard water will often get a real metallic taste (manganese?). There is no water treatment in the house other than a softener.

From what I've read, UV filtration would offer the best virus/bacteria treatment, but the water should be pre-treated with a sediment filter (which could take care of the metallic taste, no?), and the water should be softened before hitting the UV filter or there will be unacceptable scale build up.

So, I'm guessing that we will have to change the hard water line in the kitchen to go through the softener, assuming we want to use that line as filtered drinking water. I've read the papers on the "dangers" of drinking softened water - we are both in good health, but are thinking for the future in case someone were to need a salt-restricted diet. As well, the softened water doesn't quite taste as good.

Is there a way to get the hard water treated for bacteria/viruses and taste that doesn't involve sending it through the softener first?

We would like to avoid a system that is wasteful, like some RO systems (correct me if I'm wrong, but some of them can waste 3gal of water per 1gal of treated water, no?)

There are only 2 adults living in the home (+3 dogs +1 cat, and some chickens in the yard), which has 4 bathrooms.

Thanks i advance for any input. I will likely visit a local plumbing company for opinions, but I would like to be more educated going in.

take care

-glen
 

Reach4

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You want to get a water test that gives you numbers for hardness, iron, manganese, pH, and more. I suspect the test you got was for pathogenic bacteria and nitrates. Expect to pay over $100 or more and take a month for results from the time you order the test kit. That will be important to know how to deal with it. You might need a bigger water softener, or you might need a change in the settings for the water softener.
http://www.watercheck.com/ AKA http://www.ntllabs.com/index.html is often recommended. I don't know how they are to Canada.

How deep is your well? If it is deep enough, you can be confident that no pathogenic bacteria will come in unless there is a well seal failure. There will be bacteria that can live deep in the earth, but they are not built to survive in the human body. It think the UV would be unneeded, but if it makes you feel better, then go for it.

Regarding RO, the water that goes into your septic system is not lost to the earth. It all gets recycled-- just not as deep for quite a while. If you do get an RO system, you want it piped to filter softened water.

There are zero-waste RO systems which pump that 3 gallons into the hot water system. I think that process is still covered under patent. An RO system with a permeate pump will use less water because it puts a higher pressure across the RO membrane. So it will produce more filtered water for a given amount of exhaust water.

You may choose to keep a hard water line to the kitchen and a softened tap also.

For mechanical filtering, where a backwashing filter is not warranted, I suggest the Big Blue 20x4.5 inch housings. A lot of different non-propriatary cartridges are available at a reasonable price. On the other hand, if your water warrants it, the backwashing filters are great.


A pumice stone (Pumie is a popular brand) is good to take out deposits at the toilet waterline.

pumie-scouring-stick.jpg
 
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LLigetfa

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You may choose to keep a hard water line to the kitchen and a softened tap also.

I can't imagine why someone would want to pipe hard water to a kitchen sink. I can understand maybe to an outside hosebib so you don't waste soft water on the lawn.

As for the amount of waste an R/O makes, it is just a small percentage of the total use. I mean, for a POU R/O spigot, we use it mostly for drinking and cooking.
 

gvajcner

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Thanks for the reply Reach4. I don't think there are any big concerns about water quality, in terms of bacteria/viruses. We're pretty far away from any commercial agriculture too, so chemicals shouldn't be a problem. We were just looking into options - my sweetheart prefers to be on the offence rather than the defence. I don't know the well depth, but will check into it. True about the RO just dumping back to the earth through the septic field. I guess I didn't think about that.

All in all, I might just get an under-sink filter (carbon or similar, not UV or RO) for where we get our drinking water. That way we can filter out the metallic taste.

Thanks again

-glen
 

gvajcner

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Lligetfa - thanks for the input. We would still want a hard water line as it tastes better than the softened water, in our opinion, and some others have stated that people who *need* low sodium diets should not drink softened water. We're hoping to avoid a separate spigot for drinking water, so POU RO or POU UV isn't an option. It's an undermount granite sink and we're not interested in making new holes. Thanks for the help tho!
 

Reach4

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I have a Centaur Carbon based backwashing filter that takes out sulfur and iron, and probably manganese. That is first thing after the well pressure tank. I follow it with a couple Big Blue filters including a 1 micron filter. I drink the water out of the filters before the softener a lot of the time.

Regarding holes in the granite, if you ever wanted, there are kitchen faucets that use only one hole total. That would free up other holes for other purposes.
 
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