What kind of filter do I need for my well water?

Have the water tested to find out what system you need to have a plumber install, do a whole house system

How much pressure does your well/pump put out? Is it similar to what you would find in a normal place hooked up to city water?

@johnpowell I’m not sure but no, it’s a lot less pressure than what city water is.

That is why I ask. Reverse Osmosis needs a lot of pressure to force the water through the filters. It is like shoving milk through a block of cheddar. Okay, not that bad. But you can’t just install one without losing some water pressure. You could probably get by with using it for drinking water. But a nice shower probably won’t happen.

I have a R.O. kit at my house but I only use it for fishtank water. I spent 200 bucks on a water filter for 5 bucks worth of goldfish. And the filters are very expensive.

This is a good time to get to know your neighbors and see how they are dealing with the situation.

@johnpowell That makes sense. This would only be installed in our kitchen sink. We already have a shower head filter that works well but doesn’t filter out all the bacteria to make it safe to drink. Is the R.O. system something that does that? It would be safe to drink?

I don’t feel comfortable answering that. Could it make it safe, absolutely. But I wouldn’t trust my life on a cheap kit from amazon. It is probably time to consult a professional.

And if you have “floaters” the filters are going to get clogged so fast it is going to be hundreds a month to just keep the water going since you will have to constantly have to replace the filters in the RO. They like printer ink and razor blades. Cheap investment. Consumables are painfully expensive.

I’m not joking when I say to ask your neighbors. Maybe they know some trick to make things work.

@johnpowell I was actually wondering about the monthly cost. That was a concern. I’ll reach out to my landlord since they only live around the corner. I’ll see what they do for their water and hopefully come up with a better solution.

I’m bored and want to type.

But Pepsi has a very tight control on what came out of our soda machines at the theater. We had people from Pepsi come out every few months to check our “brix”. The soda syrup to water ratio.

We also had a 20 foot long R.O. system to make sure the water going into the soda was pure. Pepsi and Coke do not fuck around. It is branding and everything everywhere must taste the same. I have had a Coke from McDonald’s all over Europe. The consistency is remarkable. This is not a fluke. Tons of cash goes into making it the same everywhere.

But we could watch our RO filters brown by the day.. And this was in Oregon. Our water is pretty much melted snow or rain. I loved changing them since I am a bit of a slob and loved sloshing around in water. It would take a few hours to properly change the filters. And each batch of replacements were a few grand. At least the Pepsi tasted the same.

Depending on feasibility it may be cheaper in the long run to have your water hooked to the municipal water system.

The under sink RO units will take care of the smell/color but only on that sink. Other sinks and hook ups (such as washing machine) will still be dealing with the rest of the mess. Also please know that if you use an RO unit, you will use more water than you think since some of the normal flow is used to wash away the “bad” water. Your flow rate at the sink will be lower than normal. If you still want to keep the well as your source of water, or if you have no other option, I’d recommend a whole house unit. The unit should have some sort of “roughing” filter, usually a cotton wound or polypropylene filter, followed by usually a carbon or coconut shell filter(s) and some sort of softener. If you can find something with a UV sanitizer, you should have pretty much a solid system that will knock down all the solids, color, smell, and any bacteria/microbes.