Monolithic Filters - Amazing Idea or Massive Flop??

[pdirt]

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This is the filter I researched and decided was the best one I could find: http://www.promolife.com/cart/water...oride-removal-filters/four-stage-undercounter (it also removes chlorine and a host of other toxins).

Should read:

This is the filter I researched and decided was the best one I could find for filtering out fluoride: http://www.promolife.com/cart/water...oride-removal-filters/four-stage-undercounter (it also removes chlorine and a host of other toxins).

I think the best option, if you want to incur the cost, would be to have your water tested 3-4x a year. Send two samples...one sample unfiltered and one sample filtered. Send samples to be tested when the filters are new, at 3 months of use, 6 months of use and possibly 1 year. Depending on the level of fluoride in your water to begin with and how much filtering you are doing, you'll get an idea of how long the filters will last you. If at 6 months they are still removing most of the fluoride, you could test again at 9 or 12 months. None of the fluoride filter makers will really come out and say their filter will "last x number of months" because, 1) fluoride is hard to remove (it needs a long contact time with the filter media, hence the 4-filter setup I sent you the link for) and 2) Different water sources will have different levels of fluoride and 3) It depends upon how much water you are filtering. I think Promolife has a hard stop on their filter that it can't be any more than a certain PPM of fluoride, otherwise they won't guarantee it's removal. If you live someplace where the municipality adds a known amount of fluoride to the water, that is easier to deal with than ground water that naturally has high levels of fluoride.

If you could get your hands on some bone char (or make your own), you could make a gravity fed system that I think would outperform/last the Promolife one mentioned above, at much less cost.

Here is a paper discussing the use of bone char in Africa. There are several such papers on the internet out there, this is just the first one I came up with in a search:

http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/resources/conference/34/Korir_H_-_189.pdf

 

[pdirt]

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My quick glance at the Monolithic filters suggests they are decent filters...for home use. But in no way are they going to do a good job at filtering fluoride. The filter is just not large enough to contain enough filter media to last very long for fluoride. They don't say on their website what is used in the filter media, other than ceramic. Small pore ceramic is good at filtering bacteria, but that's about it. You need charcoal (there are other medias, but charcoal covers a LOT of chemicals) to absorb chemicals and bone char(coal) is the best for fluoride. Activated alumina works well for fluoride, too, but only for about 30 days...not cost effective, in my book. Bone char is simply burned animal bones, rather than a product of the toxic mining industry.

 

[MeepBeep]

Properly filtering municipal water in the long run can be expensive and/or just a plain hassle...

This is a moot point for me as I actually have very good well water, but being an avid aquarium enthusiast as well I know full well the problems with municipal water I have done my fair share of research on the matter and removing the bad stuff in municipal water supplie...

And although the below might sound crazy, expressive and a lot of work to some, trust me it's not any of those in the end This can be done on a weekend for a very reasonable cost, and provide you will 'agricultural' grade water, don't confuse that with human drinking potable water (although in many cases it very well could be fine for that as well) as we have pampered ourselves way too much and can't tolerate anything anymore...

Anyway Google up and Youtube up "PVC well drilling" putting all 'building codes/laws' aside you can drill yourself a shallow agricultural well with little work and little investment, even in an urban neighborhood environment... And although the water won't be as filtered as a deep well, it's perfectly fine in almost all cases for watering livestock and your garden...

There are even DYI PVC hand pumps you can build on the cheap, or places like Harbor Freight sell very reasonably price electric shallow well pumps complete with small pressure tanks...

 

[pdirt]

Anyway Google up and Youtube up "PVC well drilling" putting all 'building codes/laws' aside you can drill yourself a shallow agricultural well with little work and little investment, even in an urban neighborhood environment... And although the water won't be as filtered as a deep well, it's perfectly fine in almost all cases for watering livestock and your garden...

There are even DYI PVC hand pumps you can build on the cheap, or places like Harbor Freight sell very reasonably price electric shallow well pumps complete with small pressure tanks...

FASCINATING! Thanks for posting that, it could come in handy someday. I see he is doing this in clay soil, which sounds more do-able than trying to drill through rocky soil, which is what we have. I know our house well has two veins, one at 30 feet and another at 120. Even 30 feet sounds like it could take a while.

Have you dug such a well, MeepBeep? If so, how deep did you have to dig for your agricultural well?

 

[MeepBeep]

Have you dug such a well, MeepBeep? If so, how deep did you have to dig for your agricultural well?

I have not done one myself, although I did advise/help a friend of mine drill one that he uses to keep the water topped off in a Koi pond in his backyard... He went down I believe about 15-20 feet... Took him on day to drill the well, and the second day he sleeved and plumbed it and had the pump temporarily hooked up to test flow rate...

In my area it's pretty easy to drill, we have about 2 feet of top soil, followed by varying types of clay and clay/gravel mixes, the clay and gravel is slow going but it drills with patience...

I found a map of all 'official' water wells drilled in my area, and looking at that many of the shallow agricultural wells in the area are only drilled to that 15-30 foot depth, while most home 'drinking' water wells in the area are drilled to 125-200 feet on average...

As I said the shallow well isn't perfect water but for livestock that will readily drink out of a mud puddle in the field, a pond, a lake, or a creek/river it's worlds cleaner than that in most cases...

 

[MrsBrooke]

Anyway Google up and Youtube up "PVC well drilling" putting all 'building codes/laws' aside you can drill yourself a shallow agricultural well with little work and little investment, even in an urban neighborhood environment... And although the water won't be as filtered as a deep well, it's perfectly fine in almost all cases for watering livestock and your garden...

There are even DYI PVC hand pumps you can build on the cheap, or places like Harbor Freight sell very reasonably price electric shallow well pumps complete with small pressure tanks...

I have actually watched those very videos! It's on our list of stuff to do, for sure. I believe our water table is something like 20-25 feet down. If you use the dual-wielding water hose "drill," you can, as you said, drill a well in a day.

When we do get around to "digging" our well, I will document and let you know how it goes!

MrsB