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04-17-2013, 10:21 AM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Virginia Beach
Posts: 250
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Water Filter Mod's? Are they worth it?
I have seen a few people show how they have installed water filter mods, either of the permanent kind with replaceable filters, or the kind you screw to your sink faucet or the kind you screw to the incoming water hose.
I was looking at doing a permanent install like this:
http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/sho...9&postcount=25
But after buying all of the parts I was spending almost 70 or 80 bucks, and then the replacement filters cost about 15 bucks for a pack of two.
At first I wanted to be able to filter all of the water coming in to the RV to drinking quality... Anyway I decided to stick with the inline Camco water filters you can buy at Walmart, and then I bought a drinking water filter I installed on the kitchen sink. (like the PUR kind)
I guess my real question is, do those disposable Camco http://www.camco.net/Products/Item?p...9#.UW7nBLWG3I8 filters work as well as the replaceable kind like the thread above? I suppose with the Camco type you could add a couple together to filter even better?
__________________
2012 Cougar 330RBK
GVWR 12,265
2004 Ford F-350
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04-17-2013, 10:25 AM
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#2
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Tallahassee, Florida
Posts: 51
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Water filters come in different grades.
The Camco ones are very low grade. Perfect for removing big stuff like sand from your water. Not effective on cysts, chlorine, and other bad things. The pur water filters tend to have charcoal to remove tastes/odors and also remove some cysts. Important for drinking, not as important for washing dishes. And really unimportant for flushing to potty.
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04-17-2013, 10:30 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Virginia Beach
Posts: 250
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from the Camco site:
"Greatly reduces bad taste, odors, chlorine and sediment in drinking water with a 100 micron fiber filter High-flow carbon filter with KDF to help prevent bacteria growth"
__________________
2012 Cougar 330RBK
GVWR 12,265
2004 Ford F-350
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04-17-2013, 11:50 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1,000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Comptech
from the Camco site:
"Greatly reduces bad taste, odors, chlorine and sediment in drinking water with a 100 micron fiber filter High-flow carbon filter with KDF to help prevent bacteria growth"
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Comptech -
The general filters will contain activated charcoal which will work to remove some of the chlorine and "other things". However, the problem with removing chlorine, if you allow the filtered water to set too long, is that Giardia and Cryptosporidium will come out of their "cyst stage" and can be a problem. Chlorine in the water causes these two nasties to remain in cyst stage long enough to pass through one's body. To filter out the cysts of these creatures, one needs to have at least a 1 micron filter on the water line. Now that is not to say that the common activated charcoal filter is bad, but if you store your RV for, say, a month, run plenty of water through the pipes before drinking. And if you fill the fresh water tank with activated charcoal water, probably flush out any month old or longer water before refilling. Now that is not to say that there is any consistant danger, but an ounce of prevention . . .
Sadly, we (collectively all of the past and present humans) have done a fair job of polluting, at least to a degree, just about all the fresh water on and within Earth. Even in the deep aquifers! For example, one common pollutant is called BTEX within the aquifers - we call it gasoline here on the surface. Remember all those old steel tanks that used to be under gas stations? That corroded and leaked? Good news, activated charcoal will help remove BTEX, but it uses up the charcoal quickly!
Natural pollutants don't do much for the system either. If you ever visit Chaco Canyon and camp in Gallo Campground . . . don't drink the water! There is enough natural magnesium and salts in the water . . . well, the next day will a moving experience!
Personally, for the general camping experience, one might consider a 1 micron filter followed by an activated charcoal filter for the RV. True, you don't really need to treat the water that goes down the toilet, but it is all plumbed together. For those of us who plan longer journeys and have taken way too many geology and environmental courses, or who are just OCD, one might consider a "drinking water reverse osmosis sytem" such as http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/sho...everse+osmosis. In our new fifth wheel, I again installed one of these systems, but this new installation includes a final UV treatment.
Why the final UV treatment? Though many of the filters have the KDF or other bacterial inhibitors, if one allows "still water" to remain in these filters too long, even the inhibitors will fail. After two months in storage, one might find the water coming out of the filter more "dangerous" than the water going in.
Also, one might consider getting a small TDS tester. These pocket sized meters are relatively inexpensive and will tell you a lot about the water coming out of your faucet.
Ron
__________________
2011 Alpine 3640RL (Beauty)
(Gone! Now replaced by Beauty3)
2016 Ford F-450 (The Beast)
Diesel 4x4, DRW, LB, CC
Comfort Ride Hitch
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04-17-2013, 12:15 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Virginia Beach
Posts: 250
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Geo,
So then, you could use one of those Camco type to filter the water to the whole trailer and then a good drinking water filter on the faucet? Without being OCD...
