Water Filter Configuration

[crouth]

We seem to have very good (city) water. However, I would like to remove the chlorine and related compounds from our drinking water and shower. "We" are two adults and have one bathroom.

Which configuration would be better and which would be more cost effective?

A showerhead with filter and an "under the sink" filter with the extra spout in the kitchen.

or

A canister filter hooked up to the hot water line going to the shower and a canister filter hooked into the cold going to the kitchen. (also recommendations on which filters?)

It seems silly to get a large, whole house unit that would end up unnecessarily filtering water for the toilet, laundry, and hot water for washing dishes. Is my thinking on this correct?

Here are some of the test results (averages) from the water companies annual report, should I be concerned by any of this:
Alkalinity, 42.4
Chloride, 26.7
Chlorine residual, free 0.7
Dissolved solids, total 98
Hardness, total 62.8
Iron, 36
Nitrate, 4.28
Trihalomethanes, 1.3


I understand there's a lot here, thanks so much for any help you can provide.

[Gary Slusser]

Your first choice, A showerhead with filter and an "under the sink" filter with the extra spout in the kitchen.

I don't like the nitrates and trihalomethanes levels though. Nitrates can fluctuate with precipitation levels.

The iron can't be 36... but that is at the treatment plant, not your house.

[Andy CWS]

Your test results are not accurate. Iron, chlorine can't be attached to those number unless in parts per BILLION and that would be inconventional. Get another test done. I suspect other results are also way off.

I wouldn't recommend a single filter for the hot water on the shower. Get a filter that adapts to the showerhead either a stationary one mounted to the plumbing or a handheld one. These would serve both cold and hot water feeds.

http://filter.filtersfast.com/search?w=shower

Consider an RO for your drinking water. It will handle all the concern you ar ehaving in addition to a host of other elements you are not aware of.

http://filter.filtersfast.com/search?w=reverse+osmosis&asug=&view=list

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

[crouth]

Thanks

Thanks for the suggestions.

Sorry for not including the measurements, the tables are a difficult to read, and I assumed they'd be a standard measurement. Here they are:

Alkalinity, 42.4 mg/L
Chloride, 26.7 mg/L
Chlorine residual, free 0.7 mg/L
Dissolved solids, total 98 mg/L
Hardness, total 62.8 mg/L
Iron, 36 ug/L
Nitrate, 4.28 mg/L
Trihalomethanes, 1.3 ug/L

Obviously I should just have the water tested. Would you recommend one of the home test kits:

http://www.filtersfast.com/Complete-Water-Test-Kit-filters.asp

or should I have it sent to a lab, which would be pretty expensive.

[crouth]

Undersink

Can you recommend an undersink water filter?

Thank you very much for all of your help. There's so much information on the web, but so much of it is a bit biased.

[Gary Slusser]

Any under counter filter with 5 micron sediment then a carbon block cartridge with a separate RO faucet will do it. Then a shower head filter for the showers. This site should be able to sell you them.

A lot of what you may consider bias is actually fact based, your job is to weed out the non fact brand name type hype.