1 edit | Whole-House water Filter estimate... I asked for an estimate for the install. Good, independent, local plumbing company (used them several times before).
I am not sure of the brand.
But that it will be carbon filter, one stage.
Plus shutoffs (1/4 turn valves).
I priced some house filters online and several were $50-$150, some even more (hi-flow w/shutoff), not including copper, fittings, valves (that could be another $100-$125). That doesn't factor in labor...
And I watched some videos (TOH, YouTube..) and I don't want "sharkbite" or Pex...
Anyone care to guess what it will be before I receive the estimate?
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Splat |
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 alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC
kudos:1 | I'm guessing about 400$ for the parts. I can't imagine labor to be much since it's just cutting into the main water line. |
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Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
kudos:1 | reply to cableties
Check this unit out, it is expensive:
»www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260···8208000P |
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 tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:8
 ·G4 Communications
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 ·Hollis Hosting
1 edit | reply to cableties
I installed a whole house sediment filter earlier this year. Did the work myself so don't know labor cost.
Here is where I got the filter housing and filter element:
www.waterfilters.net
I did shutoff 1" ball valves on both sides and a third valve as a bypass. The bypass pipe was a convenient place to mount two pressure gauges to monitor filter loss.
Get the biggest housing you can fit will reduce how often you need to change the filter element.
Big Blue housing - $75
Mounting bracket - $25
Wrench - $5
Food Grade Silicone $20
Spare O ring $5
Filter Element - Carbon ~$50 I use non-Carbon sediment filter Pentek DGD-5005-20 $25
1" Ball Valve - $12
Gauge - $5
/tom |
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| Someone needs to ask - why a whole house filter? Do you have city water or well water? Do you have sediment in your water? Is it a taste/water smell issue? What are you trying to fix by adding a whole house filter? |
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alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC
kudos:1 | said by boaterbob:What are you trying to fix by adding a whole house filter? I can imagine most people install a filter for removing the taste of the water (Chlorine for example), but I don't know if it is economical compared to buying 5 gallon bottles for water coolers. Sure, per gallon the filter will cost less, however the vast majority of those gallons will be wasted on showers, laundry and dish washing.
I'd add a filter if the city water had too much sediments, because it would stain the white clothes in the laundry. |
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1 edit | reply to boaterbob
A perfectly good question, Boaterbob. This filter is just for taste/odor/chlorine removal.
It is municipal water, not well. It is heavily treated. Last year, I received two letters from the water company in a sense stated "boil the water this month". Not exactly reassuring.
All taps (shower, tub, bathrooms, kitchen, outside faucets) when running (fill sink to shave, run tub for her bath, brushing teeth, filling pot for pasta, filling bucket to wash car...) give off chlorine smell (much as a pool in a hotel!).
No room under sink for "fresh water tap". Did think of it.
** Ok, estimate is $690 installed. I think that is high. 
Thanks TSCHMIDT for that listing and link (.net missing). I was reading to get a 20-24" housing for less changes and need atleast a 3/4" or 1" fittings (have to measure the pipe, install a board, ...) Water main comes in then runs up so I have to "D" it ... bypass in the middle, T off top and bottom, elbows valves.....
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Splat |
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alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC
kudos:1 | said by cableties:** Ok, estimate is $690 installed. I think that is high. Well, as I said, the filter itself would have been at least 400$ for whole house.
Ask the plumber what is the brand/model of the filter to justify his pricing. |
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 DaarkenRara AvisesPremium
join:2005-01-12
Southwest LA
kudos:3 | reply to cableties
I had a full Rainsoft system installed at my last home, and it ran $5k.
We had a water well that had large amount of impurities in it, along with a newborn at the time.
I had a chlorine pump, dual 100 gallon sediment tanks, dual filter, water softner, and undersink filtration system.
It was a lot of work to keep up with the maintenance.
Count your blessings.
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Getting it Done. |
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Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
kudos:1 Reviews:
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| reply to cableties
Before you purchase a whole house filter you should be aware that they do not remove bacterial and viral contamination. In fact certain types of filters are a liability. A friend of mine had a reverse osmosis filter for his drinking water faucet and ice maker. He was advised to replace all filter cartridges and membrane when he received a boil water warning, because they retain bacteria. There is a device which will eliminate bacterial contamination called a quartz lamp disinfection system:
»www.freshwatersystems.com/c-413-···es.aspxd
Some health departments require a quartz lamp whole house disinfection system be installed when a well tests show a high bacterial count. The same device can be used to remove bacterial contamination from municipal water sources.
