Trihalomethanes and Shower Filters

 Does your KDF shower filter reduce (and by how much) trihalomethanes? Trihalomethanes are a BIG concern in my town water supply and it is the number 1 issue for me. Since these byproducts of chlorination are absorbed through the skin and breathed in from the vapors in my shower, it is imperative that I buy a shower filter that significantly reduces their presence. 

If you absolutely do not know about THM's, can you tell me how many ounces of KDF your filters have in them? I found info elsewhere that suggests KDFs will remove THMs, but there probably has to be plenty of the stuff to do it.

We use Sprite shower filters which do use a combination of the patented chlorogon media and KDF. THMs require much greater contact time with the media (and yes, enough media) than what a shower filter can be relied upon to provide. The KDF and Chlorogon media will certainly reduce levels but it's exact efficiency is undetermined.
 The most reliable way to avoid THMs adsorbtion and inhalation from showering is to use a whole-house carbon water filter. A large tank based system with GAC will insure enough contact time for the carbon to adsorb the organic chemical (THM). These units can be viewed and purchased from the following link http://doultonusa.com/whole_house_water_filters/whole_house_carbon_filters.htm.

Salt free water softeners

I live in the small mountain town in CA. I am on a water meter, but our town of 1500 is on a series of wells. I am billed through the Municipal Water Company, so I believe our water is treated in some stage or another. I am in a 7 year old house that I built myself, and have a Life Source whole house water filter system with a small pre-filter. I believe it is a carbon system, as it does a flush once a week into the yard through a 1/2" drain pipe. I know one thing I would like to see is water
that is not so hard. ( spots and calcium build-up ). I found your DoultonUSA.com site very interesting and would like your opinion on some products.
The first thing I would like to do is put in a under-sink drinking water filter with a counter-top faucet. How can I test my water to see which secondary filter i need ? What are your thoughts about leaving or removing my existing Life Source system in, or adding to it, or ??????. Please help me out with my concerns, without breaking my bank account.

For your hardness, we carry Salt-free water conditioners (softeners) to remove and prevent lime-scale depositing. Please see our NoScale systems located here along with the informative FAQ link:
http://doultonusa.com/whole_house_water_filters/salt-free-softener.php.
Your municipal system should have an annual water report in which they have available to present you or published online. Please contact your local officials regarding that matter.

As far as undersink water filtration system is concerned, our IP200UC+ system is versatile and
far efficient enough to treat any municipally supplied water system.
Most people choose the fluoride filter if the area is known to fluoridate the water or if there may be a large heavy-metal content within the water. Please see the filter here:
http://doultonusa.com/HTML%20pages/ip200UC_plus.htm.

As far as your existing whole-house carbon filter, it all depends on how long it's been installed (7 yrs?). What eventually happens is that the carbon within the unit will exhaust itself and reach it's total adsorptive capacity. When this happens, you can replace it with a new unit, or replace the activated carbon within it after dumping it out. My recommendation would be to purchase an inexpensive chlorine test-strip kit and determine if it is still removing the chlorine efficiently after all this time. Please let us know how else we may assist you. We would certainly love to work with you on this.

Whole house carbon filter will remove the TCE

In my hometown we have 2 water problems. Nitrates from fertilizer and also isolated pockets of TCE from an industrial spill.

Does your filter remove nitrates?
Does it remove TCE?

If TCE is in the water supply a whole house carbon filter will remove the TCE, it will minimize ingestion and inhalation exposures. As for the nitrates removal we recommend point-of-use counter-top or under-sink filter just for the drinking and cooking water which all of these filters are available.
Do you know how much Trichloroethene and nitrates in your water. The TCE is a nasty VOC and you should not have it in your water.

Whole house "do all" water filter

What I would like to have when finished setting up our home is for the best of water filtration, if possible and within a reasonable cost in which I feel you have for your high standards of quality products.

I would like not to have a water softner on our system if possible.

I would like to have a whole home filteration system that removes chlorine, lead chemicals, and any other unsafe items. The kitchen sink I will want a under counter drinikng water system. The water at the showers and bath sinks will be free and safe for normal usage from the filter, just not drinking water.

I have attached my city's water report.

Would you advise me on how you would set up our home with all of your product numbers.

I am looking to use your company exclusively to do this because of your experience and support that you have given me to answering my questions.

