Water Filter Question

[Dennis_W]

I'm looking to get a water filter and wondering what the best/cheapest option would. I understand that best and cheapest don't really go hand and hand but I digress. I have very rusty well water.... I've never taken it to get tested. I'd like something that was easy to build and easy to move from my basement and out to the garage for every brew session. My initial thought was this bad boy but thought I'd come to the experts for some advice.

http://www.farmandfleet.com/product...utdoor-hydrant-water-filter.html#.U3J07k0U8y8

 

[Homercidal]

I think this could be effective for some flavor reduction and to some extent particulate removal. Whether it will be useful for your needs depends on your water and your requirements.

For instance, we have chloramines in my city. Therefore I cannot use my tap water for brewing, unless I treat it with Campden Tablets to remove the chloramines. Most water filter systems are not suitable for removing chloramines.

As for iron, I think the best bet would be a water softener, followed by an RO filter system. You can buy an RO system online for about $130-150 (and up) depending on the number of stages and amount of flow required.

At this point you are talking about investing in your hobby. It's not a cheap option, but might be worth it if you brew often. I am currently buying my RO water, but until the grocery store set up an RO machine, I seriously thought about an RO system for brewing and for the coffee machine, etc.

I recommend going to Ward Labs online and sending them a water sample. You can use a plastic wter bottle from the store and after flushing your water for 5 minutes, fill up the bottle with your water and mail it to them along with a filled-out form you downloaded from their site. Cost is between $21 and $30 depending on whether you want the household mineral test, or the "brewers" test.

That will give you an idea of what you have to work with for your water. Then you can smartly choose your water treatment solution.

 

[LordUlrich]

I looked at a filter like that but once I you add in the cost of replacement a filter with a replaceable filter was cheaper.
I use a cheap DuPont charcoal "whole house" filter unit. You get better filtration at low flows. I don't have iron issues though.
If you to for RO there is no reason to do any pretreatment, RO will remove basically everything.
If you are on municipal you should be able to get a water report from the city, they have to test and provide the report by law. Many cities will publish a short report so if what you want is not listed call and see if they have it.

 

[Dennis_W]

thanks for the input guys. I've read mixed reviews about using softened water. All and all I'm not sure which way I'll go. RO doesn't seem like an option at this point because I don't want to have to transport the water from the house to the garage and the garage isn't insulated so in the winter their would be big big problems.

 

[ChuckO]

That filter will probably only reduce the rust particles in your water. It will do almost nothing to reduce the dissolved iron in the water. At minimum it will take a water softener to reduce the dissolved iron. You can easily check for dissolved iron by filling a glass with water and placing it on a sheet of white paper. Wait a couple of hours and put another freshly filled glass next to it. Dissolved iron shows up in the first glass by changing the color to pale orange/yellow.

After a mishap by a gas well drilled near our house we had to get a new water well. The gas drilling company had to pay for getting us back to having good water. Our private well system now consists of a chlorine injector (chlorine tank and high pressure feed pump) going into the normal bladder pressure tank, a 150 gallon settling tank (for chlorine reaction with dissolved iron), an activated carbon filter (to remove the excess chlorine) and finally a water softener. All this for a little over $5000.00 just to get us back to relatively taste free water. I added an RO system to get to our final drinking water, although it isn't needed for my brewing as the softened water works quite well with some small mineral additions.

 

[Dennis_W]

Wow sounds like you had a real disaster on your hands chucko!
Let me ask you guys this. When I look at RO systems they say 50 gallons a day. With lets say a 4 gallon hold tank. For brewing when I need 10 gallons for mash water, 10 gallons for sparge water and maybe I want to do a double brew day. How do I go about getting the 50 gallons of water in one day all at once? If you get my drift.....

Here's a link of a 'beefier' filter thoughts?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W9Q0GC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[LordUlrich]

Wow sounds like you had a real disaster on your hands chucko!
Let me ask you guys this. When I look at RO systems they say 50 gallons a day. With lets say a 4 gallon hold tank. For brewing when I need 10 gallons for mash water, 10 gallons for sparge water and maybe I want to do a double brew day. How do I go about getting the 50 gallons of water in one day all at once? If you get my drift.....

Here's a link of a 'beefier' filter thoughts?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W9Q0GC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

You need some kind of tank. A tank used for a well system would work but not cheap. I would fill my hlt and boil kettle for a few days before.

 

[Dennis_W]

That's what I figured. I think I'll get my water test 4 separate ways first.
1. straight from the well
2. softened from the house
3. run through a "cheap" carbon filter from the softener (as I already have the filter housing)
4. run through a "cheap" carbon filter straight from the well

 

[ChuckO]

Wow sounds like you had a real disaster on your hands chucko!
Let me ask you guys this. When I look at RO systems they say 50 gallons a day. With lets say a 4 gallon hold tank. For brewing when I need 10 gallons for mash water, 10 gallons for sparge water and maybe I want to do a double brew day. How do I go about getting the 50 gallons of water in one day all at once? If you get my drift.....

Here's a link of a 'beefier' filter thoughts?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W9Q0GC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Yeah, it was a disaster. They had to truck in a water tank and shallow well pump and refill it for about a week before the new well was dug.

An RO system can fill the 4 gallon bladder tank and then you can divert enough for brewing water to your boil kettle or HLT. Maybe a hose to a tank with an automatic shut off valve if your brewing area isn't too far from the RO system. A bladder tank that would hold sufficient for brewing might be a little too costly.

 

[Bigscience]

Make sure you get a carbon filter and not just a sediment one. Camco makes a high flow unit that looks a lot like yours.


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[FredTheNuke]

Go for the Camco one. It works very well and you can get 3 packs from Amazon cheap:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BEDNXTW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20