Does anyone know of a quality whole house water filtration unit?
jfincherok
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
We’re building a green feature home and I’d like to find a whole-house (minus the exterior faucets) filtration system that will remove a lot of the chemicals and impurities present in municipal water such as chlorine, flouride, etc. I haven’t searched far and wide yet, but have searched some and not found anything yet. I figured if such a product were out there that someone in this forum would know about it and hopefully have experience with it. Thanks.
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At the risk of addressing unscientific paranoia with an odd concept — a fact — I just thought I'd mention that flouride occurs naturally in some water sources and helps prevent tooth decay.
I saw these units in Lowes the other day. I have no idea if they are good or not. I was considering them for my home under construction. http://www.ecodynewatertreatment.com/
Before deriding others as paranoid, you might get your facts straight.
New York - September 2006 -- Fluoride jeopardizes health - even at low levels deliberately added to public water supplies, according to data presented in a recent National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) National Research Council (NRC) report. Fluoride poses risks to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and others and can severely damage children's teeth. (1) At least three panel members advise avoiding fluoridated water.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/federal-report-reveals-fluorides-health-risks-14249.html
Martin,
I'm not quite sure why you responded the way you did. I could give a rat's behind about the debate over flourinated drinking water. Everyone's "facts" on either side of the debate are questionable as is with many debates where opinions prevail. One fact is that brushing your teeth helps prevent tooth decay also. Another fact is that Flouride occurs naturally in several of the foods we eat. I think we get plenty of flouride without having it added to our water. Perhaps it does benefit some people, but I'd rather have the choice of not having it in my water. By all means, keep it in your water if you like it.
I don't know about you, but I don't like smelling like I've just been in a publlic swimming pool after taking a shower because of the added chlorine, etc. I'm not a scientist, but I think the fewer chemicals we consume or let our bodies suck up through our skin, the easier it is on our body's already overworked immune and cleansing sytems.
Really all I'm wondering is whether or not anyone knows of or has experience with a quality filtering system that takes these chemicals out of the water and have enough volume to handle a whole house. Thanks.
James,
I apologize for my unhelpful remark. I hope that some GBA readers can suggest a filter that will work for you.
Depending on exactly what you'd like removed from the water an activated carbon filter might be a good choice. I know it works for chlorine and some VOCs but I'm not sure about Flouride. I use one in conjunction with a sediment filter to filter my well water. Neither of these will remove bacteria (in fact the filters themselves can act as bacterial colonies if not properly maintained). For whole house service I've been using two 10" "Big Blue" type filter housings which I like. They're easy to wrench open and durable.
http://www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/whole-house-water-filters.php
James,
Activated carbon will not remove fluoride. The three effective options are reverse osmosis, distillation or activated alumina filter media. Of those, the last makes the most sense for residential use, but a good unit is in the $1500 range and the prefilter cartridges and alumina media need to be kept fresh (the alumina should last several years).
If your main concern is with drinking and cooking water, then an undersink unit may make more sense and they are available for less than $300. Another option is to use spring water delivered in 5 gallon bottles - just make sure to ask your supplier for documentation of fluoride levels (should be no more than 0.1 ppm).
Straight up - My company sells a environmentally sound, salt-free whole-house water system that absolutely meets your needs. You can see more at http://www.pureelements.biz which will explain the features and benefits of the HeathyHome Solution. The system does not remove fluoride - We can design a whole-house filter to achieve this but, it seems more practical to add an point-of-use reverse osmosis system to remove the fluoride from the water and ice for consumption. Let me know if we can help or advise you in your search. RD Allen
Thanks for all the responses so far. They are helpful. And thank you Martin; apology accepted. I usually get a lot of good info from your posts. (You too, Robert)
You want to look into a an Ionics whole house and under the sink filter. http://www.ionicsfidelity.com These are the same filters they use on submarines and in space. it is the only EPA-registered bacteriostatic water conditioner for residential and commercial use. It will remove the cholorine, the flouride, and takes out any of the other harmful chemicals and bacterias there is concern over. I would highly recommend them, we've had one for 5 years. HTH!