Water filtration - under counter

[Freespool]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a 62 Offshore. There is an existing water filtration system mounter under the sink in the galley that goes to a stand alone water spigot. There is a yellow 1/4" inlet line and a blue 1/4 exit line to the set of double filters.

I have changed the filters and each time I change them they have the stale musty water smell. I flush the system and things seem to be ok for a while. When I return to the boat after a couple of weeks the stink is back.

The smell will eventually go away after I drain the water out of the system a couple of times.

I don't get the smell when I use the the water through the regular tap or shower, just when I use the filtered system.

I am not putting any chlorine or bleach in the water tanks.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[kchace]

Not sure of your question but it seems obvious you're not happy with the water filtration you're getting.


I would suggest replacing the water filter system you have with either a Seagull or Nature Pure from General Ecology. I have one and its excellent.


https://generalecology.com/collections/marine-rv




Ken

 

[bayview]

I would bleach the system with the filters removed. Then be sure to use it frequently to keep it flushed.

I see no reason the filters could bot be put into the main cold line and the separate spigot that would keep it flushing more often.

 

[tiltrider1]

Replace the system, it’s designed for a much larger volume then you are using. You need a smaller single stage system. Try pulling out one of the filters and see if that helps.

 

[DPKCK]

I second the generalecology recommendation. I have used their 2QC system in my galley on my last two boats and it has worked well. Provides good potable water. Filter is a bit pricey but lasts 2 years.

 

[Freespool]

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you guys add chlorine or anything to your water tank?

 

[Simi 60]

Or go none at all

We fill straight from the tap or from the roof when it rains.
No chlorine, no bleach, no filters, no problems.

 

[Island Cessna]

Is the second filter an activated charcoal filter? That’s what gets odors.

 

[ranger58sb]

There is an existing water filtration system mounter under the sink in the galley that goes to a stand alone water spigot. There is a yellow 1/4" inlet line and a blue 1/4 exit line to the set of double filters.

I have changed the filters and each time I change them they have the stale musty water smell. I flush the system and things seem to be ok for a while. When I return to the boat after a couple of weeks the stink is back.

The smell will eventually go away after I drain the water out of the system a couple of times.

What brand/model filter system? Forespar makes one that I'm considering...

Double filters sounds like maybe you have different densities in each, secondary filter maybe being a carbon block?

I suspect it's not uncommon to need to flush again if you've been away from the boat for a significant length of time...

-Chris

 

[kchace]

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you guys add chlorine or anything to your water tank?

Yes. I filter all water going in with an in-line RV style filter (available everywhere), then add just enough chlorine for 1-2 ppm. Typically, this is about 2 cap-fulls per 100 gallons.


Ken

 

[Freespool]

Thanks to all who have responded. I suspect the problem may be I am not treating the water and I am also not using any type of carbon filter. I am simply using two of the white 5 micron filters. For those who use a carbon filter, is it the same one you buy on Amazon or does there need to be something more special to it?

I will add chlorine each time I fill. I suspect that will help too. Is this the same chlorine you buy at Home Depot?

 

[kchace]

Thanks to all who have responded. I suspect the problem may be I am not treating the water and I am also not using any type of carbon filter. I am simply using two 5 micron filters. For those who use a carbon filter, is it the same one you buy on Amazon or does there need to be something more special to it?

I will add chlorine each time I fill. I suspect that will help too. Is this the same chlorine you buy at Home Depot?

For the second of the 2 filters, install a carbon block filter. As far as chlorine, I use standard Chlorox. You must make sure its unscented and NOT the bottle that's labeled "splash less".


Ken

 

[Rusty]

A few years ago, we added water filters after the tanks just before the line tees to the hot water tank. This filters all the water we use. It's a bit overkill, but I used two Pentek Big Blue housings. The first has a 5 micron sediment filter. The second filter is a .5 micron carbon block filter. We change the filters twice a year.

I think it was about $400 for all the parts and filters.

 

[ranger58sb]

Thanks to all who have responded. I suspect the problem may be I am not treating the water and I am also not using any type of carbon filter. I am simply using two of the white 5 micron filters. For those who use a carbon filter, is it the same one you buy on Amazon or does there need to be something more special to it?