__________________
2012 Cougar 330RBK
GVWR 12,265
2004 Ford F-350
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04-17-2013, 12:19 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Battle Creek
Posts: 163
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We use the KDF Camco RV screw on filter along with an under sink RV Culligan 1000R-D drinking water filter which filters 0.5 microns. It was a bit of a pain to install but keeps up from buying bottled water. Works great for us.
__________________
Bob & Sarah
2013 Bullet 248RKS (Taj Mahaul)
2013 Silverado 2500HD, 6L, 3.73 (Blizzard)
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04-17-2013, 12:21 PM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Virginia Beach
Posts: 250
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__________________
2012 Cougar 330RBK
GVWR 12,265
2004 Ford F-350
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04-17-2013, 02:03 PM
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#8
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Member
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Golden, Colorado
Posts: 85
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This is why God created beer
__________________
Marc and Janice
Golden (home of Coors beer) Colorado
Oscar and Abby (Westies)
2012 Laredo 294RK TT "Larry"
'09 Chevy 2500HD Crewcab, 6.0L vortec (gas)
*Wishin' for a diesel*
Equal-I-Zer sway control hitch
Life is good!
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04-17-2013, 02:27 PM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1,000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Comptech
Geo,
So then, you could use one of those Camco type to filter the water to the whole trailer and then a good drinking water filter on the faucet? Without being OCD...
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Comptech - Yes, that should work fine.
Little Guy - To mis-quote Ben Franklin: "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.". .
Ron
__________________
2011 Alpine 3640RL (Beauty)
(Gone! Now replaced by Beauty3)
2016 Ford F-450 (The Beast)
Diesel 4x4, DRW, LB, CC
Comfort Ride Hitch
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04-17-2013, 03:51 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SoCal
Posts: 1,739
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little Guy
This is why God created beer
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…and bottled water. That's what we use. Even for the dog. Faucet water is for washing stuff (hands, people, dishes, etc.), and flushing.
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-Scott, DW, DG, DB, and DD
2011 Passport 2590BH
2009 Ford F150 SuperCrew F X4 5.4L w/Max Tow
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04-17-2013, 04:03 PM
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#11
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Site Team
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Gaylord
Posts: 26,996
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Comptech
...I suppose with the Camco type you could add a couple together to filter even better?
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Comptech,
Unfortunately, it won't work that way. Stacking 100 micron filters end to end will still only filter particles larger than 100 microns. The casts (and other pathogens) that are smaller than 100 microns will just flow right on through filter #1 and as they're looking back smiling, keep right on going through filter #2.
About the only thing you'll accomplish is slowing the water flow by adding the resistance of the second filter, otherwise, you won't gain anything. In fact, you won't even gain added filtering before you need to change filters because the first one will clog and stop waterflow before the second one gets much use.
If you did connect them in parallel so the water flows through both of them as primary filters, you'd double the amount of filtered water, but it will all be filtered to the 100 micorn level and all particles smaller than that will effectivley pass thorough the filters "untouched"
The Camco filters are essentially just to keep sand and silt out of the RV, they don't do anything measurable to prevent illness.
"Way back when" we took a Wally Byam caravan to the Yucatan one year. Airstreams back then had the Everpure water filtration system. We were advised to superchlorinate the water we put into the FW tank and use the filter to remove "dead stuff" rather than trust the filter to get it all out. Nice thing about that system was it removed all the chlorine along with the sludge. We went through 3 filters on that 3 week trip, but we didn't get sick, so it was definitely worth the effort and the cost.
__________________
John
2015 F250 6.7l 4x4
2014 Cougar X Lite 27RKS
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04-17-2013, 04:50 PM
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#12
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Northville NY in the Adirondacks
Posts: 2,128
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Quote:
Originally Posted by f6bits
…and bottled water. That's what we use. Even for the dog. Faucet water is for washing stuff (hands, people, dishes, etc.), and flushing.
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We do the same, both at home and on the road. The water here in the village has a funny taste to it, probably too much chlorine causes it. CG water is never to be trusted anyway. We also buy the water by the gallon or 2.5 gallon so that we have sufficient on hand for keeping the Keurig filled and some cooking water.
I have a whole house filter set up with garden hose fittings that uses standard filter cartridges. I can use the inexpensive sediment filters or anything up to the filters that get just about everything. Depending on the quality of CG water, I'll pop in the appropriate filter.
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'11 Cougar 326MKS loaded with mods
'12 Ford F250 SuperCab 6.7 PowerStroke Diesel
Amateur Radio: KD2IAT (146.520) GMRS: WQPG808 (462.675 TPL 141.3)
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04-18-2013, 11:52 AM
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#13
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Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: NJ
Posts: 29
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For my 230RS trailer I just installed a Culligan EZ-Change Level-4 Under-Sink.
Got tired of packing water for us and the dog.
The faucet looks good and the water tastes like nothing. Even comes with a winter bypass cap.
Pressure is a little slow. About 15 seconds to fill a tea mug.
