I bought a place (yay!).
The well water tests potable but it’s so hard it’s got corners. We probably won’t spring for a softener until the real house is built (we are staying in the existing mobile home). But, if there’s a cheaper option for a whole house filter I’d be interested in knowing about it. I can get one of those RV filters for the horse water. Is there something similar for the house water pipe?
Not sure a sediment filter is what you need for hard water, but isn’t that what an RV water filter is? They’re cheap and easy. We have something that looks like this.
We also have a sediment filter on our well, as mentioned above.
The other thing we added is a Panther Water Stabilizer (purchased at Home Depot; this type of device is/was used around here at local bottling plants). We noticed a difference, but I couldn’t find a current link (have had ours for years).
Make sure there’s a UV filter. What exactly are you trying to remedy? If it’s the taste than I would put in an under the sink reverse osmosis system.
A softener is the only way to try to help with hard water.
We’ve got ridiculously hard water (45 GPG, basically off the charts), our expensive water softener system makes it manageable, but it certainly isn’t soft, wasn’t really even worth installing. We also have some iron and sulfur which was addressed.
The worst part? Our total dissolved solids are also off the charts 2640ppm. Likely sodium, tastes like the ocean. We had to put in an under the sink RO system to make it palatable. Even with the RO system it sits around 400-600ppm.
I have a sediment filter shaped like the one Simkie linked, except the body is a clear plastic so you can see when it’s time to change the filter. I usually have a little pile of gritty solids at the bottom.
Our water at the farm we rent is visibly ugly (and I assume would test terribly).
Most of the time, I use RV filters in the barn. I buy this kind:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0006IX87S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_EQXSRJQ7NHKD4BTDQ033?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Pros are they filter the huge metallic chunks out. The water seems more clear. The only con is they don’t last long for me (probably because of said huge chunks in the water), so they get kind of spendy.
I ran out over the winter. We were supposed to be moving, so I never reordered any more. The moving thing has all gone to pot, so I should probably get on it with replacing them.
I have a smaller clear one for the house and the same one in photo for the barn water. I used to get the pleated filters that were cellulose, then I found out some well water bacteria really like cellulose. I’ve been using string wound filters for the house ever since. I can’t recall if the cellulose ones got black in color quicker or what the bacteria did.
Used a 3 step inline filter off amazon (one is a sediment filter), but really a water softener bought at menards was pretty cheap. I also use a reverse osmosis filter under the kitchen sink as it still tastes a bit funny.
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I use the Body Glove BG-3000 mounted to a dedicated faucet in the kitchen sink. The filter costs ~$120 and lasts at least 18 months (with 2 people and a few cats who all drink a lot of water). You can send the old filter back to Body Glove (they pay for shipping) for recycling.
