Off-grid water filter tips?

Hi all—

I've posted about this before: I've got a pretty rustic cabin with water being fed from a dug well up above. (I've posted about the well in previous forums and happy to give more info to anyone interested)—but right now want to ask about water filtration options.

The water quality is pretty good all things considered but:

• it consistently tests positive for coliform bacteria (not e. coli—this may be because the well does not have a proper lid, just a board weighed down by stones. I actually made a concrete cap myself that I will put on once it warms up)
• water is also slightly high in a couple metals (specifically iron and manganese—well below health advisory levels, but around secondary maximum contaminant levels, at least in the case of manganese)

The water runs from the well through 1" poly piping into two 55-gallon drums beneath the bathroom, and then is pumped up with a small RV/boat-type pump to the sink and shower.

Long story short—I have generally NOT been drinking the water straight—I drink it once boiled, and sometimes get bottled water, but want to devise a practical filtration system, both for potential coliform bacteria and for metals.

While I plan to make slight adjustments to the well that I think will help with both of these, it's a rustic setup and the guy who installed the well was an amateur, so I don't think it'll be perfect. I'm working on building a new house and will make that water supply much tighter, but would like this to work better for now.

Any input?

https://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-Microfilter-Backpacking-Emergency-Preparedness/dp/B092ZGPKKD


If you only need to purify your drinking water, many people swear by this. A gallon in 2 minutes..

I actually have something sort of simple for backpacking. But to clarify, if possible, I'd love to have something I can potentially install into the water system—some kind of filter, that can be a part of the system, does that exist?

And obviously being off-grid looking for something that doesn't use power...

In-line water filters for RVs are available that use standard hose fittings. I haven't tried them yet, so I'm not sure of the resistance it will create. If you have enough pressure and your water usage is low enough, you may be able to attach one before your barrels.
I think the same principles would apply to many types of filters. If you want to save on cartridge replacements you can maybe have a separate barrel/pump for filtered water for drinking/showering.
We use a berkey for drinking water and the original filters are still going after a year of use.



 


   

Katadyn combi is a backpacking filter that has an adapter available that turns it into a countertop filter.

Another option, the one I use, is a doulton rio 2000. It puts six ceramic filters into a blue whole house filter housing. It was available on Amazon.

I can suggest that if you install a bigger tank, settlement and self cleaning may occur.

Disc filters are very effective, they have a range of sizes of mesh and diameter of the filers.
Units  start at 1 inch and go through to about 12 inches.
Filters start at   120 mesh
Disc filtersales

John C Daley wrote:I can suggest that if you install a bigger tank, settlement and self cleaning may occur.

John, what's the minimal water volume needed for the self-cleaning to work?

For anyone looking:
Berkey, from Texas, makes seriously good home filtration columns. We have the 2.5+-gal size.
The drawback is, after the terror/panic of Covid, the clamor of hysterical buyers queuing to purchase has caused their already expensive products/replacements to almost double in price. The 'black filters' can be scrubbed on the outside to extend their lifespan if using with slightly sedimented water. But still.
There are other products, very similar. Also, beware of counterfeit filters.

Any storage container will allow sediment to settle out of still water. The trick is having enough volume to avoid stirring sediment up while drawing necessary water off. 50gal is decent size for moderate home use, one couple, relatively clean water. 275 gal. IBC allows us to use our somewhat warm and 'biological' (in the summer) south lake for domestic/garden, except for drinking. For that we use the cold, deep north lake, and the Berkey.

Jane, 5000 Gallons

With your type of water and daily water usage it all depends on how deep you want to get into maintenance, power requirements, etc.

Typically with your type of water, they put it a greensand filtration system for iron and manganese, followed by an ultraviolet light system to kill the total coliform. You can add sediment filters in between before the UV to protect the life of the UV etc etc. And the add an optional activated carbon filter for flavor and taste and odor.

When you decide to seal your well, start with chlorinating your well. Figure out the static head and how deep( imagine your well a giant pipe full of water), go research online how to calculate chlorine dose. Need to figure out how much water is in that well. Use bleach it's safer. Pout it in, let it for a few hours or overnight. Eyeball it if you don't mind smelling like a pool for a while.

Run your well off and flush out your tanks with that chlorine water.

Then later on Flush your water lines with chlorine, start with a bit more is less with chlorine. Pour it in though the big drums, if not possible pour it down the well again. Open your line long enough to keep the chlorine in the lines. Keep it in there for about 20 minutes, then flush out all your lines.

You have bacteria in your lines since the water lines were probably stagnant in between owner and you moving in. See it all the time.

Now if you want to keep this as primitive as possible you could put it sand filters, 55 gal drums of sand and activated charcoal, you would have to rig it up. If you don't want to use a pump or power you will need a good height difference(head) to push the water through the sand. It's called slow sand filtration that's what they use in water treatment plants look it up. But then when the sand gets bad you will have to shovel out to old sand and put it new. There's also diatomaceous earth filtration. If you get creative you can improvise the whole thing.

If you are able to, get big glass jugs like for home brewing, and sit the water on in good sunlight, that will naturally kill the coliform, at least ,24 hours. Add bit of lemon juice or baking soda, bump the pH up and kill any microorganisms too. You can also buy reverse osmosis system under the sink but you will need a pump for that.

Coliform is weird sometimes it's from septic leaching, manure, etc sometimes it's just decaying foliage down under. So what I'm saying is sometimes it's not necessarily a bad thing. But they use the presence of that to assume that it's bad. So Id say keep the surrounding well head area clean and maybe plant some short root shrubs and stuff around to help with percolation.

Take note of natural springs in nature...ferns birch sycamores berries maples pines etc. they are natural filters. Mother nature knows copy her. She will guide ya strong

Hope that helps. If you have any questions give me a holler.

I bought one of these years ago for emergency Lifestraw community.
Though I have a generator with auto transfer switch, for long term power outages (think EMP) it won't be running all the time. I have a simple pump on top of my well head to get water if I need it. I can also catch rain water from gutters and 50 gal storage barrels. That water would need to be filtered so the lifestraw would come in handy. It holds 6 gals and is good for filtering over 30,000 gallons.

DEnnis, think about water tank storage volumes of 5000gals. not 50 gals.
That will be more practical.

I have a simple pump on top of my well head. So I can pump, by hand, water when needed for drinking (I also have the parts to have the simple pump redirect the water into the well tank in the house instead of out. This requires some one with the right tool to connect it to the water line going in to the house. Not an easy chore to do, but a plumber can. I don't need 5000 gal storage. Rain water can be used to flush toilets or put a toilet between 2 stumps, dig a whole and then........In winter there is plenty of snow.