Best water purification filters?

[CarinaPDX]

Two of the water purifying agents I still have on the boat from Europe:

Aqua Clean, from A. Nagel, Hamburg "Sodium-Silver Chloride Complex"

Aqua Tabs, from Clean Tabs Ltd, England "Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate"

IIRC the EU banned using chlorine for water purifying.

Greg

[dohenyboy]

I am very happy with my setup; I have aluminum tanks.
I run my fill hose through a 10" filter.
My water pressure pump feeds into a 5 micron filter and then directly into a huge Sterilight UV unit. Of course I flush out the whole freshwater system every 6 months by filling the water filter housing half full with bleach, and letting the bleach sit in the system 20 minutes. So, in the tropics, my freshwater always is clean.
The galley and icemaker water supply goes through another filter, with higher restriction/lower micron size, and a smaller Sterilight UV unit.
The UV bulbs get replaced once a year.
I am confident in the water quality.


Why can't things remain where i carelessly left them?

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by dohenyboy

... I flush out the whole freshwater system every 6 months by filling the water filter housing half full with bleach, and letting the bleach sit in the system 20 minutes. So, in the tropics, my freshwater always is clean.

I think you will find, with a little research that that is WAY too much bleach, may actually be less effective because of the pH increase, and may be damaging (corrosive). About 200 ppm is what you want for a good shock. Check any EPA or WHO web site.

[HopCar]

Thinwater, I read the first installment of your potable water tests in Practical Sailor today. Very impressive and thorough. I'm looking forward to the next two installments.

Based on your recommendations I think I'll start stocking the Shurflo and Watts filters you liked.

Greg, I'm the US distributor for Clean Tabs.
Link: Water Purification, Tank Cleaning

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by HopCar

I'm the US distributor for Clean Tabs.

So Clean Tabs = Aqua Tabs. Good to know.

I personally don't understand the differences in the chemicals used. I know silver is often used but whether it has any advantage over the chlorine systems I don't know.

Greg

[belle-isle]

Slight thread drift, but I notice that several members have and use aluminium water tanks, just like I do. Do you know of any way to get rid of any aluminium, alumina or any other dissolved aluminium ions ? Filters or UVs won't get us very far in this regard, but I understand drinking too much aluminium is not exactly recommended. I do nonetheless, not having found any other solution, but if anyone has any suggestions, you're welcome to share !

[jcdexter]

We've been very happy using a Pur filter ( there are two versions...we use the more expensive one that filters out more bad stuff) and then run the Pur filtered water through a Brita filter. The Pur canister snaps right onto the faucet and the cartridges are available at Home Depot and Lowes as well as Walmart.

[poiu]

I bought into the claims made by Seagull. I am very happy with it. No illness despite drinking tank loads of its filtered developing country unsafe-to-drink water. Worth every penny of the ridiculous cost to save the hassle of worrying about water quality and in buying and carrying it and in cleaning and treating tanks frequently.

I couldn't find an alternative that promised to purify to the same level and remove viruses and bacteria other than what looked like small water treatment plant. I hope they haven't lied to me.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by poiu

I couldn't find an alternative that promised to purify to the same level and remove viruses and bacteria other than what looked like small water treatment plant. I hope they haven't lied to me.

Pentek DVG-50 for about 1/3 the price. NSF certified P231 as a microbiological purifier (viruses + ), which Seagull is not.

So yes, there are alternatives. Seagull was a leader, but they didn't keep up.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by belle-isle

Slight thread drift, but I notice that several members have and use aluminium water tanks, just like I do. Do you know of any way to get rid of any aluminium, alumina or any other dissolved aluminium ions ? Filters or UVs won't get us very far in this regard, but I understand drinking too much aluminium is not exactly recommended. I do nonetheless, not having found any other solution, but if anyone has any suggestions, you're welcome to share !

Not really drift.

The way to avoid ions is not removal, it is to stop tank corrosion. True?

The way to stop corrosion is to use only a minimal amount of a treatment that is non-corrosive (Aqua Mega):

This at 4x the required dose...



Vs. bleach at the normal dose.


Another thing to consider, if you feel the problem is too much chlorine in the tap water, is to de-chlorinate with hydrogen peroxide. Some folks mistakenly believe the peroxide is a sanitizing agent--it is not--but a cap full will eliminate the fee chlorine.

---

Full story in PS July, 2015.

