I'm looking for recommendations for a water filtration system that will purify less than desirable potable water for drinking. I really don't want a watermaker as I don't use one that much and don't want the maintenance, but maybe my only option.
Hi TBill36. How pure is pure???? Early in my now 11-year battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), my oncologist(s) were aghast at my plans to venture up the Inland Passage in the PNW, using a reverse osmosis (RO) watermaker to provide all potable water along the way. They were in universal agreement that, even below the industry-accepted PPM value of total dissolved solids (TDS) of 500, RO units will not remove contaminants (particularly viruses and bacteria) sufficient to protect my blood supply. They were only appeased when I agreed to add UV sterilization downstream from the fresh water tank, operating whenever the water system was in operation.
So, I dutifully included UV sterilization, which required 110VAC power, and inclusion of a 12VDC-110VAC relay to turn on the UV sterilizer whenever my fresh water pump(s) were in operation. Not a particularly cheap or easy addition to my boat, but if it made my quacks happy, and helped to keep me alive, I complied. And it obviously worked, as I'm still kicking.
BUT, BUT, an AML patient's drinking water "purity" standards are likely much greater than the norm. How much greater? Follows right along with "what is the best anchor" question. You'll likely get as many opinions as responders regarding water quality required aboard a cruising boat, and how to achieve it. So a very real answer only you can provide to yourself, is how pure is pure? You need to satisfy YOURSELF of a workable (and quantifiable) metric, and then pursue solutions to satisfy that metric. Is the metric strictly PPM for salinity, or are there additional considerations? Smell, color, taste, bacteria, viruses? Personally, I have 100% faith in the opinions rendered by my oncologists, so post-RO UV sterilization it became. For awhile.
For what it's worth, I operated my vessel, using strictly RO water and a UV sterilizer, for the first 5 years of my treatment. Given 5 years is the threshold for cure for AML, I declared myself cured and ditched the sterilizer. And as I mentioned, I'm still kicking. And my choice these days is to add only RO water to my vessel's tankage, and maintain it's health in accordance with Peggi Hall's guidance. I use no further downstream filtration. YMMV, and your solution is highly likely a regional one, and strictly personal.
Regards,
Pete