Water filters.

BEST Water Filter Inline Caravan RV Water Filter

Another vote for BEST.

What do you mean by best?

I use an in-line filter cartridge on my caravan, available from Bunnings.
Stefani Water Filter Cartridge

I also have a Brita water filter Jug which can be put in the fridge to keep the water chilled. Available from BigW.
I use the 2.4l model. It uses a replaceable filter cartridge.
Brita Filter Jug

Both are excellent, giving clear, untainted drinking water, without breaking the Bank.
Combine the two, (ie fill the jug from the filtered van water) and you can't go wrong. If you are not connected to the mains water at a van park, just fill the jug from the van's tank.
I fill an insulated 530ml drinking flask from the jug prior to the day's travel and I have cheap. tasty, chilled drinking water while driving. No overpriced bottled water for me!

A 0.5um active carbon with silver installed after the pump and before the tap, preceeded with a 5um sediment filter to protect the carbon filter from excessive crud.
The most economical way to achieve this is to use twin 10"under sink style housings and replaceable filter cartridges.
Best" are not all that quality (they have options), are much smaller capacity and at least double the replacement cost.
Buy cartridges according to specification, not brand.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome.

Ivan,

No filter will clear turbid water for drinking, except probably reverse osmosis, so you'll need to clear the water first, before filtering to remove the "nasties".

There's a number of products that will clear the sediment.

Bob

Peter has nailed it. I've been using a Pentek standard 10" (250mm) x 2.5" (63mm) double filter system for around 15 years, and it works just fine.

I use a 5 micron, string wound primary filter to catch the rocks and dirt, and a 1 micron activated carbon filter to catch the bugs and crap, that gets through the 5 micron primary filter.

It's staggering the amount of crap you find in the filters when you change them, they can triple in weight.

I've found the white filter housings and heads don't like UV light and will crack and split if exposed to sunlight for extended periods.
The more durable filter housings and heads are the blue or black ones.

A local supplier, Aquastream, have a good range of products, a good website, and reasonable prices.
Make sure you keep a chart/log of filter installation date and replacement dates taped somewhere easily visible - and make sure you write down the filter installation and change dates.

It's too easy to forget about changing them when they're not on view regularly. I change the filter cartridges every 18 mths.

The best part about the 10 inch x 2.5 inch Pentek system is that the number of retailers/resellers is huge, and you can even get them off eBay.
I've even purchased off FiltersFast in the U.S. when I couldn't find cheap enough replacements here.

Watch out for the ripoffs involved in water filters, some retailers think selling them is the path to an immediate fortune.
The primary filter cartridges shouldn't cost any more than about $10 to $15, and the activated carbon ones shouldn't cost any more than about $25 to $30.

Cheers, Ron.

Hi Ivan

If you are using dam, or river water that has lots of suspended clay particles, you fist must remove those particles first before you can further treat the water.

I did this experiment a few years ago and it works a treat, changing murky water to water as clear as rainwater in just hours.

Have a look at my Blog on How to Settle Muddy Water


Cheers



Stephen

I have been using a filter that I have modified, using a standard spin on filter housing. It is stuffed full of that synthetic stuffing material used in toys and cheep pillows. I just syphon it through that between two 20l buckets, when the flow rate slows just take it apart and give it a rinse out and stuff it back in, the tighter I stuff it in the finer it filters, don't have to carry spare cartridges that way.

Once it is clean I use a method I found online to kill off any harmful organisms.
It is taken from the survival kits they drop in disaster struck areas by the US military.

After a lot of searching and converting strengths and imperial to metric conversions it turns out that 5ml of the bleach Aldi sells to 20 litres of water for 12 hours works, double it if it is really bad water.( I have never used it on really bad, like dead animals floating in it)

I use the water for everything other than drinking however I have made coffee out of it and survived just out of curiosity, couldn't taste the bleach at all.

I do flush the filter out with a high concentration of bleach then with town water till there is no smell when it has been in storage for a while and keep it sealed when stowed in the trailer.

We use a "BEST" filter inline when filling our tanks from a tap with pressure however when we need to draw water from a natural source we use this KatadynAn excellent fool proof product with a claimed filter life of up to 100 000 litres.
Cheers
Bryan

We recently purchased a Sawyer 0.1micron filter. It is a portable unit, It comes with a range of accessories and adapters. It has a lifetime guarantee and guaranteed to filter 4 million litres of water of all qualities. So you get a bucket adapter, a faucet adapter so you can use it at home or take it with you overseas, and also comes with a litre bag that screws into the filter for bushwalking to allow you to drink directly from the filter. It will filter 1200 litres of water a day. The kit is around $100, It's called " All in One", Sawyer filter. No boiling or chemicals after filtering. For around $200, you can buy a similar Sawyer kit but it has a 0.02 micron filter. Made in USA. Probably the finest filter on the market. regards, Michael