purifying rainwater

[elby]

We have a rainwater cistern that we installed about 12 years ago. We used it for a while, when we had an under sink filter. But when we could no longer find filters for that unit we stopped using the cistern water and now use public water exclusively.

I would like to get back to using the cistern water. I have a few questions: one, how do we clean the cistern? Its been sitting idle for many years. Should we just shock it with chlorine and flush it?

We don't want to have what happened before, when we were left high and dry by a filter system that was no longer useful after only a couple of years use, due to filters no longer available.

What sort of purification system is good? Googling sends me to many ads. Is reverse osmosis good? Or just a filter? Just looking for suggestions. Does anybody here use rainwater? Any ideas?

Thanks for any info.

[blooba]

R.O. is just another filter. Not familiar with rainwater catchment or the contaminates to watch for but I would think you want a UV light to kill the germs and maybe something like http://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-3...ef-hd-950.aspx to filter any sediment.
Those have a universal type filter like They are made by many manufacturers so no leaving you high and dry.
Or you could check into a refillable carbon media filter.

[Harry Chickpea]

Rain can form droplets around bacteria. It is a good idea to sanitize the water. Chlorine or hydrogen peroxide or ultraviolet can do that.

Berkey filters can purify it, and distillation can kill organisms and leave them in the waste water.

I vacuum out our cistern once or twice a year to remove sediment. It isn't difficult with a shop vac and a long wand.

I dumped the RO system we had long ago, because it is impossible to tell when it is starting to fail.

[blooba]

Originally Posted by blooba

R.O. is just another filter. Not familiar with rainwater catchment or the contaminates to watch for but I would think you want a UV light to kill the germs and maybe something like http://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-3...ef-hd-950.aspx to filter any sediment.
Those have a universal type filter like They are made by many manufacturers so no leaving you high and dry.
Or you could check into a refillable carbon media filter.

Oh yea you can pick those things up fairly cheap at Sears or HD. there's no particular reason why I picked that link to show. Their all basically the same. The filter is the important part. I use a 5 micron but some say they clog to fast and use a 25 micron "frogs and logs" filter

[motdaugrnds]

I remember my grandmother using a rain water cistern in the '50s. It was located next to the back porch with a shoot coming off the house and always had a lid on it. When it rained hard, she would make sure the first water went onto the ground; then she would move the shoot so the water drained into the cistern. She used a bucket & pulley to get the water for the house. No filtering system was used. I have heard of people in the mountains doing a similar thing, even collecting ground water into a similar holding tank .. all without filtering. Maybe with the air polution we have now it would be wise to filter; however, I am not sure I would worry about it. Just send off some to the agents to test it periodically.

[blooba]

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

I remember my grandmother using a rain water cistern in the '50s. It was located next to the back porch with a shoot coming off the house and always had a lid on it. When it rained hard, she would make sure the first water went onto the ground; then she would move the shoot so the water drained into the cistern. She used a bucket & pulley to get the water for the house. No filtering system was used. I have heard of people in the mountains doing a similar thing, even collecting ground water into a similar holding tank .. all without filtering. Maybe with the air polution we have now it would be wise to filter; however, I am not sure I would worry about it. Just send off some to the agents to test it periodically.

Well rain and snow droplets are formed around dust, pollution and bacteria in the air by nucleation. With all the pollution in our air today I would DEFINITELY filter it.

[edcopp]

I'll take rainwater over municipal water any time.

The price is right and I know more about what may be in it. For household use most of the time our rainwater is good straight from the sky. That is for everything but drinking.

Last time I checked things out heating killed bacteria. Such things as cooking and heating water for washing (anything) should kill most bacteria.

As for particles of stuff, like dust several things help. Living in the country where there are not a lot of people nearby helps, having a nice wooded area to live in the middle of also helps. A simple universal filter helps, and helps a lot. Ours cost about $20 at our local hardware store.

Would I drink straight from my rain barrel? The answer is yes, with rare exceptions.