Tech Tuesday: Water Filter Time

posted in: Techie Posts | 0

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Yesterday the timer on Carol’s iPhone went off, it was time to do the water filters. It had been 2 months this time. Last time, it had only been one month, and the sediment filter looked like brand new, so I had her set the timer to 2 months.

The time before, we weren’t using the timer, and it was “Do you remember when we changed em?” “Nope, sure don’t”
That time, the sediment filter (the only one we can actually see into) looked like a toxic waste dump.

Clean water is important. Lots of posts on Facebook, lots of people who, oddly, do not use their RV’s water system. Not sure what the point of that is – why have a self contained RV if you’re always gonna go outside for water, which is a big part of self containment. We use our water. We do drink bottled water, but my coffee, Carol’s tea, cooking water, dog water, and of course bathing and such, those all come from from campground water through our RV’s water system.

So we use 3 water filters.
On the hose, we use the standard “blue one”. You can get these everywhere. If they have any RV stuff, they will have the blue filters. These are a combo sediment and charcoal filter, and putting one on your fresh water hose is the start of clean safe water for your family. Buy them here

Our rig has a whole house filter installed in one of the bays. All the water coming into the system from either shore water or the pump, goes through this filter. This is a standard 10″ filter housing, filters that fit are in any home center store. I use a 10 micron sediment filter here. These are cheap.

Finally, our Dometic fridge has an icemaker with ice and water through the door, and the feed line has it’s own filter. This one I replaced with a Dupont 10″ housing some time ago, when even camping world didn’t have the original style PUR filter cartridges. I use a Good Dupont charcoal filter here.

So anyway, I shut off the water, cracked the low drains long enough to relieve the pressure, and spent maybe 10 minutes changing the 3 filters.

REMEMBER, the charcoal filters will run black until they are flushed out. Screw the hose filter onto the parks bib, and open the valve and run water on the ground till clear, then hook up your hose.
On the fridge, I just fill glasses of water until it runs clear. If your fridge has an icemaker but no water thru the door, it might be easiest to take the lower outside fridge vent off, find and unscrew the water supply line for the icemaker, and turn on the water until it sprays clear water.

IMG_20160410_145443653_resizedSo here’s the 3 filters I took out. These are 60 days old, fulltime use with 3 adults and 3 dogs. The blue one of course you can’t see inside. The one on the right is the charcoal filter for the icemaker, and you can’t see anything there either.

The middle one is the plain whole house sediment filter. It looks like toxic waste. Hard to imagine I drank coffee made from any liquid that even breathed the same air as that thing, much less passed through it!

The upside is our fridge water comes out really fast again.
Yesterday it just kinda dribbled out, took a good minute to fill a 5 cup coffee pot.

Life is good!

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