I will add chlorine each time I fill. I suspect that will help too. Is this the same chlorine you buy at Home Depot?

We don't add chlorine, except for occasional tank commissioning, usually in Spring.

We get our filter elements from Filtersfast.com. Primary is a 10" Pentek DGD-2501 dual gradient sediment filter (25 micron/1 micron) and the second is a 10" Pentek FloPlus10 .5 micron carbon block.

They probably have choices to fit your housings. Our first is in a Big Blue filter housing, second is smaller diameter housing, and older GE Smartwater I think... but filtersfast has housings to choose from if you need to change anything.

These are for filling our tanks (and the big one is also for when we connect to dock water), so I just added thread-to-garden-hose adapters and quick-snap connects so I can put it altogether and then take it all apart quickly.

-Chris

 

[Andiamo2018]

We filter the water going into the boat with RV style 'sediment' filter already mentioned. We have a 3 stage under counter filter that goes to an under counter water heater and stand alone faucet. In a year I have only replaced the sediment filters but I'm about to replace the two activated charcoal (I think?) filters. The water that comes to the boat is chlorinated and you can sometimes smell it when washing dishes. The drinking water faucet has no smell at all. We use that water for all cooking as well (except boiling eggs).

All that said, if the filter smells I would flush out the system as well as making sure there isn't any light getting on the filters or lines.

The smell also might be from what is in the water and is getting caught in the filter. Maybe try an RV type filter farther upstream and see if that changes anything.

It could be the water going into the boat, something in the tanks or lines or a less than quality filter.

What I do know is that clean drinking water is pretty important. You could remove the under counter filter and just use a brita / berkee style filter for drinking water.

 

[C lectric]

Lots of recommendations.
As you have now surmised the first water filter is OK with the 5 mic white spun polypro. THat will catch debris. The second filter should be the carbon block filter which will remove, or should, the odour causing materials. Keep a spare and change it when any hint of trouble shows.

You may need to chlorine treat your water tanks especially when you are not using and thus refilling regularily. You should not need much. A mtce. dose as suggested of a couple capsfull of just plain bleach, not the others being promoted, will take care of 100 gal of water easily. If my tanks are already fairly full I mix the bleach for each tank into about 2L or qts of water and pour that in.

I don't filter what comes out of the faucet. I only have 100 gal but I use filters when filling the tanks. Keeping the tanks clean is to me, more important, than filtering at the faucet. Or do both since you already have the faucet dedicated set.. THat stops debris from entering the tanks which helps keep the tanks clean which reduces the chances of odours developing. I use a 5 mic spun polypro , white filter, and then a ceramic filter for less than 1 micron filtering which also has an activated carbon core. It took some time to get the tanks clean enough that I can depend upon them

Since I started doing that I no longer have funny water or cloudy water even after a rough trip.

I will suggest though that the ceramic filter slows the water delivery a lot so if you need to refill a large quantity you may need a larger than average 10" filter of dual units to increase water flow.

 

[Maerin]

Thanks to all who have responded. I suspect the problem may be I am not treating the water and I am also not using any type of carbon filter. I am simply using two of the white 5 micron filters. For those who use a carbon filter, is it the same one you buy on Amazon or does there need to be something more special to it?

I will add chlorine each time I fill. I suspect that will help too. Is this the same chlorine you buy at Home Depot?

Clorox. Unscented.



But what is the objective for perpetually adding chlorine? Sure, you want to insure the water is potable, but water from a municipal source is already chlorinated. So you add more, then need a carbon filter to remove the taste. What have you gained? If you periodically shock the system (annually, at most), unless you have some source of pathogen entering the system, it will stay pathogen-free, due in large part to the residual chlorine that's present in municipal supplies-some to the extent that you need a carbon filter to make that municipal supply palatable. So adding more chlorine to your tank is redundant.



In over 10 yrs of full time cruising, we fill from the dockside supply or make our own, and use water exclusively from our tanks. Other than shocking the tanks every 2 yrs (maybe), we've never experienced any problem with contamination.



