Ditch the water bottles, the hassle and the expense
By Jim Youngquist

[May 03, 2022]  Bottled water is one of the best selling, highest profit items at grocery stores. Cases of water are heavy, clumsy, expensive and the refuse pollutes the planet with plastic. Yet, it would probably shock you to know that most brands of bottled water are just filtered tap water from somewhere, often from city water supplies. The bottle and the cap often cost more than the water in the bottle.

Is bottled water good for you? The answer is it may be better for you than the water that comes out of your home tap. What if you could improve the quality and taste of your own tap water, avoid the cost, the hassle, and all those annoying bottles that are clogging the landfills and lost a sea recycling with plastic? In this primer on drinking water we survey some of the different water treatments systems to produce tasty, safe water for drinking in your own home.

Before you begin to improve the quality of your drinking water, it is a good idea to bring a sample of your water to your local health department where they can determine if your drinking water is safe. Taking a sample of your drinking water to a place like Culligan can give you further information about the various contaminates in your drinking water, and you can get professional recommendations for treatment.

Whether you have your own well or are on a public water system (city water), the best investment to improve water quality is a whole house filter. The filter is installed on your main line coming into your house, and is usually best installed by a plumber. The clear plastic canister allows you to monitor the amount of debris the filter is trapping and visually see when the filter needs to be replaced.
 

Most whole house filters sold at big box stores support 10 gallon per minute flow. But that may not be sufficient for some household water systems. Your plumber can order a 20 gallon per minute whole house filter system for you (or you can buy one from KleenWater Premier on Amazon) for about $150 plus installation. This filter will cut out most if not all of the unappetizing debris that sinks to the bottom of your glass and improve your general water quality. The disposable filters generally have to be replaced once every six months, and usually cost about $10 each.

Along with the whole house filter, you can add a charcoal filter to your whole house system to cut out strange or disgusting tastes and smells from your water. A charcoal filter can remove most sulfur smells, most smarmy smells, most chlorine smells, and other funny tastes that may have caused you to buy bottled water in the first place.

Whole house charcoal filters are available at big box stores like Menards, Lowes and Home Depot, and from your local plumber. The charcoal filter should be installed inline just after your whole house filter, or inline on your cold water line leading to your kitchen faucet where you get your drinking water. There are two types of disposable charcoal filters: charcoal powdered and charcoal block. Charcoal block filters are rated higher for removing contaminates, but generally have a much shorter life because water cuts paths through the block, quickly destroying the efficiency of the filter. These disposable filters generally need to be replaced once every three to six months, and range from $10 to $60 each.

If you live in the city, your tap water may have impurities such as lead or even pharmaceuticals such as birth control hormones in it. If you live in a rural area, your well water may be affected by farm chemicals such as atrazine and other pesticides. Although a charcoal filter will have some neutralizing capabilities with these contaminates, it is best to trust your drinking water to a much higher efficiency water purifier called Reverse Osmosis (RO).

A three or four stage RO system filters the water, then charcoal filters the water, and then passes the water through a semi-permeable membrane removing 99% of contaminates and only pure H2O water passes out the other side. The bad leftovers go down the drain. The RO drinking water is stored in a tank beneath your kitchen sink, and generally produces five to 50 gallons of perfect water per day. RO water has a different taste and smell from what you are used to since all the everything is filtered out. RO systems usually cost between $200 to $350, and often cost about $100 a year for replacement filters. They are available from your local plumber, big box stores, and online sources.

Finally, your water source may have biological contaminates such as ecoli bacteria which make the water undrinkable. A high efficiency whole house UV filter may be used to kill these dangerous pathogens, making the water drinkable. Consult your county health department and your plumber for the right equipment, treatment and installation.

Using the right water treatment you can produce your own tasty, safe water. Buy each member of the household their own permanent decorative drinking bottle and ditch the expensive flimsy disposable bottles forever.

 

Read all the articles in our new
2022 Spring Home & Garden Magazine

Title CLICK ON TITLES TO GO TO PAGES	Page
Introduction:  Doing more for less $$	4
Expand your landscape without shrinking your pocketbook	5
Creating massive changes in your home with paint and color	8
Livening up your interior spaces with indoor plants	13
Cut heating and air conditioning expense with a programmable thermostat	18
Improve the space under your feet with paint	21
Growing plants from seed is rewarding and economical	24
Ditch the water bottles, the hassle and the expense	31