Toxic Water - Page 5

[quelindo]

Originally Posted by SuburbanHippie

We came in 2nd. Dh wants to buy a reverse osmosis system for the kitchen and a shower head with a filter already. My only issue with the reverse osmosis is it takes 9 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of drinking water. He said he would run a line out so we could "keep" that water for flushing toilets, but I don't think we flush quite that much in a day. I wonder if I could somehow use it for the washing machine... DH may have a new project on his hands.

We do this! Our RO filter is in the basement, right under our kitchen sink, and I have the waste-water hose drain into a rain barrel we have up on cement blocks near our washing machine. The overflow hose for the rain barrel drains into the laundry tub, and then when we do laundry I manually fill our top-loader with a hose attached to the spigot. We've been doing this for years and it works great!

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by SleeplessMommy

Unfortunately, 3rd party chemical analysis of "Himalayan" salts has found contaminants including lead, arsenic, antimony, aluminum, fluoride at 7.2ppm, Strontium (Sr) at 6.98 ppm and various radioactives.

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21534
http://www.biodistributors.com.au/ProdInfFiles/hcs.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_salt

Did you read the whole first thread you linked? There is a difference between calcium fluoride and sodium fluoride.

We discussed this at length in the thread I linked above. It is very interesting! Here it is: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...t#post14677900

I am comfortable with the Himalayan salts (and I don't sell them).

Pat

[mom61508]

good info on water and air quality in your city

http://www.scorecard.org/

[momster]

pur filter?

We are about to move to a rental apartment and the city water there is actually pretty good, but there are levels of chlorine byproducts and slightly elevated manganese according to EWG's report. I haven't found out yet about flouride.

I'm thinking of getting a PUR filter. Had looked at the faucet-mounted model and liked the 3-stage filtration system until I saw the product reviews on Amazon. Many folks were complaining that the unit had cracks or broke. Maybe a PUR pitcher unit? Does anyone have one of these? Seems the pitcher units do clean chlorination byproducts, but don't know about pharmaceuticals.

I had also looked into Watts. They have one they say removes pharmaceuticals, but the customer reviews for installation were not so good. Some people had flooding.

We will only be in this apartment for 2-3 months, so maybe I'd be ok with the faucet-mounted PUR system. Any opinions?

Also, I don't know how to tell if a filter system will reduce the levels of Manganese. If it doesn't remove zinc, is it likely it won't remove manganese?

[momster]

update on PUR

I called the PUR company. They say that the pitcher filter is #5 plastic and the dispenser is #7 with #6 lid. They say there is no BPA in either of these filters. I know 7 can, but does not always have BPA. Should I believe them? They also said their filters do not remove manganese. They couldn't tell me what kind of plastic the faucet-mounted filters are made from.

Still thinking about PUR and looking at Mercola's Pure and Clear filter.

[mombh]

Does anyone here use their rainbarrel water for drinking? I have friends who use it for drinking, they live in another country and say it is better than their local water. They use a filter too and have been doing this for years. It is free, has some contaminants, due to acid rain etc; but not nearly as much as our city water, shouldn't contain all the medicines and chlorine etc; So why do so many people not use rainwater for drinking? anyone have any ideas?

[KimPM]

Originally Posted by mombh

Does anyone here use their rainbarrel water for drinking? I have friends who use it for drinking, they live in another country and say it is better than their local water. They use a filter too and have been doing this for years. It is free, has some contaminants, due to acid rain etc; but not nearly as much as our city water, shouldn't contain all the medicines and chlorine etc; So why do so many people not use rainwater for drinking? anyone have any ideas?

All you'd need is either a ceramic filter or a black berkey filter; either of those would ensure that bacteria are filtered out. I've thought of having that as a backup water supply in an emergency, but haven't yet done it.

[momster]

Pure and Clear filter

The Pure and Clear filter sounds really good to me. I'm interested in others' feedback.

http://waterfilters.mercola.com/prod...erfilters.aspx

1st filtration is for fluoride, then a KDF filter, then a coconut carbon filter.

Let me know what you all think. I called the company and they do expect it to come back into stock.

[mom61508]

Originally Posted by momster

The Pure and Clear filter sounds really good to me. I'm interested in others' feedback.

http://waterfilters.mercola.com/prod...erfilters.aspx

1st filtration is for fluoride, then a KDF filter, then a coconut carbon filter.