This friend wound up adding a quartz lamp disinfection system to their reverse osmosis system because of frequent boil water warnings. Unfortunately it was costly and the lamp had to be replaced occasionally. On the other hand they saved the cost of replacing the filter elements each time there was a boil water warning. |
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| reply to cableties
said by cableties:** Ok, estimate is $690 installed. I think that is high. I agree that does feel high, even if he does valves/bypass/guage i.e. the works.
I have 4 Big Blues, 2 each in parallel, on the output of my combination well and rainwater system. Last time I bought a big blue it was about $55, and if I'd have made post #2 here I'd have said $100 bucks for a DIY job, but that was thinking "PVC" not copper. So maybe $690 is not too too bad if the guy's good and does it right, though I'd try to get another quote for sure.
A carbon filter should help with chlorine odor, but as Matt suggests if you're told to boil water, well you've got to boil your water--the carbon filter helps not at all in that regard. And when the "all clear" is issued, you will want to replace the carbon. These are sorta pricey too tho I haven't looked lately... |
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Mr. Matt is very close, however, it's not entirely true. I am on a water well that tests positive for total coliform bacteria, an indicator bacteria that is used to detect for the presence of other surface/intestinal bacteria like E.Coli, Hepatitis, etc. Total coliform bacteria isn't bad, it's an indicator that something could be in there.
First, you MUST use a 5-micron or less water filter before the UV-C bulb. A "whole-house" water filter is generic, microorganisms tend to range from .4 micron and above and some are VERY UV resistant such as N.Fowleri or cryptosporidium. Dosage is measured in uW sec/cm2,
I use a netpot (chronic sinusitis) and what I do is use a 5-micron whole-house filter to UV-C; the bulb MUST be replaced yearly. I then use a 4-stage USA-made RO system to .0001 micron.
If you get a 20 micron filter you're accomplishing nothing. If you get a 5 micron filter WITHOUT UV you're accomplishing nothing. The flow rate for my whole-house 5 micron filter is 5 GPM, I went above and beyond with the UV as it's rated at 12 GPM and I didn't want to take chances with exposure. UV-C is rated in exposure time and dosage as uW sec/cm2; viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms require different doses to be effective. UV-C works by frying the nuclei and preventing reproduction; it sterilizes them.
As the risk of being label a socket puppet I won't post links, but for things like this I believe VERY strongly in going USA-made where possible. The most important being a USA-made UV-C lamp and RO system. The whole-house 5 micron sediment filter is carbon and sadly is made in China. I'll share specifics if you want them and the moderators see it fit.
Have a peek at »www.nqinc.com/cms/upload/pdf/NQ_···hart.pdf
It's a MUST that the UV-C bulb be replaced yearly and allowed to run constantly at operating temperature. It's vital the quartz sleeve be cleaned every 6 months or more. It's vital a 5 micron or smaller filter be in front of the UV-C filter. It's vital you use .4 micron and less for anything irrigating your sinus passages. Even N. Fowleri can survive in extreme temperatures for short durations and even in heavy content saline water for 4 hours.
I can share some pictures if you want. Don't trust the municipal water supply, Shigella Sonnei isn't fun (first hand experience). The quality of the municipal supply can vary per day, per time, per demand. Degraded infrastructure or accidental breaks are a great introduction for microorganisms and some can survive the chlorinated water just fine; Shigella is 2~4 days. |
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Oh yeah, also, it's vital any UV-C system have a consistent voltage supply. I've got mine hooked to my UPS with AV-R; voltage swings can and do result in variances in UV-C uW sec/cm2 dosages. |
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said by DoingIt :Don't trust the municipal water supply Truer words were never spoken. But we don't want to think about where the municipal water came from! :yikes:
All the OP wants to do is eliminate the chlorine smell. |
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garys_2kPremium
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI Reviews:
 ·callwithus
·Callcentric
| reply to DoingIt
There's nothing wrong with sharing links to products you've had good luck with. We're going to be building a house that will have well water, my wife uses a saline sinus spray (not Neti Pot, the NeilMed sprayer) and learning about what works for you in this situation would be VERY helpful. |
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tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:8 Reviews:
·G4 Communications
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2 edits | reply to cableties
Filtration chart |
Think carefully about your filtering goal. We are on a well. Our water quality is high so were were only interested in filtering "rocks," sand particles of various sizes. Because we are on a well filtering non-chlorinated water opted for a polypropylene filter element as it does not promote bacteria growth. I picked 5 micron as a trade-off. Seems to be working fine so far.
