Way OT: whole house water filter & softener, Any hands-on experience? Options

[draganc]

I know this topic is way off, but I have always been impressed about the input of the forum's members.

Alright, here is the scenario:

I have a water-well, salt based softener and an As filter (the level is just over the NJ limits).

The problem:

Instead on working on my 914, I'm schlepping salt bags into the basement and water jugs into the garage.

What I want:

A whole house water filter system, a salt-free softener and a revers-osmosis filter in the kitchen only.

I searched the internet high and low but would like to hear some real experience from the members here.

At the moment I have the Aquasana Rhino, Pelican and NuvoH2O on the radar.

Thanks for your input
DC

PS: I already tried to switch from water to beer. However, that didn't work out to well with the rest of the family :-(.

[rudedude]

What about whole house RO systems? Then not need water softeners. Newer RO systems don't waste as much water as older. Thats what I was told by the dealer as he is trying to sell me a better system at a higher cost to improve my well water.

[rohar]

What about whole house RO systems? Then not need water softeners. Newer RO systems don't waste as much water as older. Thats what I was told by the dealer as he is trying to sell me a better system at a higher cost to improve my well water.

You have to remember that iron is in solution, not particulate. Even RO systems won't do much. It must be removed by electrolytic or chemical bonding before the filter to bring it out of solution and into suspension. If you're on municipal water, it's likely chlorinated which brings iron into suspension, in this case, an RO system may be effective.

This is where water softeners come in. That said water softeners do raise the sodium levels of drinking water so that's generally a bad idea.

We run a pair of high grain sand filters at the pump, then an RO in the house proper, the PO installed a standard water softener, but it's plumbed into the whole house including the kitchen so we don't use it.

In the end, we're very happy about the system except the iron buildup on fixtures. To fight that, about every 6 monts, I grab a big cheep bottle of vitamin C from Costco, punch some holes in it and stuff it in the RO canister with no filter for about a week. It bonds to all of the iron in the entire house, pipes fixtures and all, and it goes down the drain.