We do use a 10 micron carbon filter for all our usage except deck wash, a 10" cartridge lasts for anywhere from 3-9 months. Unless you're taking on some really dirty water, the carbon filter should be sufficient on its own. Double filtering with a sediment followed with a carbon filter is a bit overkill when a single filter will achieve a result that's indiscernible from double filtering. Besides, then you only have one filter housing to install and a single consumable item to inventory.

 

[rsn48]

A friend filters the water as it enters the holding tank, using an on hose RV filter. This strikes me as smart as you don't have problems with an in house system and you keep crap out of your tank(s).

 

[catalinajack]

Makes perfect sense IF your water supply is municipal. Ours is from an on-site well. Still, we use your method, a single carbon filter. And, I agree with Simi60, no one is going to get sick or die from using any marina's water unfiltered. Taste may be an issue for some but not safety. And, yes, I still occasionally drink water straight from the garden hose.

Clorox. Unscented.



But what is the objective for perpetually adding chlorine? Sure, you want to insure the water is potable, but water from a municipal source is already chlorinated. So you add more, then need a carbon filter to remove the taste. What have you gained? If you periodically shock the system (annually, at most), unless you have some source of pathogen entering the system, it will stay pathogen-free, due in large part to the residual chlorine that's present in municipal supplies-some to the extent that you need a carbon filter to make that municipal supply palatable. So adding more chlorine to your tank is redundant.



In over 10 yrs of full time cruising, we fill from the dockside supply or make our own, and use water exclusively from our tanks. Other than shocking the tanks every 2 yrs (maybe), we've never experienced any problem with contamination.



We do use a 10 micron carbon filter for all our usage except deck wash, a 10" cartridge lasts for anywhere from 3-9 months. Unless you're taking on some really dirty water, the carbon filter should be sufficient on its own. Double filtering with a sediment followed with a carbon filter is a bit overkill when a single filter will achieve a result that's indiscernible from double filtering. Besides, then you only have one filter housing to install and a single consumable item to inventory.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

I don't drink from my tanks. Just use it for dishes and toilets and cleaning. We can use 300 gallons in about 2 weeks, especially with guests. I have two 150 gl tanks, stainless. They really never run totally empty. When I fill them, I add about half cup of unscented bleach to each tank. Never have any smell issues. You will get an odor from your hot water tank if it has sediment building up in it. Mine is a 5 gl domestic tank, cheap and easy to replace every 5 - 10 years.

I used to have a whole boat cartridge filter. It would plug up in a couple tanks worth of water, I got rid of it. Now I need to clean the screens in my faucets fairly often, rusty particles. Don't know where they come from with S.S. tanks. Not a problem though.

I will sometimes drink a small amount of the water, maybe to take medication or brush my teeth. It is always fresh smelling and tasting.

pete

 

[PJHoffnet]

RV style filter for dock water/tank fills. Brita pitcher filtered water for drinking. All other uses come right out of the tap.

 

[bayview]

Thanks to all who have responded. I suspect the problem may be I am not treating the water and I am also not using any type of carbon filter. I am simply using two of the white 5 micron filters. For those who use a carbon filter, is it the same one you buy on Amazon or does there need to be something more special to it?

I will add chlorine each time I fill. I suspect that will help too. Is this the same chlorine you buy at Home Depot?

I disagree. I never added chlorine into potable water. I always bleached the tanks and ALL THE LINES following Peggie's instructions,
I did regularly drain the tank and fil with fresh if it had not been used for a while. I had a charcoal filter in the line for the cold side of the galley. This worked for many years in hot Florida climate.

 

[psneeld]

Unless I missed something...do we know what system the OP really has?


I have a 2 filter Whirlpool system from Lowes and it does have a charcoal filter (the yellow and blue water lines might be like mine...but maybe are very common) Pictures of filters attached.


Until we are sure what system and filters....ALL suggestions may be moot. So OP....a little more info and maybe the solution is simple?

 

[C lectric]

In post #11 , Freespool , the O.P. cleared his filtering up two white 5 mic elements which sound like spun poly pro for chunks but not odours.

I,m not so sure that many should be assuming that all of us have access to treated municipal water. Not all of us do. I do not. It is aquifer water for the marina and although very good and tested and all it is not the typical assumed municipal water and is not chlorinated.

