My wife had been begging me for a filtration system for our water for quite some time. We are on well water which comes out of an artesian well deep in a limestone bedrock. There must be some iron somewhere as well, because the iron concentration in the water was very high. Total PPM of total dissolved solids was so high the meter I bought to measure TDS pegged out, and it went up to 1500PPM TDS. Last month I got a royalty check and instead of sending it to the hospital (which is very close to being paid off by the way...HOORAY!!), I bought a filter system that had three in-line filters down in the basement where the water comes in, and a reverse osmosis system that went under the sink in the kitchen.

Instantly the water smelled better, which was a surprise. I'd grown so used to the water that I'd stopped noticing the smell. But the key point relevant to this discussion, is that the water coming out of the reverse osmosis system now tests at 10PPM TDS. The "distilled water" I'd been buying at the grocery store tests out at 8ppm! I am now able to mix all of my solutions with very high quality water and the wetting agent at the end leaves negatives crystal clean! I was amazed. (We get great coffee and tea now, too.)

The point of all this is that I'm always seeing people comment on their water quality being questionable. The total system cost a little more than $650.00 for both the upstairs and downstairs units. They took about three hours to install, and it was easy enough I was able to do it myself. And I ain't exactly the handiest of all guys! The reverse osmosis side was $389.00, so it actually was the biggest brunt.

It certainly wouldn't be have been worth the squeeze if all I wanted was cleaner darkroom water. But to get healthier water, better tasting drinking water and beverages and to stop clogging up the pipes with calcium makes it worth while for me. To have a happier wife make it worth ten times what I paid for it. (Of course, if it had been ten times what I paid for it, I couldn't have afforded to buy it and I wouldn't be writing this right now.)

But look on the bright side. I'll stop buying distilled water at $1.49 a pop. It'll pay for itself in less that 20 years!