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1. On water filtration I live in a very rural area of New England with no municipal water only a deep water well I get the water tested every year ( never a problem) I run my drinking water thru a big berky just for peace of mind it works for me and its simple.

2. Water Treatment.
   I have basically the same situation, well water w/ methane and sulfur. I use a simple 2-3 stage 2×10 canister filter for basic filtration. Get the clear housings so you can see the condition of the filters.
   Start w/ a 5 micron pleated filter that can be cleaned and reused followed by a 1 micron poly filter and then a 1/2 micron carbon block.

   For the safest, healthiest, drinking, cooking, cleaning and disinfecting water go here

   http://www.wedrinkkangenwater.com/

   and watch this 30 minute video introduced by Pat Boone

   http://www.wedrinkkangenwater.com/?c=uses-videos#c=uses-videos

3. Reverse osmosis is the best way to have ” the best” water. Its very expensive for the whole house, so you would put one unit where ever you drink water, then at your primary water source weather it be from a well or city supply you will have a whole house double unit being a micron cartridge then a carbon cartridge, these can be bought at Tractor Supply if you have one other wise Home Depot and Lowes carry the reverse osmosis and the whole house filter housings. NOTE, you will have to change the cartridge filters monthly without fail, but this will only cost about $ 16 for both. The RO filters last a couple of years.

4. Fatal Herpes. This is a sad article but the commentators over reaction to an isolated event is even sadder. I listened to The Patriot Nurse awhile back as she described how being over protective of children is causing more harm than good. Specifically sterilizing you home and isolating your children has the negative effect of preventing the growth of their natural immune system. Now I am not suggesting that we snack on a handful of dirt once in awhile but without a strong immune system people rely on antibiotics for everything, this causes Mother Nature to keep coming up with mutated strains of germs that become resistant. We are seeing these strains popping up all over the world. As a prepper I know that antibiotics will be a thing of the past as they will disappear or lose their potency and our only defense will be our immune system or natural remedies and I do not want to rely on leaves and twigs to fight flesh eating bacteria or mutated typhoid fever.

   1. @Joe,
      Now who’s overreacting? Did I mention anything about protecting your kids from germs as they grow up? Did I mention anything about jumping to the use of antibiotics for everything?. Did I even mention sterilizing your home? Nope. What I said was you should be careful of letting others touch your NEWBORN without at least washing their hands. During the first week of life, their own immune system is adjusting and growing and overwhelming it by bathing them in a septic tank to make sure they are good and exposed to every possible germ is a great way to kill them. Patriot Nurses vlog was about parents that perpetually protect their children from germs, not about NEWBORNS. I’d really rather not go back to the days where infant mortality was at the 50% mark. This article is about a sad case that ended in death, but as an EMT, I’ve seen literally hundreds of cases where NEWBORNS are rushed back to the hospital and required extreme life saving measures because the parents did not take precautions during this very critical time.

5. There are a couple of good water treatment options out there for processing useable amounts of untreated, raw water. I am using a whole-house filter system by Equinox, called the Lakewater Filter. I use a Jet pump to pull water from a mountain stream about 200 feet to the cabin and push the water through the filters, in-line chlorinator, carbon filter (this weighs about 80 lbs, dry), and a UV sterilizer in the final stage (nails any life form that ranged to get through the .35 micron final filter stage). It features progressive filter stages…..20 micron, 5 micron, and .35 micron. Cysts, such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, are anywhere from 4 to 14 microns, but in the event a couple wriggle through, the UV unit will render them inactive…..to say nothing of viruses and bacteria. The huge carbon filter is rated at 700,000 gallons…..100 gallons per day for 20 years.
   I get about 5 gallons per minute through this system. http://www.vitasalus.net/lake-rain-water-system CALL them.

   I recently installed a WaterPure Technologies three stage filter….it’s a gang filter assembly starting with a 5 micron filter, then a carbon cartridge, and the final stage rated at 99.9999% of viruses, bacteria, even DNA. This technology is used on the International Space Station and is far more efficient than RO units (no back-flushing required!). These are 4 1/2″ X 20″ cartridges, so the flow rate is an impressive 20 gallons per minute. Life span (on city water) is 200,000 gallons, but I think you can get at least 50,000 GPM if you are filtering ditch water if you install a 20 micron and 10 micron jar in the line ahead of the unit to spare the WaterPure unit the heavy lifting. A set of three 4 1/2″ X 20 cartridges is $200.00. Each filter jar has its own pressure gage to notify the user when THAT cartridge needs replacement. No need to change out the entire set. I routed the plumbing of the new WaterPure Technologies filter to run through the Steri-Light UV unit. I have to throttle down the WaterPure flow rate to 8 GPM or less so the treated water spends enough time under UV insult to inactivate pathogens. I employed the WaterPure unit as a backup to the Lakewater unit.

   Both systems require some power to operate, so see to it that you have your own, reliable alternative power system to assure operation. Spare pumps, cartridges, UV bulbs, etc…are wise. I’d attach pictures, but I can’t do that here.

   With some planning and commitment, you can assure your family has a reliable source of safe water.

6. Well water and a Royal Berry, similar to John. Very happy with this set up.

7. We’re about to install a new softener and double filters from US Water Systems. Spouse is an avid researcher and found it seemed to be the best for our rural well. We needed to filter out turbidity, hardness, H2S smell and other gases. Filters are 20 micron then 5 micron filter, then it goes into the softener then into a recovery filter. I’m not up to speed on all of this but hopefully it will be installed while I’m out of the state for five days.

8. Limescale and sulfur, you want an oxidizer like chlorine or peroxide. Bleach is much cheaper than peroixde.
   You have a treatment tank that the chlorinator pump (a stenner) feeds into w/ a diluted bleach mixture from a chlorine tank. Limescale and sulfur particles fall to bottom of this tank, and water then feeds into a charcoal tank prior to heading to the water softener (w/o charcoal tank excess chlorine could damage softener resins).
   Surprised at how few know this — chlorinator alone would eliminate most limescale and sulfur from folks water…

   Regardless, to unify those systems, I’d have outdoor water use exclusively on wells as own independent system, and then configure wells and municipal to feed into an onsite water storage tank with whatever pre-treatment you desire prior to entering that tank for potable water stage… For the tank, you’d have a float switch, or switches, that’d control the feed from a water source. Leaving that storage tank, you’d have a pressure tank and jet pump to feed water to your home and pass through whatever add’l filters/uv treatment you’d like at that time.

   RO in the home for consumption is a no brainer with all the chemicals — pesticides and pharmaceuticals that standard treatments don’t remove. We have an apec (yes, do get the 3/8″ line upgrade kit — big difference in flow from 1/4), but I added the aquasana claryum remineralization cartridge to it either immediately before or after the final charcoal filter on the line exiting the storage tank. Aquasana cartridgecontains calcium, magnesium, and potassium and doesn’t seem to be intended to produce alkaline water (which are all mostly just calcium), and I also think that alkaline water benefits are a crock…
   For ice makers, you can feed a line off prior to remineralization cartridge if you wish to ensure no taste issue on cocktails, etc, but that’s entirely up to you.
   I’m still on the fence about purchasing one of the vortex water conditioners. Even if claims don’t stick, it shouldn’t cause any harm if you let water run for a few seconds prior to drinking…
   And regardless on RO systems, about 1/2 of whatever you water tank size is under the sink is add’l gallons of water you have on hand and in a pressurized system that’s unaffected by water outages until that tank runs empty.

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