Fresh water filtration

If you filter your fresh water before use or for drinking, what type of system do you use? I don't have a filter and the additive I use to keep the tank fresh gives my wife heartburn. I am considering adding an under sink filter for the cold water line. I saw some systems where a filter is fitted between the tank and the pump, filtering all of the water, but it seems at 2.5 gpm it would restrict the flow. I'm curious what others' experiences are with fresh water filtration.

I have a sediment filter between the tanks and the pump, and a double filter in the galley for a drinking and cooking water only faucet. Its a charcoal taste filter and a bacteria filter.
At the end of a season (May thru Oct) the sediment filter is pretty plugged.
The others don't look used.
They all get changed in the spring.

2.5 GPM should not restrict your flow. You can add a set of sediment and charcoal filters if you want to filter all your water. But if it's just drinking water you're concerned with, then I'd look at under sink units. Which can be a simple as one or two filters or as advanced as an RO unit.

drb1025 said:

I don't have a filter and the additive I use to keep the tank fresh gives my wife heartburn. .

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Why an additive? For cooking, coffee, showers, toilets or anchor washing we have done fine in the PNW filling tanks with municipal dock water. For drinking water 5 gallon water coolers on longer trips are what we use.

Tap water from tanks is always fresh, no filters of any sort. We flush and bleach our tanks every spring.

Our boat came with a strainer on the water pump intake, presumably to protect the pump. Then I added a whole-house, industry standard cartridge filter and use a charcoal filter cartridge. It filters sediment, and the charcoal takes out any objectionable tastes. The cartridge is good for 6 months which is the limit for any charcoal filter. I used a 4" x 10" filter, but probably could have gotten away with a 2.5" x 10" which is more commonly available (any hardware store).

Here's a blog post of its installation.

I have an under the sink GE "Smartwater" system it has it's own faucet and spout at the galley sink. the flow rate is not very great but will suffice. I have thought of installing a "whole house" type filter at the main pump so all the water will be filtered, it's on the to do one day list .
My wife drinks bottled water, we use the filtered water for coffee, tea, ice etc.

Have you found the sediment and charcoal filters adequate for cleaning out bacteria, amoeba and other fun things that we often find in 3rd world countries? It seems that only a UV sterilizer would be effective.

I keep it simple. I use 2 full house filters in line. These units cost about $35 each at Home Depot, then some additional hardware. When cruising I attach one to my filler hose so that I know the water going into my tank doesn't have junk in it.

To the best of my knowledge there are no filters that will remove all bacteria that may contaminate water. While some filters will catch the extremely large bacteria and the particles that the bacteria may attach themselves to, most bacteria will pass through your typical filters and charcoal filters. U.V. and reverse osmosis are costly. A small amount of Chorine coupled with sedimentation filteration works fine for most applications.

We use a Pura water filter UV1-EPCB-5 which filters to .5 micron (to my best recollection). That will trap most if not all bacteria. It also has a UV light which kills the viruses which are indeed too small to be caught by even a .5 micron filter. It only flows about a gallon per minute, but that is adequate for the small tap at the galley sink that we use for drinking water, rinsing dishes and providing water to the ice maker. We have used these filters in 2 boats and our RV and have never had any water quality issues.

twistedtree said:

Our boat came with a strainer on the water pump intake, presumably to protect the pump. Then I added a whole-house, industry standard cartridge filter and use a charcoal filter cartridge. It filters sediment, and the charcoal takes out any objectionable tastes. The cartridge is good for 6 months which is the limit for any charcoal filter. I used a 4" x 10" filter, but probably could have gotten away with a 2.5" x 10" which is more commonly available (any hardware store).

Here's a blog post of its installation.

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Dauntless was much the same with a 2.5" x 10" standard household filter between the water tanks and FWP.

Occasionally, I have spent the money to put a charcoal filter in it, but it only lasts a few months and I have about 100 sediment filters.

I do not put anything in the fresh water tank. I just use them all the time and since I stopped trying to use "old" water, I have no taste problems without the charcoal filter.

I worried about this a lot in the first year or two, but has become a non-problem.

The human body has about 30 trillion cells. We also have slightly more bacteria, 30 to 40 trillion, yes trillion with a T, in our bodies.

The watermaker aside, we have no freshwater filtration system. Generally I'll avoid filling tanks from well supplied water. Before filling with "city water" I'll fill a transparent 2 gallon jug. If it looks clear and tastes fine, in the tank it goes.

11 years and no problems with water.

Have long used a sediment filter between the tanks and the pumps. Our water is essentially product water from the water maker with a couple of times a season water from the dock.

Looked into using a UV filter and found out it basically had to be running all the time as it was ineffective until several minutes after it was turned on. The electrical draw then became a problem for us at anchor.

drb1025 said:

If you filter your fresh water before use or for drinking, what type of system do you use? I don't have a filter and the additive I use to keep the tank fresh gives my wife heartburn. I am considering adding an under sink filter for the cold water line. I saw some systems where a filter is fitted between the tank and the pump, filtering all of the water, but it seems at 2.5 gpm it would restrict the flow. I'm curious what others' experiences are with fresh water filtration.

Click to expand...