There is no whole house "do all" filter nor is practical to treat the water to high degree on every tap. Bituminous activated carbon removes chlorine and to some degree organic compounds such as herbicides, pesticides and industrial carbon based solvents and coconut shell carbon is more effective on VOC's than bituminous. Activated carbon does not remove inorganic compounds such as lead. We have filters with 4.25"x20" extruded carbon block cartridge that in addition will remove lead with the following limitations: chlorine removal 66,000 gallons, lead reduction 17,000 gallons capacity and flow rate of 5 GPM. We carry whole house automatic carbon water filters and none automatic filters with choice of carbon however based on your city water report I don't think you need one unless you want to get the chlorine out on every tap.

Our single housing IP100UC four stage under sink filter is more than you'll need for premium quality drinking and cooking water.

I would like to get the chlorine out of every tap. I believe the system I am looking at would be the whole house carbon system ACBTC-CA10 with coconut shell carbon. IP100UC under counter for our drinking water.
What are you thoughts regarding our city's water quaility and removing our water softener to eliminate the salt in our system?

According to water report you have pretty good water. Now they don't show the hardness which is not a contaminant but it looks as they are mixing well (hard) with surface (soft) water therefore you may not need a softener. If I were in your place I'll do the following: Your water softener should have bi-pass valve. Isolate the softener and turn the power off to it. Use the none softened water for about a week as usual. If the soap doesn't lather well, glasses become spotty after washing, mineral build up on showers and fixtures these are signs of hard water. Also, when you showering with hard water the skin feels slippery and slimy. There are inexpensive hardness test kits you can find on the Internet and tested yourself or ask your water dept. if they know what is the hardness.
If the none softened water is acceptable then install the whole house carbon in place of the softener to minimize piping.

Whole home water filtration systems

I just purchased your shower filters for our home and looking at your whole home systems.

I recently had a friend tell me about this system they purchased in Nevada. http://www.h2oconcepts.com/filtration.asp

There system says you are able to drink water at every faucet??
I am looking for your guidance in this because of your years in this industry. Look forward to learning more about your systems and how to set up our home properly.

We have a 3 bath home with 3 people.

The filter you point to is just an ordinary filter similar as ours except I don't know which back-wash controller they use. We can dress our filters with chrome look jacket or other colors as an option. The manufacturer of the KDF55 media which is combination of copper and zinc alloy "claims" many "magical" performance however they cannot substantiate any of them except conversion of chlorine to chlorides. The NSF 61 standard is nothing than the media is OK to be in contact with potable water. For more information on their and other water chemistry hucksters "claims" visit retired chemistry professor Brown page on the following link: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/aquacrack.html#REDOX

Your friend filter is fine as it have carbon in it. As far softening we nor KDF Fluid mfg. have not a single proof of softening hard water.

I'm sure you'll have more questions so feel free to do so.

Also you can find some info on Steve Lower "BunkHouse" product cross-reference page
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/gallery.html, which has an entry for this product and a link to the appropriate explanatory section of the AquaScams site.

Steve Lower - Dept of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University (retired)
Burnaby (Vancouver) BC, Canada
AquaScams: water pseudoscience and quackery - http://www.chem1.com/CQ/
What is pseudoscience? http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/pseudosci.html
General Chemistry Virtual Textbook:
http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/virtualtextbook.html
Steve's personal Web page: http://members.shaw.ca/slower/

I am looking at getting the following from you whole house ACBTC- CA10 carbon filter
with the coconut shell carbon. I have a water softner on the home now for hard water. Would I leave the softner in place and run this filter before the softner?
I would also get the IP300PSCB-2 for our drinking water.

Question about water softners. The salt comes the reserve salt tank to clean the media in the unit? Do you get salt in your water?

If I remember right you are on city chlorinated water. Can you tell me how old is your softener. The reason for this question is that your softener resin may be damaged as chlorine can destroy resin in very few years but that's not a big deal as you can replace the resin, not expensive. If you tell me the diameter and height of the tank (not including the controller) I can tell you how much resin you need. Should you need to change the resin we can help you over the phone on how to change it, it's very simple.
Our best resin cost $104.00 per cubic foot.
On chlorinated water carbon filter is always installed before softener.