Since you are thinking of using a carbon filter may want to think seriously about a two or three stage system. 1) prefilter to take the out most of the big stuff reducing the load on the more expensive carbon filter. 2) Some form of carbon filter. 3) post carbon filter to remove carbon fines. Some carbon filters include that feature within the same element.
When I installed our system did not run outside faucets through the filter. Did not see any reason to waste filter capacity garden & flower watering.
Since your motivation protecting your family from potentially serious city contamination problems I think a necessary first step is to have your water tested. That should drive your choice of filter technology. The more you dig into water filtering the more complex the topic becomes.
Sorry about fat fingering the URL, I've fixed it.
/tom |
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scooper
join:2000-07-11
Youngsville, NC
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
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| reply to cableties
Experiance - house on well since 1995. Water quality - high (I also use it in my swimming pool, as well as household use)
Filtering - I do have a "sand filter" - a kind of tank the uses centrifugal forces to get big sand out before going into the expansion tank. Post tank - I'm using 2 of the 4 gallon per minute sediment filters in parallel, replace every 3 months, I typically get 5-10 micron filters, sometime carbon, others not. After the filters it goes to all the faucets, both inside and out. I have in the past not filtered the outside faucets, but the sand creates issues with the pool / autofiller.
Recommendation - make sure that if you're doing whole house - that your gallons per minute is enough. A single 4 GPM wasn't doing it for us, so I added the 2nd in parallel - no problems since then. |
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| reply to garys_2k
RO-CTOP |
said by garys_2k:There's nothing wrong with sharing links to products you've had good luck with. We're going to be building a house that will have well water, my wife uses a saline sinus spray (not Neti Pot, the NeilMed sprayer) and learning about what works for you in this situation would be VERY helpful.
Thanks Gary, I know being anonymous it's easy to assume shared links are a shill.
To describe my setup, I have a ~180 ft water well which pumps to a 5 gallon diaphram tank at the pump house with a 40-60 PSI pressure cut-off switch. From here the water goes about 100 yards to the ingress point of my home.
At ingress, I have a back-flow prevention value then ingress into a GE GXWH08C whole-house filter with an Omnifilter TO1-SS / TO1-DS 5 micron filter with a 5 GPM flow rate (China). After this I go into a 12 GPM Watts UV-C (Watts 270156 12-GPM 1-Inch) filter running a Atlantic Ultraviolet Corporation 05-1534R bulb (they are the bulb manufacturer and the country of origin is here in the United States of America). The original bulb was USA-made but is no longer available, it is a GPH843T5L/LS/40W. The 05-1534R is a direct replacement. From here I tee into the main supply and an 86 gallon diaphragm tank.
The RO system is a 4-stage USA-made, direct from the manfacturer, RO system. I went with APEC Water Sytems and the model is RO-CTOP. I liked the idea of a portable RO system so I could have consistently water quality regardless of the water source during travel. I have hard water and went from 160 TDS to 03 TDS after the RO system. Not to mention the filter is a Filmtec/DOW Chemical USA-made filter that lasts 2-7 years.
Note since adding UV I test negative for total coliform.
Order details:
Order from Amazon on Jan 24 2012:
quote:
Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com LLC):
Watts 270156 12-GPM 1-Inch 110-Volt UV Disinfection System
$344.02
UV-C bulb ordered 03/23/12 (wanted to have a USA-made spare on hand)
quote:
www.ultraviolet.com
PN 05-1534R
$80
RO-CTOP ordered 08/24/2012
quote:
www.freedrinkingwater.com (APEC Water systems)
»www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-cou···tail.htm
PN RO-CTOP
$259
The Omnifilter TO1-SS / TO1-DS I get from my local family-owned hardware store. The GE GXWH08C we've had forever and traditionally used it as a 20-micron sediment filter before I starting focusing more on water quality. The TO1-DS costs me about $12 to $15.