Here in the PNW, I have yet to come across bad water. I only have 87g of fresh water capacity in two tanks. I use a bit of bleach to keep the water from growing anything but never have needed to use a filter. I never find any sediment and even with the bleach (only about 1tsp/10g) our water always tastes great.

We filter any and all dock side water before it goes into the tanks. After that we don't worry about it. The waters turned over frequently enough that we never have an odor or taste or have had a bacteria issue. Away from the dock we use our water-maker.

Those who do filter their water, check the specs on your filters. They have a flow rate and total volume capacity. We use a Matrikx filter to remove chlorine/taste/odor, sediment/dirt/rust and its rated for 1 GPM. Slow but the water has no taste.

https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-106-kx-matrikx-cto-9-34-carbon-block-filter-5-mic.aspx

Marty: Yes, that is one of the drawbacks of operating a UV system on a boat. It is supposed to be on all the time to be effective. Furthermore you need a pretty low initial turbidity level which you would probably achieve with a standard house type filter prior to the UV light.

dan

The other draw back to UV is there is no residual effect. Once the water leaves the UV device if there is any bacteria down stream, the water just becomes recontaminated. Or contaminated for that matter.

Thanks for your comments. I am going to install a filtering system for all the water. Now to find the right one.

One more question. Where should the filter be installed in relation to the water pump-between the water tank and the pump or after the pump?

If you have the room I recommend two of these: http://www.amazon.com/Pentek-150237-Filter-Housing-Female/dp/B0045LUE4W

One with a sediment filter in it and the other with a charcoal filter in it. Put isolation valves on each side of the filters and pressure gauges on each side as well.

I also recommend drilling and tapping the center bottom of the filter body to put in petcock drain valves. It can make changing the filter elements easier and less messy.

If you want to get really high tech you can remove the red air bleeder button on top of the filter body and replace it with a drain valve with a short piece of tubing on it. So when you need to bleed the air out of the filters the water doesn't run all over the filter body and drip everywhere. You can just drain it into a cup or small tub as you bleed it.

drb1025 said:

One more question. Where should the filter be installed in relation to the water pump-between the water tank and the pump or after the pump?

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After the pump. Install a coarse screen filter before the pump.

Capt.Bill11 said:

After the pump. Install a coarse screen filter before the pump.

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Great, thanks!

Install as close to the pump as possible but downstream of the pump not on the suction side of the line. The suction side probably already has a small strainer to stop any debris from entering the pump. You need the pressure to overcome the small decrease in pressure as the filters become loaded. Place where they will be easy to service maintain a spare filter and o rings.

drb
I can echo all of your PNW friends

Where I take on water in South Western BC, and up the coast in Desolation Sound, or on Vancouver Island, I have never had bad water. I do connect a second "whole house" filter at the end of my feed hose when taking on unknown water, and I have one of those filters in my system, after the pump.
If the water hasn't been used for a while, I run it out when I am in a place that I can fill right up. I hold 300 gals, so when we are out for a while, we only have to head in when the tanks a close to empty. That will usually last us 10 days to 2 weeks.

Thanks for the feedback. My freshwater filtration system now includes a sediment filter that attaches to the freshwater hose so it gets it before it enters the tank. I installed a whole house filter with a carbon block filter after the freshwater pump. Awesome tasting water!!

Looks good. My only comment would be that there are no isolation valves to change filters without turning off the water but with the on demand pump that really should not be a problem. Good luck and safe travels.

ulysses said:

Looks good. My only comment would be that there are no isolation valves to change filters without turning off the water but with the on demand pump that really should not be a problem. Good luck and safe travels.

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This filter has a bypass, off, and filter setting. So the filter can be bypassed and changed with water remaining on. I doubt I will need this feature except for sanitizing the lines after the filter.

drb1025 said:

This filter has a bypass, off, and filter setting. So the filter can be bypassed and changed with water remaining on. I doubt I will need this feature except for sanitizing the lines after the filter.

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Yep, mine has these too, so turn the top and the water input is turned off....

Has anyone experienced a sulfur smell from charcoal filters? I have used these in the dirt house and they seem to off gas after they have sat for a day of so with no flow through them. I wonder if the critters that they collect decay over time and produce the smell.

Our marina water is on a well; not bad, but not city water. Many marinas around here are on their own well.

We filter our water as we fill our tank, after having treated the tank and water lines with the clean-up routine (chlorine additive, during Spring commissioning and then again periodically as/if required).

We use a pair of portable whole house filter housings, one Big Blue and one GE Smartwater (just 'cause that's what I acquired along the way). First is full size, the second is a slimline design. First in line uses a Pentek DGD-2501 dual-gradient sediment filter element (25/1 micron), and the second is a Pentek FloPlus-10 Carbon Block filter element (.5 micron).

This approach is a bit of overkill for tank water, but it's easy enough to do in the meantime. When I get around to it, I'm intending to add drinking water filters/faucets (e.g., Moen Choiceflo 9600, which we now have at our home), so the carbon block would move to that.

I use only the Big Blue/2501 filter on shorewater, because the second filter (the carbon block) degrades water pressure too much... and because we usually only use the shorewater connection if we happen to be somewhere that provides city water.

We also usually keep a Pur pitcher of drinking water in one of our fridges, but mostly that's just to keep quality cold water on hand.

-Chris