Water Filters

Am about to take our first trip with our Trailmanor and am wondering if it is advisable to purchase a water filter....got a copy of Camping World catalogue and there are a few different kinds of filters....don't want to spend money if it's not necessary, but never having camped before, we're not sure if we should purchase a water filter...what kind would you recommend? Thanks... :-*

[shunter917]

You definitely want the pressure regulator. I have heard horror stories about people who didn't use one.

We did purchase a pressure water regulator....some of the water filters looked like they are for outside between the water supply from the campground and the Trailmanor....and others are strictly for inside....we plan to bring water from home for our dog, but don't want to lug lots of water for us if not necessary! :P

We use both and install them just like TX_Camper recommends. One word of caution. There are various brands available from Camping World. Mine TM is closed down and we have a lot of wind (30 mph and higher) or I would go out and check. Perhaps tomorrow. In any event one of the units is a highly recognizable name and when I found some reviews everyone was returning it because of the cut in water flow. Another not so well known unit was highly thought of with owners saying there water flow was excellent as was the water taste. I bought that unit and it is great. These two units were in the $15 to $20 range. I will follow-up with a name brand tomorrow or the next.

Thanks, John, for going to that trouble....appreciate it!

I did check the Camping World site and they have changed the reviews since I bought our filter, but I think ours is the System IV and I will confirm that tomorrow. If so it looks to be about $25 now. It also has great flow and pressure for showers. CW has removed the other inline filter and all the earlier bad reviews and now have some different Culligan units.

[Bill]

Just FWIW, we quit using a water filter after a year. Before that, we used a "big blue cylinder" filter (don't recall the name) on our water intake hose, and it was more pain than it was worth. A pain to hookup and unhook, a pain to store (it dribbles for hours when you put it away), and I was never convinced that it wasn't growing its own little fungus garden inside the case during periods of non-use.

I finally decided that if you are dry camping, you can't use the filter anyway. And if you have hookups, you are probably getting town water - and certainly getting safe water, since the campgrund is required (both by the town and by their insurance company) to get it tested before distributing it.

We carry a couple gallons of bottled water, and use that for drinking, coffee, etc. But for showers and dishwashing, who cares? I can shower just fine in unfiltered water, thanks.

I'll admit, I HAVE been considering an undersink filter, since it would work even when you are dry camping, using the demand pump to draw water from the storage tank. But really, bottled water in a square 1 or 2-1/2 gallon store jug is just so easy ...

Just my 2 cents worth.

Bill

[Brightsu]

I always take bottled water, I don't like the taste of the water it seems to me it taste like a rubber hose smells.

Pam ???

[Carol]

Hi,

We use an outside filter to remove chlorine and sediment. You really don't want sediment getting into your water supply. We use it when filling our fresh water tank from the campground supply as well. Initailly, we got one that pretty much shut the water flow to a trickle (like jniles mentioned), trying to filter every possible thing. We have a Culligan RVF-10 from Camping World. There are a number of bad reviews on this model. The filter did stop eliminating the chlorine taste/odor after about 3 weeks of steady use, so it won't last a whole season if you camp more than that. We are going on a 3 week trip the end of April, so I could just get a new filter before the next trip and not worry about things growing in it.

Even if there is no break in the water pipes, you may be getting sediment into your water supply. At home (in sand country), before we installed a sediment filter, we were constantly getting clogged faucet screens and the washer intake had to be cleaned out monthly to get the fine granules of sand out of the screens. Make sure whatever external filter you get filters sediment as well as other stuff. :-*

Inside, we have a PUR Ultra faucet filter in the kitchen sink for extra drinking water, cooking and brushing teeth, just in case the water is bad. You just turn it when you want it to filter the water so it can last a whole season. We also bring along drinking water in glass jugs from home for drinking.

There is some very bad water out there and there is some very good water. Taste can be deceiving since there are contaminants that do not have an odor. It depends on where you go as to what the water supply is like. We hate to take chlorine bleach showers, so the chlorine filter is a must for us. We are on well water at home and are spoiled.

Carol

Elanor,

Just checked and it is the Systems IV filter. Has great pressure and flow and the water has tasted great so far, however I may have been at places that only have good water to this point, I have never tasted the unfiltered water without toothpaste in my mouth. It must be replaced every year. We leave it on the hose and screw the other hose end into it after we coil the hose. This keeps it from leaking but always wet. We put the entire hose assembly in a plastic trash bag for storage, so it may in fact be growing stuff in there, just hope it has plenty of calcium in it. We usually use bottled water to drink and the filtered for showers, brushing teeth, and sometimes coffee.