Water Filters for Hand and Foot Pumps

[thinwater]

There are lots of products out there for pressurized systems, spill-over from the growing home filtration industry. But what about low pressure systems? What do you use? Anything?

[Mike OReilly]

I assume you’re asking about micron-level filtering for taste, fine particulate and/or bacteria? I await the answers.

Off the cuff, in my wilderness canoeing days we always used a hand water filter. In fact, I still carry my Katedyn Pocket filter on board — just in case.

I wonder if I could plumb this into my foot pump. Never thought about it before, but hmmm….

[model 10]

We have a whole house filter and a Whale double action foot pump. I use the cheap carbon filters that do chlorine taste and odor, sediment. I have tried good filters that do everything and they don't work very well. The spring in the pump can't overcome the restriction of the filter and sticks on the down stroke.

[sparrowhawk1]

I've discussed this in my rainwater collection system and these are the filters I use because I didn't want the water to be restricted but I wanted it to be filtered. The first photo is of my intake filter covered with aquarium floss that goes into a 5 gallon bucket connected to a garden hose that goes to my pump. at the end it goes into a slightly larger hose that's filled with activated charcoal with screens ( the type that's at the end of a typical kitchen sink faucet) at both ends. In your case you could put the aquarium floss at the beginning of the tube with the charcoal. I also have a homemade Brita filter that I took a funnel that I made out of a recycled bottle and cut the bottom off, filled with charcoal topped with floss. I fill up one bottle that has a hole in the cap to make the water flow slowly, invert it into the top of the funnel and put an empty bottle under it, freestanding. I always have several bottles of filtered water and when I have an empty one I'll repeat the process whenever it's convenient.
PS it's also very cheap to replace the charcoal on a regular basis. I think bacterial growth is real problem with inline filters.

[thinwater]

I know the answer for rainwater and hose water: high flow, washable, cheap, and 1 micron. Industrial bag filters and a simple funnel.

https://www.practical-sailor.com/iss...r_11660-1.html


Yes, inline filters have their shortcomings, but they are about the only convenient way to take chlorine out of tank water. Silver or KDF solve most of the growth problems, as does regular use with chlorinated water. Or rather that is my main interest. Any granular filter should work. I just wondered if I'd missed something clever.

[sparrowhawk1]

Also I would suggest getting an inline strainer before your pump.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Ecos

We have a whole house filter and a Whale double action foot pump. I use the cheap carbon filters that do chlorine taste and odor, sediment. I have tried good filters that do everything and they don't work very well. The spring in the pump can't overcome the restriction of the filter and sticks on the down stroke.

Ditto on all accounts. We last took water in Grenada and it had some sediment in it. Clogged the filter after a few weeks. Normally the filter will get some growth in it after some months, especially if left idle. I just swap out filters. Somewhere else here someone reported talking to a factory rep who said the growth was normal. Don’t know. But I ain’t dead yet so no worries.

I did try the fancier filters but just as noted above, too much restriction.

[sparrowhawk1]

Well from personal experience my homemade britta takes out any taste of chlorine. The trick is to dribble it through the charcoal so it can do its job.

[roverhi]

Installed a household sediment/charcoal filter with the foot pump. It's not one of those filters that will filter out nasty bugs but that's what chlorine is for. The filter does restrict the flow of water from the foot pump. Pump is double action and slower to return via spring than without the filter. It's not so bad as to cause distress but does take a little patience waiting for the pedal to return to the top after a downstroke. Would think if you are talking one of those grossly expensive mini micron filters that you'd have problems with a double action foot pump.

FWIW, have been drinking un filtered boat water for more than half a century without any problems. Think we are turning into a society of germ phobic paranoids who are actually hurting ourselves in an effort to ingest only the purest of substances. We are getting to be like the American native population that nearly died out because they had never been exposed to bacteria and viruses from the rest of the world so had no immunity.

[thinwater]

Sub micron carbon block filters don't have to be expensive. You can get a good system for $35 on-line. Pentek 3G housing and Floplus 10 filter. VERY effective. But this requires pressure water.

Sail Delmarva: Drinking Water Filtration--The Short Version

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by roverhi

...FWIW, have been drinking un filtered boat water for more than half a century without any problems. Think we are turning into a society of germ phobic paranoids who are actually hurting ourselves in an effort to ingest only the purest of substances. We are getting to be like the American native population that nearly died out because they had never been exposed to bacteria and viruses from the rest of the world so had no immunity.

Interesting comparison to North American native populations pre-contact. Of course, they didn’t have any choice in the matter … we do.

I fully agree with you. Our societies are increasingly becoming germaphobic. Little wonder with all the misinformation spread by companies selling all their anti-bacterial crap.

Anyhoo… Do you happen to know the micron level of your filters? I run a pressure water system through a 5 micron carbon filter to remove tastes and sediment. Works fine with my basic pressure water pump, but I’m thinking of ditching the electric pump in favour of a manual system.

[SailRedemption]

Before we changed up our system we had a Whale foot pump that was plumbed strictly to a single lever faucet. Between the two, we had a double Pentek Slim line 10" filter housings with a Pentek ECP1-10 10 micron sediment and a Pentek FloPlus .5 micron carbon filter. The pump would pump it just fine to fill up a glass. Didn't notice any pump pedal lag that I remember.

Now we have the filters plumbed with the boat pressure pump to the faucet and a valve pre-filters so we can change filters without turning off the pump and bleeding the whole boat's pressure. The foot pump is not designated for saltwater for washing.

When we fill up the boat we have a regular Shurflo water strainer and a 10" filter housing with a Hydronix SPC-25-1010 to filter the water going in the tanks.

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Sub micron carbon block filters don't have to be expensive. You can get a good system for $35 on-line. Pentek 3G housing and Floplus 10 filter. VERY effective. But this requires pressure water.

Sail Delmarva: Drinking Water Filtration--The Short Version

That's exactly what I use but not on the foot pump. Filters only cold water at the galley sink.

[roverhi]

Got the filter at Lowe's 10 years ago. It looks like this filter though picture is from their website so not absolutely sure it's the one. Probably a 25 micron filter element. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-8...System/1201339

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Interesting comparison to North American native populations pre-contact. Of course, they didn’t have any choice in the matter … we do.

I fully agree with you. Our societies are increasingly becoming germaphobic. Little wonder with all the misinformation spread by companies selling all their anti-bacterial crap.

Anyhoo… Do you happen to know the micron level of your filters? I run a pressure water system through a 5 micron carbon filter to remove tastes and sediment. Works fine with my basic pressure water pump, but I’m thinking of ditching the electric pump in favour of a manual system.

[sparrowhawk1]

Well I finally got around to that article on rain water filtering. That filter doesn't contain activated charcoal. I hope someone else tries cheap activated carbon. The cartridges you buy which I do own myself have a very thin coating of it ( high flow ones ). Make a 2 footlong hose full of it and I can almost guarantee you it will remove foul taste. Probably even better than the cartridges.