water filters

[66pony]

I found out that the well water at my marina was not softened and had a rotten egg smell indicating sulfur. I went with the water softener/carbon filter unit by Boji from West Marine. I needed the carbon to take out the sulfur and the softener to take out harness and iron. 66Pony's unit was mixed bed - cation and anion exchange resin and I wanted cation only to take out harness (Ca and Mg). Some of the others there at the marina said the water was bad but after running through this unit, there was no smell and the taste was fine but not quite bottled water quality. Since there is iron in the water there, I may get some special salt with iron inhibitor in it when I regenerate for the first time which is what the owners manual recommends.

http://www.bojifilters.com/Boji_techinfo.htm

Both my current and previous homes were/are on well water so once I found out that the water was untreated and had iron and sulfur I knew exactly what type of system I needed. The total price of the unit with two extra carbon filter cartridges with shipping was $374.

The unit I have is a softener only. the website shows a deionizer and softener.
I pre-filter the water (which I use a 5 micron filter and can use a carbon insert if I wanted) then soften the water. I can tell you that the water is soft, tastes great and not of minerals.
I get no water spots on the boat when I wash it, black hull and all.

 

[320Bob]

66Pony,
Then it looks like we have the same type of system. You were smart to get the cation only resin since it will give you more softening capacity before regeneration than a mixed bed. My water has a faint salty taste which may be due to the column being brand new. Most of the marinas on the river are remote so city water isn't available which is why some type of softening/water treatment is needed.

 

[katricol]

lots of good ideas here guys....thanks Ric

 

[320Bob]

Ric,
With a big boat like yours, I might have considered a reverse osmosis unit which is what I used for my drinking water and ice maker at home. Large scale reverse osmosis units are used for water desalination but the major issues for a boat or a dockside fill unit are water rejection and flow rate. The unit I have at home produces 25 gallons per day and requires 3 volumes of input for every gallon of output.

A unit capable of producing 2-5 gallons per minute would be thousands of dollars just to be able to fill the water tank in a reasonable amount of time. However a small unit under the sink unit like what is sold at Home Depot etc. would work. They typically have a 2-5 gallon holding tank which requires 6 to 15 gallons of input with a waste connection to the sump. The RO unit in my house takes water from my softener that is about 800 ppm dissolved solids down to around 30 ppm which is bottled water type quality. You would have enough room on your boat for something like this but I do not which is why I went the softener/filter route.

 

[chumbley]

Maybe I should be dead by now...

We use water from the tank for cooking, coffee, ice, brushing teeth, etc. We do have bottled water for drinking. We've never shocked it. We don't filter it. We don't treat it. We just use it. Nearly 10 years now - no problems. I do use a white hose to fill, and the marina water seems decent.

Jeff