The Truth of Water - Answers

Nadia from Bettendorf Writes:

I was very interested in your site and am looking for an advice. I am currently reseaching two companies and their products but finding it very difficult to compare them. I would like to install a RO system for drinking water. I would also like to remove clorine and hardness from all the water in the house. I contacted Eco water and was advised an RO system with 3 gal tank and a water conditioner/purifier model ERR 3502
http://ecowater.com/systemERR3502R30.php
There are 6 of us in the house. I am wondering if 3 gal worth of drinking water is enough and if this purifier is big enough for us. It has coconut shell carbon filter.
The other salesman I talked to was from Culligan. He recommended 9 gal RO system. like this one:
http://www.culligan.com/en/products/drinking-water-systems/aqua-cleer/
He did not even want to go the whole system route. I need to check with him but I think he thought the amount of carbon that is included in those 2-in-1  (so to speak )systems would not be adequate. He said we would need a softner and a carbon filter tank - seems like a lot.
My question is what RO tank we need and if this coconut shell filter is enough.
The eco-water system carbon filter needs to be replaced every year for $100 while Culligan lasts 2-3 years but the price is $200 plus labor. So they are comparable this way.
I do not know why Culligan did not recommend this system
http://www.culligan.com/en/products/whole-house-water-filters/total-home/
Even though he was showing me the picture of Gold seried water softener that looks exactly like this one.  I think he was afraid that we would be going thru salt and carbon too fast.

Also, how would I compare water softners (valve, salt, etc) I am not sure what to look at.

I really appreciate your advice in this matter. I have kids who cannot tolerate bad water so I am trying to get the most bang for my $.

Hi Nadia

Thank you for writing in.

First off, since you mentioned chlorinated water, I’ll assume that you’re on municipal water.  If that’s not the case, please write back and let me know, as my answer will change.

My thoughts on reverse osmosis systems are that they are an absolute last resort device.  I’ve only recommended them a few times, like a woman in Manitoba who had high levels of uranium in her drinking water, for example.

This is because reverse osmosis is very expensive, produces only a small amount of water (some systems reject up to 50% of the water that goes into them), and produces water that is lower in pH and had no minerals which most health professionals agree is part of a healthy diet.

If you like the taste of de-mineralized water, then by all means purchase a reverse osmosis system.  You will probably need one larger than 3 gallons for a 6 person home, as it will produce the three gallons slowly.  If you drain the storage tank filling water bottles, or cooking a large pot of pasta, it will recover slowly.

Contrary to what water stores may have you believe, here in North America municipally treated water is safe to drink and use right out of the tap.  The only concerns with that water are the chlorine, which offer objectionable taste to some, and sometimes the hardness which makes washing chores more difficult.

My recommendation is a two fold process:

1) Carbon filtration and softening for most of your house
2) Carbon filtration only for your drinking water

In my municipality, I use a filter by a company called Kinetico.  The reason I use these filters is that they have a twin tank design for redundancy, meaning even if the unit is in a backwash mode you still get water.  They also do not require any electricity at all, and operate on water pressure. This saves a lot of hassle, wasted electricity and the potential for issues if you have power surges or black outs.

Kinetico makes a softener/carbon filter product that operates in this principle, so you will get soft, dechlorinated water for showering, washing, and laundry.  Check it out here:

http://www.kinetico.com/KineticoSystems/WaterSofteners.aspx

Scroll down to view the municipal water softeners.  I wholly recommend Kinetico products to be of top quality and reliability.  You may pay a little more than the Culligan systems but I think you will be pleased.

The reason I do not recommend softened water for drinking is because softened water adds a lot of sodium. The harder your water is, the more sodium it will add. This is especially a problem for those with heart problems or sodium restricted diets; but most health professionals agree too much sodium from water and/or food isn’t a good thing for your health.

When you get the softener installed, make sure your plumber plumbs a line from before the softener to the kitchen sink, where you will take your drinking and cooking water.

From there, my recommendation is to use a carbon filter.  Carbon removes chlorine, chloramines, and even some organics that may be present that might hamper taste.

You can get carbon filters in many forms.  Under the sink units with it’s own tap, under the sink that ties into the existing tap, units that attach right to your tap, and jugs with a built in carbon filter.

To see examples of this technology, I put together a simple Amazon web page.  Any of these carbon filters will do you just fine to improve the taste of your water:

http://www.truthofwater.com/store.html

One of the filters even comes with removable flavor cartridges.

The advantages of carbon systems such as this are that it works off direct pressure, so there is no “gallon limit”.  The filter cartridges are very inexpensive to replace compared to R.O. as well.

James from England writes:

I am about to purchase a LG Steam Washing Machine which has
recently been exibited and tested on UK television. I am concerned that as
we live in a “hard water area” that the scale build up could become a
problem especially due to the heat required to produce the steam. What are
the best solutions to ensuring the treatment of the water is sufficient to
minimise the scaling of the internal heaters etc. Ranging from the cheapest
and most effective, either chemical or mechanical.

Hi Tony, thank you for the question.

It is my understanding that many appliances like this one have a minimum and maximum recommended hardness range for the water they use. Your first move should be to read the manual or speak to a company representative for this product. Find out the hardness ranges. The company may have incorporated some sort of internal cleaning mechanism for this issue, or other.

Once you have determined the exact range that the machine can tolerate, you want to find out how hard your water is. If you are on municipal water, you may call your municipality. They will have the hardness there for you. If you are on your own well water, then hardness is a simple and inexpensive test that any drinking water laboratory can do. Look in your phone book for a laboratory.

There are two common measurements for hardness.  The older, and most common measurement is grains per gallon, or GPG.  The newer measurement is mg/L as CaCO3.   When comparing your hardness results to the machine specifications, you can get mg/L CaCO3 from GPG by multiplying by 17.1, and dividing by the same number to get back to GPG.

LG may tell you that the best method for dealing with this is to clean the machine at intervals with CLR, vinegar, citric acid or some other effective de-scaling chemical. That would certainly be your most inexpensive option.

LG may also have a system for adding a chemical to sequester the hardness.  Again, LG would be the best place to go to ask about a sequestering agent, both for the method of adding it and the most appropriate chemical so that it does not damage the machine.

You could certainly plumb in an ion exchange water softener to the water lines that go to the machine.  You can get a smaller unit if you don’t want to soften the whole house.  Kinetico has a good under the counter softener for sale, and you can read more about it here.  I believe they have representatives in the UK.

Lastly, reverse osmosis filtration removes everything, including hardness. However, to get the flows you need it is very expensive and requires a large amount of maintenance, much more than de scaling your machine.

I hope this has helped point you in the right direction.  Please do not hesitate to write in again if you need further clarifications or have another question.