We immediately had our water tested again. Although the results came back clear for coliforms and bacteria, we also noticed that the ceramic filter which which I had installed on the drinking water feed, a Doulton Ultracarb cartridge, had quickly become discoloured and saturated with the sediment, with a corresponding flow reduction. Although I was glad I had installed the filter, it worried me that other bacteria borne water could quite easily be feeding to the rest of the house water supply, resulting in potentially unsafe water for bathing, washing, brushing teeth etc. I decided to investigate and install a suitable system to resolve this.

There are various treatments on the market to improve water quality, but you could spend many thousands of euro trying to cover every scenario. For a private well supply, a common approach would be to test the water from the well for both mineral and bacteria composition, and plan a water treatment system to suit. The problem with this approach is that well water quality varies considerably from year to year and even from season to season. And, as demonstrated above, it could work for many years without issue, or you could be unfortunate and have a plethora of issues year on year.

The systems I have investigated to treat well water are as follows:

Ultraviolet System (UV)

Many specialist water companies advocate using a UV based filter at the well side to sterilise the water, with a pre-filter to handle removal of sediment etc. The UV filter is a mains powered light over which the water passes, killing bacteria in the process. The problem with this system is, if the turbidity is severe, the water will not be clean enough by the time it exists the pre-filter. And, because UV light needs clarity in the water in order to kill the bacteria, UV systems are only effective if there is a consistent clear water source entering the UV chamber. Here's the nub: would it have worked in my case above, for the ONE time in 7 years that the water quality was really poor?  No way! I can confirm this because the water was still very cloudy even after passing through the 0.1micron Ultracarb filter at the drinking water tap. So that sounds to me like the UV system can only be used in strictly controlled conditions.  While it may work 95% of the time, that's not enough for me.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) System

This is a chemical process, usually employed as a whole house based system, which artificially alters the water structure to create clean bacteria free softened water. Its considered quite an expensive system initially, but it has a proven track record in the field and is sometimes installed in a countertop only system. However, on a well based system it may require additional pre-filters, it usually requires an additional pump to keep water pressure at a reasonable level and most important it does not provide any method for extracting non-softened drinking water (more on this later) unless a separate feed is used. If that's the case then this separate feed would need its own filtration in turn.

Ceramic Filtration System

This is a non-chemical process where various types of filters can purify the water as it passes through, trapping debris, sediment and bacteria depending of the size and type of filters used. While these systems are generally easier to install than then other two, they do need monitoring and possibly more frequent filter changes. Also, additional booster pumping may be required when using filters with very small micron ratings.

System Chosen

Having looked at the pros and cons of the 3 systems, it was clear to me that the ceramic filtration provided the best overall  solution. The UV system could not be relied upon to safely sterilise the water when subject to extreme turbidity and sediment. The RO system works perfectly well, with one glaring omission: it does not supply non-softened water for drinking. 

Overall, the ceramic filtration actually works best for me, because of its flexibility. Here is a picture of the filter system that I have installed:

This is triple filter whole house system, with 10" big housings, which is connected directly to the incoming water pipe from the well. At the time of writing this system cost GBP350, including housings, filters and delivery. Water enters from the left. The clear housings allow the filters to be checked visually without recourse to opening up the housings. Note: there are many "big blue" type housings on the market, the only reason that manufacturers introduced these blue housings was because they discovered that natural light would encourage mould and bacteria to grow within the filters thus shortening their life or perhaps introducing bacteria rather than removing it. However, they have been slow to provide clear housings and these are finally coming on line. All you need to do is to ensure that the filter unit is positioned where there is little or no natural light, or alternatively make up a simple detachable cover which stops the light and can be removed to check the filter status. I'm very surprised that any of the "big blue" filters are sold at all, as it would be very laborious to have to unscrew the filters just to check them each time. My advice, opt for, and insist on, clear housings. 

In the above picture I have configured the first housing with a 50micron pleated filter, which is washable and reusable. The second housing contains a carbon filter at 5microns which provides good all round general purpose carbon filtration, with a typical 6 month replacement cycle. Finally, the last housing has a multi-candle 1micron filter (Doulton Rio-2000) which removes bacteria and other fine particles, with a typical 1 year replacement cycle. The benefits of this system are:
1) no chemical alteration of the water, no artificial water softening
2) pre-filters 1 and 2 extend the life of the final more expensive filter
3) easy visual aid to see how the filters are performing
4) designed for whole house filtration
5) simple to install, no specialist (i.e. expensive) services required
5) large surface area means less loss of pressure
6) can continue to use further filters downstream from the exit point 

Regarding the last point, what I mean here is that the output from the picture above is then routed to my drinking water filter (Doulton Ultracarb) and onwards to the tap. A second feed from the output point above is then routed to the water softener as before. So I'm double filtering the drinking water, but in reality most, if not all of the hard work (and bacteria control) has been done in the 1micron multi candle filter in the third filter housing. This is probably overkill and in time I may dispense with my single old filter.

The water can then be tested yearly with/without the filtration system by simply removing the filters from the housing and replacing the housing. At the same time the well can be sterilised with the filters removed. Another benefit of this is that there are many specialist filters made by reputable water filter manufactures (such as Watts, who make this particular triple filter), and the 2nd filter can simply be replaced with a more bespoke unit if required. Overall, for me and my family this provides the best solution on the market right now.  

Drinking Softened Water

A number of water treatment systems incorporate water softening into their solutions. Although I am no expert in this, I can confirm that a large number of water suppliers appear to advocate a whole house water treatment system, particularly an RO system, which first treats the water, then softens it, and only after this is the water fed onwards for drinking etc. I will happily go on record, right here, and say that, in my opinion, this is wrong and should not be done. Generations previously have never drunk artificially softened water, and I'm betting on the track record of our forefathers rather than in some recently engineered concepts.

Scientific studies done though many years continue to suggest that we should not drink non-naturally softened water, as there can be health implications for susceptible groups (such as young children, very old, mothers-to-be etc). In any case, I would point immediately to all city and town based water supplies which supply millions of people worldwide with water. They never soften the water either. It makes no sense to drink softened water, but the issue is that the RO systems do soften it, and that's why I think the implementation of these systems is incorrect. Softened water is only needed to ensure longevity of heating systems and as an aid to bathing and washing.

You can pick up arguments both for and against drinking softened water, but I'm going to stick with the UK government guidelines which serve upwards of 60million people and state the following:

a) "However, it is a legal obligation, under the Water Fittings Regulations, when installing a softener, to provide a supply of unsoftened water for drinking"

b) .. RO systems: "Because of the correlation between cardiovascular disease and consumption of naturally soft water the Department of Health has advised that consumption of artificially softened water should be avoided."

Now if an RO system did not soften the water then I would have no problems with it, nor indeed do I have any issue with installing an RO system as long as a separate drinking water system is available. Do your own research and decide for yourselves, I've made my mind up a long time ago, and it's a no-brainer.