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04-23-2013, 04:44 PM
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#15
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Stone Harbor
Posts: 174
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I hate having to purchase water in plastic containers at rip off prices. We make sure we only fill up with chlorinated city water, the have one of these 3M filters installed under the kitchen sink so we have one faucet that dispenses safe good tasting water.
http://www.amazon.com/Filtrete-Under...ds=3m+filtrete
Seems to work well, and the filters seem to last at least a year - biggest variable seems to be how much chlorine is in the city water. When it stops tasting good, it's time to change.
__________________
Bill & Kate with Zeke (parti-poodle) & Bailey (std poodle)
Stone Harbor, New Jersey
2014 Forest River Wildcat 272RLX Fifth Wheel
2018 F-250 4x4 Crew Cab 6.2L Gasser
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04-24-2013, 07:52 AM
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#16
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Clearville, PA
Posts: 150
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Quote:
Originally Posted by apr67
Water filters come in different grades.
The Camco ones are very low grade. Perfect for removing big stuff like sand from your water. Not effective on cysts, chlorine, and other bad things. The pur water filters tend to have charcoal to remove tastes/odors and also remove some cysts. Important for drinking, not as important for washing dishes. And really unimportant for flushing to potty.
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Yep, I used to have a dual whole house type filter set up... Got to be rather a chore and I discovered that the cheap blue throw away filter on the water inlet to the whole trailer to keep the big stuff out and point of use Pur filters for drinking water was much easier and more economical in the long run for us.
I suppose if I traveled a great deal in Mexico or other places even further south of the US than Mexico, I might be more concerned, but, for the US and Cananda, I've never encountered water that the above system didn't make drinkable. The Pur filters provide drinking water and last a fairly long time and they tell me when to replace them (no guessing at whether the filter is good or bad) and the disposable blue ones keep the grit out of the lines and valves for longer life and one lasts me the whole season (and our "season" is usually 4 to 5 months of on the road time).
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My 2 cents, your mileage may vary...
Don
Bronwyn
2 Cats; J-Lo and Ragamuffin
2011 Keystone Cougar 318SAB
2011 Ram 2500 Longhorn CTD HO
Built in brake controller and exhaust brake
Tri Glide TrailAir Pinbox / B&W Companion Hitch
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04-25-2013, 01:18 AM
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#17
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 402
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water filter
I use a filter out side with a replaceable paper cartridge. But I still do not trust the water in the holding tank or camp grounds to drink. Even after bleach and flushing the tank fresh drinking water is not hard to get or cost much We use it for coffee tea and cooking. Water for dish and pots is My tank water and I bleach that well and flush system before every trip to be sure of no bugs in the water...I can smell a fresh bleach when showering but that is ok better than getting sick. We have a bird bath at home for our feathered friends I clean it every day also or the Wife does. Bushman said that.
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06-09-2013, 04:33 AM
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#18
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Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: South Georgia
Posts: 37
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We use to use the Blue Inline Water Filters and on one camping trip the park was having issues with their Well and during the 4 day stay we went through two of the inline Water Filters do to sand & trash plugging them up.
This is the Water Filter System I made up about 5 years ago and still use it today. The Filter Housing on the right (the inlet side) is a 5 micron to catch the sand and trash. The Filter Housing on the left is a Charcoal Filter for taste...This system works great. If you camper has a rear bumper you can cut you center piece of PVC pipe which connects the two filters together so once you have your water connected you hang the filters on the end of your bumper so they are off of the ground..
When we are getting ready to leave a park, we disconnect the Water Filters, flip them up side down and let them drain while we are packing up. Then we screw on caps on each each end of the Filter system and store them away...
__________________
2013 Montana 3800RE
04.5 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins 5.9L,
Striker II Power Module, Holley Blue, Cat 2-Micron Fuel Filter System, AFE Pro-Dry S Air Filter, Intake Eliminator Pipe, Muffler Delete Pipe
"Still Tree Hugger Friendly"
https://i653.photobucket.com/albums/u...46290d167a.jpg
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06-09-2013, 05:53 AM
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#19
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Midland Mi
Posts: 80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little Guy
This is why God created beer
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That is why I also create beer.
__________________
Rob, Sheryl and Bear (border collie/basset hound)
2008 Laredo 311RL TT
2004 Silverado 2500 6.0L 2wd
US Navy 1982-1995
Homebrewer
BBQ fanatic
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06-11-2013, 03:10 AM
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#20
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 402
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water filter
I like shopping thrift stores and have seen new yes new water filters as the one I use and the same as South G. has .All I had to buy was new filters I have a spare just in case Mine gets broke or walks away made up a pail with a drain and all sits in it at the tap and stores for the ride home also.. Filters are cheep but I like clean water for the trailer. Still buy drinking water for the cook Lady after all how clean can You get the tank I can't see in it can't test the water so can't drink it ...Bushman ...My 2cents
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