Home Improvement

Siliconemelons

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all fridge filters suck and are stupid $$ and my wife is scared her 4th cousins in China will poison us with the generic filters on amazon.

Finally finished the kitchen for all intents and purposes, while I am sure my wife will always say /something/ is not done... I have pictures but apparently they are all too big to upload and I am lazy to try and get them smaller right now.
 
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Nija

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Most/all refrigerators ship with bypass plugs already installed. I leave them installed because I filter the water in my house at the inlet. RO system under the sink, line ran from there to the fridge. I still have to clear the replace filter light every few months, but no filters have ever been installed at the fridge level.
 

BrutulTM

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You don't need to do the whole house most of the time. I have an RO system that just goes to the fridge and a little side faucet on the kitchen sink. Only use it for drinking water and ice. Using RO water to shower, do laundry, wash dishes, and flush the toilet is kind of silly.
 

mkopec

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I would not use RO. RO basically strips water 99% of everything including beneficial minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It also makes the water slightly acidic. There are other filter options out there that strip out the bad but leave some of the good.

Im kinda lucky because Detroit water is actually pretty fucking good if you can believe it. Only bad shit is the chlorine, chloramine and of course flouride. Rest of the shit is parts per billion and not even worth filtering out.

I brew beer so its crucial what your water has in it and I have reports dating back to the 90s. And I had to learn at least the basics of water chemistry. RO is great for beer making because its a clean slate. But you have to add back all those minerals because if you didnt it would taste like shit. Detroit water is soft with a minimal mineral hardness and a moderate alkalinity which is great for the styles of beer I enjoy like Pilsners, Lagers and blonde ales. It compares to the legendary Czech and Munich water profiles.
 
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Lanx

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I would not use RO. RO basically strips water 99% of everything including beneficial minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It also makes the water slightly acidic. There are other filter options out there that strip out the bad but leave some of the good.

Im kinda lucky because Detroit water is actually pretty fucking good if you can believe it. Only bad shit is the chlorine, chloramine and of course flouride. Rest of the shit is parts per billion and not even worth filtering out.

I brew beer so its crucial what your water has in it and I have reports dating back to the 90s. And I had to learn at least the basics of water chemistry.
you just get a remineralization filter

ro at the kitchen sink is super cheap now, you can have a 6stage for 240$
iSpring RCC7AK 6-Stage Reverse Osmosis System, NSF/ANSI 58 Certified, Alkaline Remineralization for pH Balance, Reduces 1,000+ Contaminants (TDS, PFAS, Lead, Fluoride), Not Just Purity, But Alkalinity

Koushirou Koushirou they have ro now where you can just pour it into a station and in a few minutes you get a pitcher of ro water, no install, sits on the countertop, looks like a coffeemaker, this is what i got my mom in a condo DREO Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Countertop, RO Filtration System, 3:1 Pure to Drain, TDS & Filter Life & 2 Autofill Pitchers, Install-Free, Self-Cleaning Water Purifier, RO Water Filter
 

Haus

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Im just saying, that RO is overkill unless you really REALLY have shitty water.
Well, what RO does is removes all the buffering capacity of the water. Which then means any little thing will throw the PH one way or the other and for most people it gets thrown acidic.

You don't want whole house RO. Now, a good whole house softener/basic filter isn't bad if you're in a shitty water area. It helps with laundry, it helps prevent the accumulation of lime/crap on showerheads and shower doors, etc.

I use a filter in the fridge because I drink a LOT of water throughout the day, and in Dallas proper the muni water has incredibly high levels of dissolved solids and general hardness. If I were doing things over I'd have a whole house basic system on the house probably, but we are looking to move soon, so aren't dropping more into this house. If we build in the country depending on the aquifer under us I might have filtration on well water.
 

mkopec

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At our cabin in N Michigan we have a well and its pure water like you have never tasted before. Its sand filtered goodness. In fact its so clean that it makes the coffee not taste right (or that were used to). We had it tested of course and it came back clean. The wife brings it back home with her she likes it so much.
 

Koushirou

Log Wizard
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I guess the whole house softener would be what I'd need, since we have ridiculously hard water here and I don't want to have to constantly worry about having pipes degrading and shit.
 
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Borzak

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I have a well and a softener at the well house. When I first moved here in the middle of nowhere the people who built the house had dug up a lot of large chunks of iron and had them spread around, some the size of a car. But otherwise it's sand. But with the softener it's pretty good. Better than tap water anywhere I've ever lived. The large lake (120k acres) minutes away nearly dried up in '96 when we had a bad drought but my well never missed a beat.