Let me know what you all think. I called the company and they do expect it to come back into stock.

I've looked at this one before and it does look promising BUT I'm just so unsure you know If It does what it really says.....I think looking for a water filter is the most frustrating thing!!!

[highlandmum]

Fantastic. I'm in Ohio.

[mombh]

Originally Posted by KimPM

All you'd need is either a ceramic filter or a black berkey filter; either of those would ensure that bacteria are filtered out. I've thought of having that as a backup water supply in an emergency, but haven't yet done it.

Yeah, I think it is great for back up emergency, etc; I have the Pur jug filter, which I picked up at target and have'nt used yet. I just thought it was good enough for the bacteria from a rain barrel , since I didn't think there would be much chemicals there...?
A ceramic filter, do you mean a doulton? THat's what we have under the kitchen sink, have used it for years. Only problem is the regular filter and the fluoride one both look exactly the same....and dh can't remember which one he replaced, so I'm going to have to get both replacements now
I was wondering if the Aquasana is as good or better, it seems that their replacement filters are definitely less $$$ than the doulton.

I saw someone mentioned fridge/icemaker filters before and I just checked ours, it is a Pur, which I had thought was supposed to be o.k. besides not filtering fluoride. Are their any others out there? Anywhere I can find out what is compatible with my fridge?
I just cannot stop thinking about meds in the water now , it's not enough we have to deal with everything else and now meds....
btw, how do they get into our water? I know that people (and probably, institutions too) throw meds down the toilet etc; but we don't drink recycled toilet/waste water....... how has it gotten into our water...

[crunchy_mama]

I just bought a Big Berkey for emergency use. We have good well water( we have tested it) and it tastes absolutely delicious. However, we are kind of rural(although not surrounded by farms) and have a well so deep that hand pumping isn't a good emergency option. We do have relative close access to a few creeks though. My friend arranged a big bulk order and it was $203 total for the Big Berkey and 4 filters.

[KimPM]

Originally Posted by mombh

Yeah, I think it is great for back up emergency, etc; I have the Pur jug filter, which I picked up at target and have'nt used yet. I just thought it was good enough for the bacteria from a rain barrel , since I didn't think there would be much chemicals there...?
A ceramic filter, do you mean a doulton? THat's what we have under the kitchen sink, have used it for years.

The Pur doesn't filter out bacteria or cysts, so you run a pretty good risk of illness if you filter rainwater through that. Ceramic filter pore sizes are so small they won't let the bacteria through. A doulton is one type of ceramic, and berkey is another. You can get them standalone or like you have, plumbed in under your sink. The plumbed in one won't be of any use during an emergency. I was referring to a standalone system with a ceramic filter of some type.

[WuWei]

[KimPM]

How about these RO tanks for BPA-free:

http://www.wetterwater.com/reverse-osmosis-systems/reverse-osmosis-tanks.html

polypropylene (#5) and rubber. 

Not sure I'm crazy about the rubber being in there.

[folkymom]

What do you think about this countertop one? Living in an agricultural area (literally in the middle of ag fields) I am mostly concerned about pesticides (since we have to prioritize what to freak out about, right? heh)

http://www.equinox-products.com/EquinoxEQ-10CountertopWaterFiltrationSystem.htm#Q: How does the EQ-10 Countertop work?

I am thinking I will go with the Aquasana countertop model, but then found this one. .. it's just two carbon filters, looks like?

It's so hard to "filter" through all this information!

[Sieren]

I have been thinking about water quality a lot lately, too!  We have the Sprite shower filter (the hand held one) and its been working great.  Probably need to change the filter soon, though!  But they last about 5-6 mo. I think.  My parents have an artesian well, which they run through a softener I believe.  If I filled up a bunch of gallon jugs of water from thier place and just kept them sitting somewhere out of the sun, if they would be OK for like a month? 

[LBMarie9]

bump.

[BeingMe]

Anyone hear of this company http://waterfiltrationtemecula.com/Our-Product.html 

[caglakhan]

Anyone know how good Omnifilter CBF3 system might be?  I'm just renting, and there is one at our sink.  I've been meaning to get a new cartridge (CB3) for it under the sink.  Or, is there a good cartidge that would be compatible?  Thanks.