Whole house water filters

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

nshif

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Any of you have any suggestions for whole house water filters? My well water is not that great, safe, no chemicals or bacteria, just alot of minerals. Kinda brownish and leaves alot of rust residue. The pitcher type filter we have cleans it up just fine for kitchen use but everything else in the house is getting stained. Ive looked at them online and the prices are all over the place, from a low of like 50$ to over a thousand that take EVERYTHING out of the water. Dont think I need the 1000$ job but dont wanna cheap out either and get something that isnt any good.
TIA guys and girls, with all the knowlage this forum has Im sure Ill get some good direction
 
Well, I have 2 whole house filters... just the cheapos you can buy at HD. They are both in line before the water softener. The first filter is a carbon particulate filter, and the second is a higher micron paper filter. Between these two, a lot of the bad taste and silt gets filtered out. The water softener is GREAT and does a really good job at reducing the mineral content of the water. I use a softener cube called "rust buster" which greatly keeps down on the iron content. I would also love to add a pyrolox filter for added filtration.

Bottom line though, would be to consult with a water treatment guy. I'm lucky to have a kinnetico dealer in town. Do a search in the yellow pages or on-line. Incidently, the best prices I have found for treatment units is here: http://www.abundantflowwater.com/

-Kevin
 
Best to have a water treatment specialist in to have the water tested, then they can advise what treatment is neccessary for your application. We have a chlorine solution pumped into our well holding tank,then thru two "cheapo" $50 whole house filters, one for sediment and one carbon to remove left over chlorine. From there the water goes thru the softner then to the house. Hopefully you will not need all of that. Good luck!
 
Have had the water tested and results were fine as far as safty and health just high in mineral content.
 
Wrench
Thanks for the link good stuff, Think I found one there that I like just want to be sure I can get replacement carts for it.
 
You've got iron in your water. I do too. So when looking at filtration systems, look for those that reduce or eliminate iron.

It won't be cheap. Cleaning suspended solids like silt and grit is cheap. Iron and other dissolved minerals is not cheap to remove.
 
I was reading a lot about bisphenol A recently, the hormone-like substance in many plastics including PVC pipe. We had the leaking metal well pipes replaced with PVC last year. There is another kind of plastic in the waterline to our house from the shared well. Not being keen on ingesting bisphenol A I have started using the pitcher water filter we happened to have for all my drinking and cooking water. But clearly that will be expensive and a pain over time, so am also interested in a larger filter system. Just for the kitchen would be fine, really. We don't soften our water since it tastes great as is and I think softened water sucks.
 
Some:

You should check into the filters that hook up under the kitchen sink if thats all your worried about. They are not that expensive in the long run.
 
This is my first house with a water softener and I think it's great.
Great for washing stuff and no mineral buildup.
 
We have lots of iron in the well water. Lots. We use a cheapo whole house sediment filter that takes out the rust and individual under-counter filters at each faucet for taste etc. The sediment cartridges plug up in about a week so it costs around a hundred a year for them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.