Help with Whole House Water Filter Question

Unless you need drinking water from every tap in the house for some reason, you can get better quality water for a lot less money with an under-sink RO system.  With the savings, you could stock up on replacement filters to last you 30 years or so.

I've yet to see a convincing argument for whole-house filtration, especially for a city water user.  Water softening, yes, but even that is a trade off; you will be adding sodium or potassium to your water proportionate to the mineral content of the influent.  We have significant silt in our water, and the only problem it's ever caused is needing to clean out the toilet tanks more often.  We drink and cook with the RO.

A cistern located above the house about 17' would give you roughly 7psi. Remember that RO wastes much water unless you have the recirculating kind.

I agree the water will flow, but can we afford it? I pay a pretty high bill each month already. I read on the DD that some water departments will be doubling the price of water this year.

https://www.sawyersafetravel2.com/more.asp?pid=217

This is the one I'm buying. Million gallons guaranteed.

I looked at those too and liked what I saw - but what about what they don't catch/remove, which I believe are dissolved solids and so forth.  I think the concept is awesome, but after "they" say it removes 99.99% of bad stuff, I find they mean most of categories of bad stuff.  So, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, and heavy metals go through.  Also, I thought sawyer didn't make a whole house filter - or are you consider other?  Curious.  Thanks.

Check this one out carefully. Maximum pressure in is 40 psi. The lady I spoke with (Susan) said it is more of a point of use filter and not going to give enough pressure on a whole house application. She said that it allows 5000 gpd which equals 3.47 gpm. 

This is NOT a whole house filter.

RO also strips may minerals that we need out of water, so supplements may be nassasary.  Water filtration is very dependant on what is in the water in your area (part of my job is supplying water treatment plants, i know a little bit about them and I am trying to learn as much as I can from the contractors I deal with).  

We have run across a few things, crypto and glardia (sorry I'm sure the spelling is wrong, they cause beaver fever) the UV and chemicals that our WTP uses sterilizes them, which makes the water safe, but it does not remove them.  UV, in my experience works fairly well.  I can get more specific information from work is anyone would like it.  It is limited in what it can do, TDS etc still go thru.  The filters needed to that are very specialized, a near by town is looking in to some, I think by Peerless.  I can't remember how small of particles they take out, but when we had the presentation it was impressive. The one contractor I deal with does plants across Canada and is very experienced, so once he is back in town I will pick his brain.

We have also come across some places with natural sources of arsenic in the water, green sand filters work for that.  If you have arsenic the best thing to do is send away a sample to a manufacturer and they will test and recommend what is best.  

Water softeners are very hard on other parts of your plumbing system.  Since they strip the water of metals/minerals and water natraully wants to get that back they corrode hot water tanks much faster.  Hot water tank manufacturers have actually adjuted their warranty programs because of this.  Eg, our supplier typically warranties for 5 years.  If it fails and new one is installed, the new one also has 5 years warranty.  EXCEPT when there is a softener, then only the original 5 year warranty applies, it is not extended with the nw tank.  If there are other metal products in your system, like an older house with galvanized pipe, that will a corrode much faster.

Another thing that has affected systems we supply is sulphur content and Ph, both can corrode copper and brass within 10 years depending on how extreme they are.  

Also, most municipal plants, at least where I live, do not take out herbicides and pesticides.  Not the best sysems but within government requirements.  It is something to concider as your municipal water may contain those.  

Sorry, I went a little off topic.  Hopefully it helps.