Great filters (low TDS values) for a great price point
My town has fairly good water, but I don’t completely trust what happens between the pumping stations and my house. I’m big into raising goldfish, building my own hydroponics systems, and gardening. I’ve seen the impact poor water quality and chemicals such as chlorine, chloramines, and other unknown chemicals have on fish (tumors, etc.) and plant growth rates and it can be pretty scary. So I’ve long been interested in researching water quality and finding economical ways to improve our water. The first line of defense is a Pressure Regulator Valve as we have extremely high water pressure by default. It was so strong that it was really pushing unwanted particles through the filters. Then I have two 3/4s whole house filters behind that. The first filter housing contains these 3M sediment filters. Our water by default has high mineral content (mostly iron), and the sediment filter drastically reduces the Total Dissolved Solids values in half from ~120 PPM to ~60 PPM. Also,I wouldn’t completely rely on a sediment filter to remove odors. The next filter is a 3M carbon filter which is where I remove most odors and smells. For the most part, this in itself is fine enough for cooking and showering and even drinking. With the filters on bypass, you can really taste the difference. As for the filters themselves, I’ve tried many different brands, combinations, and micron levels but always find myself coming back to these. To take things even further (which is arguably unnecessary unless you have a real water-quality problem or are on a well), I run the water through a whole house 12 GPM UV-C water sterilization system just in case something even smaller such as bacteria gets through. Next, I have under-the-sink Reverse Osmosis systems installed for drinking. These are hooked up to alkaline filters which reintroduce mineral content back into the water in order to make the PH more basic and taste less ‘sweet” since much of the salts were stripped out by the RO. With the Alkaline filter reintroducing mineral content, we’re looking at ~10 PPM which is very acceptable. Even just drinking out of the tap (which is filtered), you can still taste a big difference. Two other tips worth mentioning: 1. You may want to consider having check valves installed so you don’t have water being vacuum sucked back into a public water supply. I’ve seen my own water without them going in reverse back and it’s a little unnerving. You have to figure that there’s other neighbors out there that don’t have them, so things like medications, food, chemicals, etc. can be sucked back into the public supply which may enter yours—hence I personally think it’s prudent to install a filtration system. 2. Also always follow the manufacturer’s replacement instructions regarding these filters because after a while, the filters can degrade and become even worse than what they were trying to cure. Read more
