Homemade Water Filter

[HoneyBerry]

Do any of you have experience with homemade water filters? I have been using a pitcher type water filter but it tend to get moldy and I am very allergic to mold. I have to change to filters often to avoid the mold and it is expensive. I think that the water filtering concept is simple and that I should be able to build water filters from scratch.

[applestar]

I don't have the answer, but I think it would help if you mentioned what you are intending to filter out? ...oh and from what kind of water source.

[HoneyBerry]

To filter tap water from the local utility. I want to filter out chlorine and chemical residue and whatever else it could have in it such as lawn chemicals, arsenic, etc. My tap water is sourced from an aquifer and then treated. It looks clean and is fine for most uses, but I don't trust it 100% as drinking water, so I like to filter it for drinking. I want my drinking water to be as clean as possible.

[tomf]

You want a carbon filter, you can buy one that goes on your water line.

[imafan26]

the best filter would be a RO filter that would install under the sink. Regardless of what type of filter you choose to use, they will all need to be replaced regularly.

You utility company does have to make sure the water is potable and does not contain unacceptable levels of toxins and chemicals. Many places heavily chlorinate their water or their water is from a mineral source so it is high in salts.

My mother uses the Brita pitcher but she replaces the filter every three months. My brother purchased a water station for them. It uses bottled water and can deliver hot or cold water.

According to the utility, the water that I am getting is coming from a well that was contaminated with pesticides that was used when this area was pineapple fields. The water goes through giant charcoal filters and is chlorinated but not too much, I really don't notice it. It does contain algae because it comes from the lens under the city or dikes in the mountains. It is relatively high in calcium and magnesium, but is still soft water. I don't worry about it. If I want to keep the water in a bottle for a while, I have to boil it first to keep the algae from growing.

Some areas like Hawaii Kai and the Ewa plain don't have local wells so they are getting water from accross the Koolau's and from more brackish wells. Their water actually does taste different and has more chlorine in it.

Water from the Halawa well sits on the main aquifer and is not clorinated, but recently the Military revealed that their underground fuel storage tanks had leaked like 20 years ago and so of that has probably gotten into the aquifer. It is only coming to light now because of the geology of the island. Rain that falls today, percolates through the soil and will become drinking water 25 years from now.

[HoneyBerry]

Thank you. I like reading your interesting posts, imafan. It will take a long time for that contamination to dissipate. It is heart breaking, all the stuff. They are ramping up the oil cargo on the trains that travel through my area to the port and then they want to tax us ahead of time to pay for oil spills that might happen. The oil spill tax is on the November ballot. I can't imagine an oil spill in the Puget Sound waters. It would certainly be a tragedy. But it's bound to happen. There are hundreds and hundreds of oil cars on those tracks. And coal too. The coal is for export to some other country. I'm getting off track here with my oil and coal train rant.

[Allyn]

I just use a Brita pitcher with a charcoal filter in it. I started using it when we were on "city water" and I didn't like the chlorine smell/taste. Of course, I don't know how much that was the pitcher and how much that was just leaving the water to off-gas the chlorine. Chlorine will dissipate by itself. After we moved to a place with well water, I still use it because I don't like the way the water tastes. After running it through the charcoal filter, it doesn't have a taste. I know I need to test my well water and probably need to disinfect it, but just haven't yet. There are so many things that need to be done here, we run out of money before we get too far down the list.

[HoneyBerry]

I have been using a Brita pitcher too. I can tell you that it does indeed filter out the chlorine because I tested it. The water tested positive for chlorine before I ran it through the filter and then tested negative for chlorine after I ran it through the filter. It's easy to test for chlorine. You can buy test strips at the hardware store. I have to be careful because sometimes my pitcher filter gets moldy. I sometime have severe allergic reactions when it comes to mold. I end up changing out filters often to avoid the mold. It is expensive. I have been looking at buying a higher end filtered water pitcher that has silver inside the filter to prevent mold. I am looking at all water filter options. There are some very expensive water filters on the market. I guess an expensive water filter system would be good for peace of mind but it might not be necessary to spend so much money.

[applestar]

I haven't used it in a while but I have a cool mist humidifier with true UV chamber to kill mold.

When I was looking into pond pumps and filters, I saw that they sell UV equipped pump/filters to kill algae... and long time ago when I was talking to a friend in ArIzona about her allergy/chem sensitivity safe swimming pool, she said she used salt water and UV.

...so isn't there a UV treatment option for potable water?

(I guess dead algae would still cause allergic reaction, but at least they won't proliferate, and they could then be filtered out maybe?)

[HoneyBerry]

Maybe. I'll have to explore your suggestions.

[imafan26]

As it turned out while everyone wanted to blame the plantations for the contaminants, they couldn't lay all of the blame on them. Apparently the same chemicals are dripping off cars from the oil and when it rains it washes off the roads and into the soil, so there is also that source of contamination and the oil dripping from the cars continue to this day.

[HoneyBerry]

Yes, everywhere cars are dripping oil into the ground & water. Automobiles make such a mess of the environment. Oil, carbon emissions, asphalt. I saw a picture of a traffic jam on a freeway in China 50 lanes wide. 50 lanes wide! Too many people, too many cars, too much pollution. I try hard to do what I can to minimize my footprint. It's hard to not have a car. I would if I could. At least my car is in good repair and I don't use windshield wiper fluid because it would eventually end up in the ocean. There is some good work going on in California to reduce emissions. The goal is zero emissions. It doesn't seem possible. I subscribe to the emails but haven't had much time to read very much about the project. It's nice to know that improvements are in the works.

[Taiji]

Here in my town we are fortunate to have a health store that has a water purification system, and the water they sell is really cheap, maybe 25 cents per gallon. Maybe there is something similar in your area? The machine allows you to choose the water you want, reverse osmosis, or distilled. I actually don't buy it; I have well water which tastes fine, maybe I'm just used to it!

[HoneyBerry]

Yes, I do have that option. I see people refilling their bottles at the local health food store. It's not for me. I don't like the hastle of the bottles. I'd rather filter my tap water.

[tomf]

Go to a well water treatment store, they will test your water and give you advice on what to do. I put my own filter system in to save money.

[tomf]

Photo of my filter system.

[HoneyBerry]

Nice job! I would love to build something like what you built.