"Joseph Meehan" wrote in message
...

You should have your water tested by a legit testing outfit (not
Sears
or a water treatment company) You may have a local government
agency that
will do that for you. Without know what the problem is, it is
difficult to
fix it.


Yes. As a matter of fact, we get annual reports from our water
district. I believe they are required by law,
state or federal. From it you can see what filtration stages might be
a good idea.
For example, you can see if you need a stage to remove the bad
volatile stuff (VOC). Our report
shows very low in that area, so I skipped that stage.

That said, though, it really does come down to a matter of taste and
preferences,
at least in developed areas, since laws require the water to be safe.
But the
laws do not require it to taste good.

One interesting point I learned when getting into these issues: the
water district
advises AGAINST the RO filtration systems. This is because chlorine
must be removed
to avoid destroying the membrane. Moreover, the RO filters are almost
always
(maybe always?) very low flow, so a storage tank is required (about 5
gallons).
So, you have 5 gallons of unchlorinated water sitting in that tank and
you go on vacation
for a month. It is possible for something to get started growing in
there, and
the water folks will point this out if you call them and ask what they
think about these
systems. If you insist on putting them in anyway, as we did, you are
advised to
get in the habit of draining the tank and putting in a few drops of
chlorine once in
a while, especially after an long vacation.

Ed