Salt is used to regenerate the the resin beads therefore softener does add sodium to the water and the amount of sodium is based on hardness of your water (see table bellow).
Please concider our NEW NO SALT softeners up to 25 gpg/425 mg/L hardness and special blend granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration systems for high reduction of chlorine, chloramines, THM's, PAH's, VOC's and industrial chemicals for hard, city water.

Initial Hardness Sodium Added

1.0 grains per gallon 7.5 milligrams/quart

5.0 grains per gallon 37.5 milligrams/quart

10.0 grains per gallon 75.0 milligrams/quart

20.0 grains per gallon 150.0 milligrams/quart

40.0 grains per gallon 300.0 milligrams/quart

As a comparison: One slice of white bread has 161 milligrams of sodium; 3/4 cup of canned baked beans = 1130 milligrams; 1 tablespoon of catsup = 204 milligrams; 1 medium frankfurter = 610 milligrams; and 1 cup of whole milk = 127 milligrams. However, if you are under low sodium intake advisory you can use potassium chloride for regeneration instead of salt and this will cut down the sodium in your water by 99%.

If you intend to buy the whole house filter you will not need the shower filters which you can return them if they are not used.

How effective your filters are for removing/ reducing VOC's?

Do you have any written documentation stating how effective your filters are for removing/ reducing VOC's?
Among water filtration industry it is generally known that coconut shell carbon is superior to bituminous or wood based carbon for VOC's reduction. To test a filter against a wide (1000's) spectrum of carbon based volatile organic compounds is costly prohibitive which the cost will reflect on the finished product. The next better carbon for VOC's reduction is catalytic carbon however it's available in GAC form only rather than extruded block. Our whole house automatic back wash filters can be purchased with catalytic carbon option. The written documentation is what you see on the filters cut sheet.

Removing the chlorine and fluoride from the water in my house.

I am interested in removing the chlorine and fluoride from the water in my house. I bought a whole house filter to remove the chlorine and a reverse osmosis under the sink filter to further purify the water and remove the fluoride. However I cannot find a percentage for the chlorine removal and the manufacturer can not seem to tell me either. Because of the lack of information and the cheap price of the filter $50 (smartwater GXWH35F) I am assuming that it probably removes a very small percentage of the chlorine. I am also now questioning the reverse osmosis filter because I read some of the drawbacks on your website (breading bacteria etc).

I want more pure water. I am particularly concerned about fluoride and chlorine as well as other chemicals. I am not too concerned about microorganisms (I don't want to increase them though by giving them a breading ground in a filter). I have been considering a whole house unit and an under the sink unit so that my drinking water will be even cleaner than my bathing water. I am also concerned about price because it seams that some of the filters are quite expensive

I hope this information is not to vague, Can you advise me on which products might be helpful for my situation.

You are correct about little percentage of chlorine reduction by that filter as the cartridge contain granular activated carbon (GAC) and the water channel right through the carbon bed. I don't know why these "big box stores" sell them as a "whole house system" as their chlorine reduction is at best 25% with capacity of 3-4000 gallons.

We carry automatic and none automatic whole house carbon filters that will remove >99% chlorine whoever we do not recommend them for your purpose for reason that in absence of chlorine HPC bacteria (harmless) will colonize your plumbing system causing bad smell requiring frequent system flushing (every water outlet).

These filters are designed for reduction of VOC's such as pesticides, herbicides and industrial solvents commonly found is some well waters.

Most practical and economical solution for your purpose is to install shower filter to remove chlorine
http://www.doultonusa.com/HTML%20pages/shower_filter.htm
and point-of-use drinking water system either counter top or under sink type.

http://www.doultonusa.com/HTML%20pages/residential%20under%20sink%20models.htm

Our dual housing filters CP200UC+ or IP200UC+ can give you premium quality water for drinking and cooking purposes. These two models when chosen with fluoride/heavy metals element will beat any RO system in addition of removing microorganisms. You should be concerned about these as cysts such as Cryptosporidium are not killed by chlorine and are commonly found in treated surface waters.

Related questions:

Where I can buy sediment FXHSC filter for GE SmartWater whole house filter housing GXWH35F?

http://doultonusa.com/HTML%20pages/ceramic_cartridges.htm
scroll down to "Pleated polyester sediment cartridges, washable/reusable many times"