Residential Domestic Water Treatment
 

I am purchasing a new home and am researching best water treatment options. I have been recommended three options: water softener, reverse osmosis & filtration system. Looking for best system based on cost, effectiveness and maintenance. Thank you for any input!

Here is a fourth recommendation. Do nothing. The tap water is fine just the way it is.

We live in Hillsborough (near Brownwood and Eisenhower) and have found no need for any treatment.

Under districtgov.org you should be able to find your utility company and a recent water quality report that might be useful to determine if you need a treatment system.

Many Villagers install the Nova whole house water filter system. It is a 3 phase filter. After you see how brown the first filter gets, you will be glad you have it. Nova is owned by a Villager and is the most reasonable priced system available. Do not believe those salespeople who come to your door.

(352) 566-2649
Nova Filters | Water Softeners | The Villages Fl

Best not to assume you need a system.
 

Review the water quality reports, they vary by county so it depends on what county you are moving to. Move in, taste the water. Buy a good quality water filter for your fridge and enjoy life. Simple as that.

It depends what your goals are.

Reverse osmosis is perfect if your water is not drinkable, it is drinkable without further treatment. It is routinely checked for contamination.

Water filters, well filter. There is some value in this but it is just a filter.

Water softener are ion exchange machines. They exchange the calcium ions which are attached to the h2o molecules making it softer.

By itself our water is drinkable it is also soft enough that suds form with our untreated water, it does not rapidly stain toilets or sinks...

All three can be purchased on Amazon or other outlets. No one firm has a better product. Physics are not changed by marketing. If you want any certain system I would buy the cheapest best rated product and DIY install or use a plumber.

This is what came out of some of that yummmmmmy unfiltered water after around 11 months of use over the last 2 January's. The roughage from the sediment likely keeps your teeth nice and white and defoliates your skin quite well. :D :D I guess it's how one defines "fine." They test it and say it's "safe" and I have no doubt that is IS SAFE but still grosses me out to know (have known) I was swallowing all that sand and safe dirt. :D

But, none of that really matters if you don't use the tap water for your drinking water. Also, I am always concerned about having potable water sit in a filter system where it can become contaminated with bacteria. I know the water treatment people say it is perfectly safe, but I am still skeptical.

The water from our fridge filtered water is much better tasting than my sister’s water with a whole house filter. I know taste is subjective but the difference is vast. Hubby got some water from their tap, tasted it and emptied it right back into the sink. I know they maintain the system with salt on a monthly basis.

Sorry, I don't understand. Filtered potable water is used for everything from washing clothes to bathing, to drinking from the tap and out of the refrigerator ice and water dispenser and even washing the car. Every time you flush the water or use it for anything in your home it is moved through the filter. I don't think it stagnates enough to cause bacterial growth and if that were the case there would be major worldwide complaints about filters in general. All those fridge filters are used less frequently and they don't seem to have a problem (we don't use one in our fridge because we have this filter). That aside, water sits in the hot street pipes just as long that are likely coated with "gunk" on the inside and who knows what else. Plus the water is highly chlorinated both in the pipes and the filter until it exits which probably kills bacteria (think swimming pool). We've had a whole house filter over the last probably 40 years with never a problem.

Truth is, I would have NEVER bothered to get one here but my wife said the chlorine which was VERY STRONG and obvious in our home shower & tap water when we moved in here was damaging her hair so I couldn't refuse. :) I did agree, it smelled like a swimming pool. That may be local to our specific area but it was very noticible.

I don't have all the answers. But, I worked in a large urban water treatment plant for a few years. They had many redundant quality control processes to ensure that water samples were collected from multiple sources, including individual houses, and tested every day for turbidity and bacterial contamination, and that it was safe to use and drink. They spent millions of dollars to ensure that they produced a high quality, safe product. So, I do not feel the need to add a relatively cheap filtration system to try to improve on what I believe is already an excellent potable water product. If you don't like the taste, drink bottled water, but the tap water is safe. That is just my opinion.

Yes, I agree and as I wrote in my post, according to the folks who test the local water supply that comes into your home to the tap, the toilet and the shower (all the same water) it is 100% completely safe. However all that gunk that comes out of it and sticks to filters is still there (safe or otherwise) and you drink it, wash in it and flush with it. However SAFE only means it meets or exceeds specific government minimum standards and won't make you sick or cause disease or doesn't have more than xx% of whatever that CAN make you sick but doesn't mean it is NOT loaded with gunk as can be seen quite obviously on removed filters. That's all I'm sayin' For me, seeing all that "sediment" which is a fancy word for "dirt, sludge or, LOL, minerals" that I am drinking and bathing in is pretty gross and the less I ingest or wash in the happier I am. . It's not ONLY drinking water so bottled water doesn't completely solve it.

We had Nova install a whole house filter the day we moved in. I am picky about water and just wanted it done. It was $600 at the time. We do not like the feel of soft water so we did not install a softener.

I'm concerned about water quality in TV. I happen to have notifications about water quality issues and they are quite frequent! I always prefer treated water. I personally use the brand ZERO water filters just for drinking. I don't mind untreated water for the rest of the house.

Well said. I for one agree.