Hi...

Our house has a well with fairly hard water. When we moved in, the
arsenic concentration was just below the epa max, but the limit has
since been lowered. We put in a reverse osmosis system for drinking
water 6 years ago, but now we're looking at a whole house system. My
wife's had a couple of guys come out and make their pitches. Everybody
says their system is patented and the other guy's is outdated technology.

So anyone have any recommendations on good systems for removing
arsenic?

They also recommend a water softener, which makes some sense given
the hardness of the water.

I've been concerned about how all of these new stages will affect
water pressure. We have a particulate filter on the whole house and
generally the water pressure is underwhelming. A couple of faucets with
good aerators seem okay. The guys pitching systems so far say that it's
calcification on the water heater that's causing the pressure drop -
except that we just have a hot water holding tank and the water is
heated by the furnace.

How would we put some of these systems in without dampening the water
pressure even further?

Thanks
mark

Mark Modrall wrote:

snip

How would we put some of these systems in without dampening the water
pressure even further?


My first stop would be to find a competent well drilling/servicing
contractor and upgrade the pump, well or whatever is most likely to
yield more volume as well as pressure. Well systems seem to degrade
slowly, even the bestter ones. Yours may just be wearing out. HTH

Joe

On 20 May 2007 10:16:12 -0700, Joe wrote:


Mark Modrall wrote:

snip

How would we put some of these systems in without dampening the water
pressure even further?


My first stop would be to find a competent well drilling/servicing
contractor and upgrade the pump, well or whatever is most likely to
yield more volume as well as pressure. Well systems seem to degrade
slowly, even the bestter ones. Yours may just be wearing out. HTH

Joe

I second that recommendation. Increasing pressure could be a simple
as adjusting the pressure switch and recharging the pressure tank
accordingly.

You will lose 5-15 psi across the softener and every filter or
treatment device will have some additional pressure drop, so you are
wise to consider this if your pressure is only adequate now. The drop
gets worse with increased flow rate (like two showers going).

A nice solution (but pricey) is one of the variable speed pumps with
controller. Assuming your well has enough flow capacity, they will
maintain your pressure at almost any desired value, regardless of
filter drops and the number of fixtures you have open. (There are
some things, like undersized piping or severely restricted piping that
they can't compensate for, but in most cases they work very nicely.)

HTH,

Paul F.

On May 20, 2:09 pm, Paul Franklin
wrote:
On 20 May 2007 10:16:12 -0700, Joe wrote:



Mark Modrall wrote:

snip

How would we put some of these systems in without dampening the water
pressure even further?

My first stop would be to find a competent well drilling/servicing
contractor and upgrade the pump, well or whatever is most likely to
yield more volume as well as pressure. Well systems seem to degrade
slowly, even the bestter ones. Yours may just be wearing out. HTH

Joe

I second that recommendation. Increasing pressure could be a simple
as adjusting the pressure switch and recharging the pressure tank
accordingly.

You will lose 5-15 psi across thesoftenerand every filter or
treatment device will have some additional pressure drop, so you are
wise to consider this if your pressure is only adequate now. The drop
gets worse with increased flow rate (like two showers going).

A nice solution (but pricey) is one of the variable speed pumps with
controller. Assuming your well has enough flow capacity, they will
maintain your pressure at almost any desired value, regardless of
filter drops and the number of fixtures you have open. (There are
some things, like undersized piping or severely restricted piping that
they can't compensate for, but in most cases they work very nicely.)

HTH,

Paul F.

Since you have a domestic coil in a boiler to heat your water, the
coil is scaled up from hard water scale. A softener will prevent more
scale and dissolve the scale that's in the coil.

You do not want a POE (whole house) RO. They are very pricey to buy,
operate and maintain. You would need the RO and then a storage tank,
pump, pressure tank and not run RO water through metal plumbing/pipe.

There are up to 4 types of arsenic, and the best choice for treatment
is a 'filter'. Search for arsenic + treatment or filter and see what
you can find.

A better choice than a variable speed pump for constant pressure is a
CSV (cycle stop valve).