Marinas and the town supply often accumulate some debris regardless of how "good" the system is and how well maintained. The piping will collect some of that and it will break free sometimes. Towns must do mtce of pipe systems which can put debris into the water piping. I know here they do chlorinate after that but once that is done there is no more untill the next round of mtce.

That is why I filter my tank water to keep my tanks as clean as possible rather that trying to clean it afterwards, at the faucet.

I learned, I had to , to use a mtce. dose of chlorine periodically or even with the filtering there would be , sometimes, an odour. I suspect strongly that odour was appearing while I was still trying to get my tanks clean as the odour has not been a problem for several years now. Now that mtce dose is yearly at the time of initial spring commissioning and none after untill the next year.

For many years I, like many, at my previous mooring at a different place did not filter and I eventually became aware, courtesy of some rough trips, that my tanks were NOT clean. Even from a city that prided itself on some of the best water on the continent there was debris. They could not guarantee that there was no debris.

Freespool has a problem therefore some of the suggestions:
-- Filter your tank fill water to keep as much debris out of the tanks as possible.
--continue to filter the faucet water but install a carbon block filter after the white 5 mic. filter.
--bleach, unscented, a mtce dose only maybe which is a very small one or twice a year untill you become aware that it becomes no longer needed and it should or at least you can cut back to once a year.

 

[FF]

First thing I would do is to examine the FW plumbing and remove ant sections of clear plastic hose.

 

[JDCAVE]

I would bleach the system with the filters removed. Then be sure to use it frequently to keep it flushed.

I see no reason the filters could bot be put into the main cold line and the separate spigot that would keep it flushing more often.

We had off flavours in our water, which was rectified by doing a complete bleaching of the system. Remove all filters first. There’s a thread on this forum on how much bleach to add and length of time. The first time you do this leave it sit a little longer. You will be amazed with all the schmigals come out of the pipes! Peggy, on this forum added to this thread. She’s the expert!

Our filtering system treats all the water, not just in the galley. Ideally it should have a pleated filter followed by a carbon filter.

Jim

 

[dhays]

I would suggest that the OP get and read Peggie’s book. In the copy that I have she discusses disinfecting a fresh water system in the section on seasonal recommissioning.

I typically will disinfect my system annually. There is a bit of confusion (in my mind) as to the concentration of chlorine necessary to disinfect a water system. In essence, the recommendations range from 100ppm bleach for 12-24 hours to 200ppm bleach for 2-4. I’ve come down on the side of 200ppm bleach for ~3 hours.

You can find dilution calculators on the web, the best seem to be from Canadian provincial governments FWIW. I have used this formula.

http://www.foodsafe.ca/dilution-calculator.html

Bleach soln added (gal) = (ppm desired x system size gal ) / [.955 x (% of bleach soln) x 10,000]

Example: I have 175 gallon tanks and want an available chlorine concentration of 200 ppm. I’m going to use typical 5.25% household bleach.

(200 x 175)/(.955 x 5.25 x 10,000)= ~.7 gallons bleach

Household bleach is sodium hypochlorite and when mixed with a volume of water will give about 95.5% available chlorine (been too long since chemistry so I can’t really explain the formula).

In reality, I’d round down to 2 1/2 quarts of bleach to make it easy and give ~175ppm available bleach.

Another way to look at it is 6 cups of 5.25% household bleach for 50 gallons should give you close to 200ppm.

Since the city where my marina is shoots for .3-.5 ppm of available chlorine in the municipal water at the top, I don’t add any bleach to my tanks when I fill up.

 

[C lectric]

I agree about Peggy's book. I have it and there is good info in it.

And yes an initial shocking and flushing would be a very good start and Peggy's book has that in it.

 

[Bigsfish]

We use our boat year round. Water from the dock is filtered with a filter on the end of the hose but we prefer to run the dock water thru the Watermaker or just make water from sea water. Never used bleach and our boat water is better than our home water.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Each water tank refill we add a tiny amount of bleach. We have then a filter right after the pump that filter out most of chemicals and contaminants. For our usage we change the filter once a year.

L