We are building a house with an existing well on site.
My wife is one of those water snobs.
I am looking to filter the water at the ingress so all water is clean.
Looking to go under $500, not sure which way to go.

Here are three options I see
http://www.abundantflowwater.com/html/merlin700.html
http://www.abundantflowwater.com/htm...e_osmosis.html
http://www.abundantflowwater.com/html/whol...ilter.html#BB20

I like the idea of reverse osmosis, will i be ok with the merlin at .5 gpm, will i be ok with a regular RO system and a 14 gallon reserve? will the big blue 20 be ok?
i dont want to buy the big blue and then upgrade to a RO system.

i assume that our 50 gal water heater will continue to fill and be ready for hot water needs, maybe i can bypass the filter for all exterior water faucets to reduce prolonged loads?

By the time the house is built, we will have a newborn, so assume a family of 4, 3.5 baths.

thanks for your help.

Dave

 

First I need an analysis of what you have in your water...

How close is your well to surface water, stock/barns/septic? How deep is your well? (Do you have well installation paperwork?) Have you run a micro test? What is the local geology (any radon in the area)?

But basically, RO is the only way to go.

Those systems are super expensive for what you are getting.

There are several good manufacturers and you can do the small scale installs yourself. Do you want this water just for drinking and car washing? Or showers?

 

depending on the part of the country you are in, your well water may be very hard or have high iron concentration. I say install a good water softener for the main, and then install drinking water filters at the taps. this place is one of the best I have found for that type of equipment: http://www.discountwatersofteners.com/

edit: I don't believe the sub-$500 RO systems are meant to be whole house systems. that site's whole-house filters start at $695 (free shipping) without water softening, and $1945 with water softening included.

 

Dave,
I own a water filtration business (not retail).

The RO systems you've posted won't do anything for bacteria, being on a well I would suggest other means. They are also only designed to be used at a sink, not whole house. Whole house reverse osmosis typically runs around $4k & up. The BB 20" filters are whole house filtration, but depending on the size of the house, you could end up replacing them monthly without adequate pre-filtration, the filters also add up over time, there are more cost effective alternatives out there.

I've sent you a PM, let me know if I can be of any help.

Sam

 

Will,
Very true, I would agree with you, pending a water test.

For the record, I also sell the salt free conditioners, I could certainly help out fellow S2Ki members.

 

I have a well and use a 2 filter set up, then an adjustable water softener and then RO for the kitchen.

I had my water tested to see what was needed and that was all that was needed. The water is GREAT!

I spent around $1,000 for all.

Just so you know, basically RO is bottled water.

 

have your water tested, your county will only test for a few bacteria situations, get a full test. use care to obtain the sample.

the well we have is quite deep and very pure. the plumbing fixtures about the house are 10years old and show little wear. there is one bad, the well water has lots of salt contamination to the point you cant water the lawn with it. we drilled a second well, only 40' deep to handle the irrigation needs.

we have a small reverse osmosis for the kitchen. bought it at home depot no big, not expensive. you could really see the difference it made in the water tho.

if you have a bacteria issue consider a clorniator. this is an area you might not want to go high tec.

consider a whole house filter to catch sand and whatever. see if you can plumb in a easy way to wash out the filter.

a reverse osmosis system generates considerable wast water maybe up to 2/3 of total usage. for a whole house system i could not justify this level of wast.

go for simple low maintenance .

 

I'm looking for a RO system for the home. Drinking water only.

I've read about how RO can make the water acidic and essentially would need re-mineralization.

Is this true of the home systems such as the popular 'Merlin' unit I see everyone pushing? If so what do i do? I can find the RO home systems but nothing about re-mineralization.

I just want clean healthy drinking water :-)

 

I don't know why you'd want to remineralize as the water softener has turned out to the best part of our home water treatment center. If you are concerned about not getting enough minerals in your diet, water is not the major contributor and you will drink water from places other than your home such as in your coffee, tea, soft drinks, etc.

First let me say that NO it is not hard to get all the soap off!! The new units are adjustable and you set them for how hard your water is. You use less soap in everything you do so there is a minimal savings there.

But even if it were hard to remove the soap, the benefits FAR outweigh the minor annoyance of taking longer to get soap off your body. The only soap I find any more difficult to remove is shaving gel, so I don't use any. I've learned to shave in the shower with plain soap which does lather better in soft water and does the job just as well.

[b]It is worth getting a water softener for the dishes alone![\b] Your glasses and dishes will sparkle! All our old dishes had their mineral film (which we didn't know we had) removed and they sparkle. The glasses were remarkable. Old cloudy glasses looked new again after one washing.

Your appliances and Hot Water Heater will last longer. There won't be a scale build up on the heating elements nor will there be that unsightly white chalky water spotting. The water dispenser on your refrigerator won't leave a chalky line down the front or in the water catch basin where the water has dried and left the minerals.

BUT the best part of all is your car! It will dry spot and mineral free! You can wash it in the sun with no ill effects. This means much less waxing and clay bar-ing.

It isn't costly to operate. I use a lot of water and I only go thru about 2 bags of Potassium Chloride every 3 months. That's less than $20.

I use Potassium Chloride rather than Sodium Chloride (salt) because even tho I know the science of the softening doesn't add sodium to the water I wanted to be doubly sure. Salt is less than $4 a bag whereas Potassium Chloride is close to $10. In other words, CHEAP.

I hadn't used a water softener since I was a kid so I was unsure about getting one but even tho my well is only mildly hard if I have to hook up to the community water it is extremely hard and since everyone else had to add a softener to the system I just designed mine to have one in the first place. I am sooo glad I did!

EDIT: I forgot my wife's hair, it's so much prettier! She colors her hair and it gets a little frizzy, not anymore! Her hair behaves and it's gotten a shine back. It is amazing how much of a film of minerals hard water leaves on you. That white chalky water spot you see on your car is all over your body. Your skin will be softer and smoother too.

I never expected any results out of the water softener other than using less soap so I have been amazed at where we've seen a difference.

And I love my RO. It's what the water bottler use.

 

^^ RO is the "mainstream" product that everyone recognizes, the only thing RO is really good for is TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) - they take out everything that is dissolved, minerals and chemicals, etc. Most people take vitamins and minerals for better health and most use RO water which is taking out the same minerals from the water.
RO wastes water, for every 1 gallon produced, 3-4 gallons go down the drain.

The are better alternatives out there, I can put up some info, but I don't want to get in trouble with the mods, since it would be my companies products! If you can't tell, I'm not a fan of RO, but I do sell them because a lot of people ask for them.

Sam