The water well is good quality drinking water and is spring fed and when city water was was available we switched over to city water. After my oldest child got to enjoy Shigella Sonnei from our municipal water supply and defecated out the mucal lining of her intestines I switched us back to the water well and began to self-educate more on water quality, microorganisms, and the necessary filtering and precautions. There was a thread here about N. Fowleri and the risks with sinus irrigation that prompted me to go with the RO-CTOP. N. Fowleri is pretty darned resistent and I was able to leverage some intelligence/education from my grandfather who was a hematologist/microbiologist.
I found that RO water is consistent in taste and quality across a wide spectrum of water supplies, including both municipal and groundwater water well.
It's important to remember that for sinus irrigation to only use RO water for washing, irrigation, etc. Don't let it touch tap water.
All in all the goal is defense in depth. 5 micron filter before UV-C otherwise the microorganisms can "hide" in the shadows of the sediment. RO to .0001 micron for sinus irrigation, water quality/taste, etc.
Hope this helped. I wrote a PHP application using PHP-GD and a web-cam to monitor the status of the LED on the UV transformer, checking every 5 minutes, and doing an E-Mail alert if the LED was 'red' or not lit indicating transformer failure and potential passing of microorganisms.
Gary in your case with your wife, a RO-CTOP may make sense and they offer a UV add-on. This would give you filtering to .0001 micron and as a "just in case" a UV-C filter. I got my RO-CTOP mainly for the netipot usage but find myself really enjoying the taste and elimination of the "hard water" so I'm using it for drinking/cooking. |
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garys_2kPremium
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI Reviews:
·callwithus
·Callcentric
| Thanks VERY much for all of this information! I know the well water in the neighborhood we're going to needs softening, most people use salt-based softeners (also removes iron, fairly high, as well). I'd thought about an RO system and was going to look into it, you got me started on that now (thanks!).
The alternative, I guess, would be for my wife to use distilled water for her sinus irrigation, and go with a "simpler" system as long as the biological numbers are ok. Still, I'd really rather NOT deal with contamination, if it does come up. The houses in the area are about 40-50 years old and who knows how well their septic systems have been maintained... |
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RO-CTOP Saline Container |
So the downside with RO, is water pressure and the quality of the membrane defines efficiency. Some of the systems out there have a waste of 6:1 (6 gallons of waste water to 1 gallon of usable water); all RO systems will create a "brine", think of it as the "run-off" from the good water. With RO the higher your water pressure the more efficient it is to overcome the osmotic pressure. A quality RO membrane like the Filmtec/DOW is more along the lines of 2:1 with 60 PSI.
The RO-CTOP I have will do 90 gallons per day, since I'm variable pressure between 38-60 PSI (well water) I went with this system because it will work all the way down to 30 PSI. It takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to fill up 5 liters.
With the netipot I mix 40 of the saline packets with 5 liters of water, this comes out to the right amount of saline concentration on a per-use basis. This enables me to RO about 5 liters of water for extended use and N. Fowleri can't survive in a high saline concentration over 4 hours. The TDS meter registers up to 3000 ppm and when I test the netipot water it's off the scale and reads as ERR. Out of the faucet I'm 158 to 165 ppm TDS, after RO it's around 3 ppm TDS.
Here's a pic of the water container I'm using, amazingly I picked it up at Wal-Mart for around $4 and it's BPA-free, made in USA.
Best of luck, I'll keep an eye on this thread and try to answer any questions you have. Finally, I wrote "mucal lining" and mean "mucosal lining". Hope you like that awesome retro McDonald's Snoopy Glass 
The concerns I have mostly center around chlorine resistant microorganisms (why I went UV-C on the well; no chlorine taste and actually a little easier to install and deal with), varying water quality, sinus irrigation, taste, and health concerns. These concerns are diminished by being on well water but they ramp up if I switch back to municipal water and/or travel. Boiling water is a pain the rear and I'd rather not pay for RO water like Dasani when I can make it myself and control the environment. I promise I'm not out licking squirrels, wiping with leaves, and hugging unkempt women around a camp fire whilst singing strange repetitive songs played by guitar. |
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