[poiu]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Pentek DVG-50 for about 1/3 the price. NSF certified P231 as a microbiological purifier (viruses + ), which Seagull is not.

So yes, there are alternatives. Seagull was a leader, but they didn't keep up.

That's great that there is competition now. I couldn't find that product a few years ago when I searched and I can't find it now on the Pentair website when I go through their normal web page menus. Strange that. I wonder if they have discontinued them.

Water Treatment Products | Pentair Residential Water Filtration

I found another there that looks OK too:

MicroGuard Series | Pentair Residential Water Filtration

The cost for the one you linked to is vastly cheaper for the kit as you mention, but the filters are actually a tiny bit more expensive than Seagull, however they have over than half the capacity of Seagull. In the long run it will not be so different in cost to run.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by poiu

That's great that there is competition now. I couldn't find that product a few years ago when I searched and I can't find it now on the Pentair website when I go through their normal web page menus. Strange that. I wonder if they have discontinued them.

Water Treatment Products | Pentair Residential Water Filtration

I found another there that looks OK too:

MicroGuard Series | Pentair Residential Water Filtration

The cost for the one you linked to is vastly cheaper for the kit as you mention, but the filters are actually a tiny bit more expensive than Seagull, however they have over than half the capacity of Seagull. In the long run it will not be so different in cost to run.

Try Filters Fast. The Microguard is $75 as I recall.

Another thing to remember is that there is NO reason to run a Seagull filter unless you are in the 3rd world. The slimline housing that the Microguard fits will take some excellent NSF rated carbon block cyst filters for ~ $16 that will be overkill in the civilized world. Floplus 10, for example.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Another thing to remember is that there is NO reason to run a Seagull filter unless you are in the 3rd world.

While these places do still exist, they are becoming rare - particularly in the most popular cruising grounds. This is often an unexamined belief carried over from long ago - and maybe it is time to gain a modern perspective on it.

Most "third world" places now have either municipal water supplies that treat the captured water or RO plants making clean water. Water full of bacteria and viruses simply doesn't exist in these places. A concerted world-wide effort to bring clean water to these places has been on-going for decades now.

If one plans to cruise rarely visited areas of India or similar, then one should consider a water maker rather than try to manage unhealthy water sources with a post-fill filter. Frankly, I have never understood the concept of taking on known, unhealthy water and feeling secure with an in-line filter.

Otherwise, I think fear is driving this filter thing more than reality.

We use a common, cheap under-sink filter housing with a common, cheap carbon block filter on it. The reason is solely to improve the taste of the water.

We also filter any water we take on through an identical setup - the purpose of that is to remove sand, hose crap and to reduce any chlorine load before our aluminum tank.

We don't worry about deadly viruses, etc, and the only questionable water supply we have seen from the Bahamas to just about every country in and surrounding the Caribbean Sea was a sink hole filled with ground water in the San Blas islands that some people were taking on for non-drinking use.

Mark

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by poiu

That's great that there is competition now. I couldn't find that product a few years ago when I searched and I can't find it now on the Pentair website when I go through their normal web page menus. Strange that. I wonder if they have discontinued them.

Water Treatment Products | Pentair Residential Water Filtration

I found another there that looks OK too:

MicroGuard Series | Pentair Residential Water Filtration

The cost for the one you linked to is vastly cheaper for the kit as you mention, but the filters are actually a tiny bit more expensive than Seagull, however they have over than half the capacity of Seagull. In the long run it will not be so different in cost to run.

Thank you for the catch! Yes, the DVG-10 was discontinued about 1-year ago, just after we finished testing. I had learned of that, had rewritten parts of the article, but somehow the old version was never purged from the system. File sharing is problematical that way. Your timing was PERFECT, as we are just beginning editing. We are now working with the corrected version.

The replacement is far more expensive. My opinion is that the Micro Guard and the FloPlus 10 are the real deals out there. And as ColeMJ, there is a lot of fear. Most carbon block filters are very good; I like the FlowPlus 10 because it is faster and NSF 53 certified.

Bottom line. If you are going foreign, unless you never eat ashore, wear a mask, and stay 2 meters from all people, drinking water is only a portion of your exposure. WHO did a study and determined that pure drinking water can only stop about 75% of GI infection in the 3rd world. You're on your own for the rest!

[malbert73]

I agree that drinking water is only part of the problem. But if your water tank sprouts bugs on passage and you get sick it could be a real safety liability, versus just being sick on your boat while in port.


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