Rainwater Is No Longer Safe to Drink

[knieft]

If anybody is using quantum filtration, I suggest getting your water tested.

A friend of ours has a newer quantum filtration system professionally installed by a local installer. While selling their house, the water was tested during the inspection period. It tested positive for e coli coming out of the kitchen spigot.
….

Thanks for the notice, terracore. That is certainly bad news.

We had our first filters replaced several weeks ago at two properties as they came to the end of their rated gallon life. Never a problem that I know about.

Have not had water tested ever, except by taste, for whatever that’s worth regarding pathogens…likely nothing.

Looking forward to how it goes with installer response, especially if it was Uncle Tilos, who was our installer.

Cheers,
Kirt

[Obie]

"It tested positive for e coli coming out of the kitchen spigot."

You can't get a good test from the kitchen spigot. All that is going to show is the aerator is contaminated with e-coli.
To test the water, there is a valve on the tee that is connected to the pressure tank. If you test it there or if you have a test port just after the filters, you can get a good water test.

Just touching the aerator with dirty hands can contaminate it.

I had that problem in Ohio this year.. I took out my filter and filled the filter bowl with bleach, pumped it through until I had a strong bleach smell at each faucet and then let it set overnight. Flush it out the next day and test for chlorine until there is no trace. Then do another water test.

[Durian Fiend]

"It tested positive for e coli coming out of the kitchen spigot."

You can't get a good test from the kitchen spigot. All that is going to show is the aerator is contaminated with e-coli...

That's a good point.  However, not everyone has an aerator on their faucets.  I don't.

[terracore]

No aerator or sprayer on the faucet, but they are looking into other sources of potential contamination.

[Obie]

Like I suggested, take a sample just after the filters to eliminate the plumbing in the house.
Even without an aerator someone with e-coli on their hands could have touched it and the e-coli is hard to decontaminate from inside the faucet.

I don't want to hijack the thread but growing up as a plumber's son and the 41 years of sanitizing water systems on airplanes has taught me a lot.

[terracore]

I talked to a local establishment that provides rain catchment solutions and asked them about quantum filters.  They told me they don't sell them any longer because "a lot of failed water tests" and they don't want the liability.  They also told me that there is no known quantum filter on the market with an NSF certification for actually treating the water (NSF certification for material components only).

They suggested that I look up the last paragraph in the quantum filter user manual and make up my own mind.  So I looked it up:

"This disinfection system has been independently tested for the supplemental bactericidal treatment of
disinfected public drinking water or other drinking water that has been deemed acceptable for human
consumption by the state or local health agency having jurisdiction. The system is only designed to reduce
normally occurring non-pathogenic nuisance microorganisms. The system is not intended for the treatment of
water that has an obvious contamination or intentional source, such as raw sewage, nor is the system intended
to convert wastewater or surface water to microbiologically safe drinking water."

https://www.wecofilters.com/media/produc..._house.pdf

If you look at page 3 of the manual, it also describes the narrow range of water characteristics where the supplemental bactericidal treatment of disinfected public drinking water is effective.

[Punatang]