Question:
I would suggest a system with reverse osmosis. The carbon only takesout the smells and some other impurities. The membrane on the ROsystem will get submicron particles including lead, mercury andsolvents. (I think the carbon might take care of some carbons).

I worked in a clean room where water purity was vital. In general forthe home the best set up in my opinion is : 2 or 3 string filtersnext to each other first in line. You can get several differntsizes ( based on the size particle they catch, start w/large and getprogessively smaller). Next to these have a carbon filter. Thecarbon will last longer and do a better job by having the stringfilters upline from them. Next put your RO chamber and have theoutlet come from here. This should give you the cleanest water in thehome. Home RO units usually hold 3-5 gallons in reserve and the morestuff you put in the line, the slower the flow of water. All thefilters I mention are replaceable. The string filters prob. every 3months, the carbon every 6 and the RO once a year. I can give youmore details on where to find the stuff. Basically a big hardwarestore will have all the pieces. Also, use copper tubing to connectall the pieces.

has anyone used the Enviro-Pure water filter system?

Answer: A few months ago I too asked this question and began a two monthinvestigation (during September and October of 1994) to determine theabsolutely best water treatment system out on the market.

I contacted every manufacturer I could find, visited stores, talkedwith certified water quality specialists, and gathered literature onlots and lots of devices.

Anyway, I first looked into bottled water, and found that at least here inMassachusetts bottled water is under the same regulations asyour city water supply. The only difference is that the waterdoes not have to travel through the pipes (sometimes picking upcrud along the way) to get to your house/apartment. The bottledwater companies were no help - they would only restate the claimson their label (if any), like 100% sodium free or such. After all,water should have ingredients! Other states maybe different, butI doubt it, as Massachusetts is pretty strict on regulations.

Being disturbed about bottled water, I continued a 2 month investigationinto water filters. I talked with many many people, visited stores,discussed this on the net, and recieved literature from just aboutevery company out there. I even received info from the two largestindependant water treatment testing labs in the country, which testmanufacturer's claims and validate them. This is the info I usedin selecting a water treatment device for my home, since these testinglabs had the independant scientific data comparing most units in anunbiased way. The largest and most respected lab is NSF (NationalSanitation Foundation, whch even sets ANSI standards for other labsto test by).

I figured since you couldn't trust bottled water, at least you couldtrust filtered water that was backed up with these scientific tests.Cost was also an issue, but suprisingly enough I found that filtered watercost me far less than the bottled water - and I have concrete factualevidence how good the filtered water is and what contaminents it removes.

Did you know that according to a Ralph Nader study there have been identifiedover 2110 contaminents in your water, with 700 hazardous to your health and129 of which have been proven to cause cancer! Your local mucicipality isonly required by law to test for 89 contaminents, so without a treatmentdevice you are literally playing russian roullette with your health!

There are other alternatives too that I looked into, but they all had adrawback. Distillation is questionable, as it removes minerals and is costly(40 - 50 cents/gallon) plus it is incredibly inconvenient. ReverseOsmosis is very good, but I found very expensive ($400-$800, with $100/yearin filter costs, plus wastes alot of water). However, either of thesesystems (backed up by test data) is a much better alternative thanyour city water or even bottled water. I settled on a filter because itis quick, easy, less expensive, and removes all the contaminents.

I ended up choosing a Multipure filter system, which cost me in thelow $200 range, and is a point of use system (meaning you use it for drinkingand cooking only and don't waste it washing dishes). It was actuallyrated in August 1994 by Consumers Digest as a Best Buy. It is rated(again by independant testing labs) to do 500 gallons, and hasthe most extensive independant testing done on it. It has NSF testsproving removal of lead, chlorine (class I), VOC's (Voltaic Organic Chemicalslike benzene), THM's (Tri-halo Methanes), 2,4 D Lindane, Chloroform,Pesticides, Water born cysts (Giardia, cryptosporidia), other heavy metals,and all particles greater than 1/2 micron in size. There are other ratingstoo, but I don't have the info in front of me at them moment. Thereare some other good filters out there, but check the independantNSF testing data. You must be careful as there are a ton of reallybad ones that 'scare' you into buying that basically don't work.

After the initial cost of a unit, you must consider filter replacementcosts. My unit cost $40 for a filter ($40/500 = $.08 cents per gallon).I figured I'll break even the first year as the unit pays for itself,after that I'll be saving big $$, but more importantly I will KNOW thequality of my water and have peace of mind.

The only other two filter units that compare with the Multipure is theEverpure S-200 and the Amway WTS. However, the Amway is plastic andmore expensive, and has a high filter replacement cost ($85). TheEverpure is similar in price to the Multipure, but has a high filtercost also. The Multipure is stainless Steel, warranteed for 25 years,and filter replacements are cheap $40 - Why? Because Multipure is thelargest producer of solid block carbon filters in the world (havingbeen around since 1970) and as such has the lowest cost.

If anyone is interested in a Multipure unit I can get them pretty cheap(less than anyone else) and they come with 30 day money back guarantee. Just give me a shout.