Rainfresh whole house UV filter system safe to drink?

[pondball]

We are probably having a well submersible pump and new pressure tank installed soon (another thread here).
We also have a whole house UV system (wall mount Rainfresh) that we would like installed at the same time.
We haven’t drunk our water since the early days of moving into our house over 30 years ago. Our family was growing and we opted to go with store bought jugs of water for drinking instead. The idea of flushing waste water from an RO system and possibly running out water from our well did not seem like a good option. It still doesn’t, especially as we read more about the long term effects of drinking RO water.
Our water does not taste or smell bad at any time, however, whether it was our collecting methods or ?? the testing results were too inconsistent to drink from the tap on a regular basis.
We are hoping the plumber who will be doing our well equip updates will also install our UV system but our question is:
Will adding the UV system and running a line to our fridge with built-in (but never used) filter and dispenser system make the water safe enough to drink? Anyone else use just a UV system for drinking water?

 

[Valveman]

Depends on what is in the water. Yo will need a water test to see what you are dealing with. It maybe that the well just needs to be chlorinated as most well water is good and drinkable.

 

[breplum]

The filters that come with refrigerators are puny, nearly worthless filters. Often charcoal, but so small with such little surface area that even with municipal systems they do very little.

 

[wpns]

One of the problems I've always had with drinking bottled water is that you are ignoring the rest of your water use. What are you using to make your coffee, or shower in, or wash your vegetables with, or brush your teeth with, or any of the myriad ways we use water?

First, get your water tested, so you know what you are dealing with. The add treatment as required. Anything is do-able, we took my mother's well water from "DO NOT DRINK!" (fecal coliform TNC, aka Too Numerous to Count) to 'municipal quality', but it's a 3-stage process, and probably not applicable everywhere.

And _anything_ you do is going to need maintenance, make sure you know what is required, who does it and when, and then ensure it actually gets done. My experience with UV lights is great, except they are part of a system, so if the bulb burns out it's not immediately a crisis. Note that hard water will build up deposits on the outside of the quartz tube, so it'll need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Some UV lights have a wiper bar, but if you don't use it frequently, then it gets jammed up too.

But yeah, start with testing, so you know what your issues are.

 

[FishScreener]

The problem with UV sterilization is that it typically doesn’t kill all of the bacteria, viruses, etc. pre-filtering it helps but not a whole lot. The survivors, are still in the water, and if you don’t have fairly rapid turn over, they start eating the remains of he dead ones and multiplying.

If you have space, I would recommend a hypochlorite (bleach) injector, slaved to the pump, and a holding tank, to give it some contact time.

 

[havasu]

I have a friend who owns one of the leading UV water sterilization companies in the country. As he explained to me, UV sterilization only works when you can adjust the water pressure down, and make sure the water is saturated with UV light, for the proper amount of time. Anything less does not work.

 

[pondball]

Thanks everyone for your replies so far.
I think I’m realizing right now that the most important first step is to get my well water tested - to see what my starting point is.
I’m going to have to replace the well pump regardless but want to get the drinking water issue resolved at the same time, so, yah, testing first.
I’ll check with the water company who gave me the quote first as they are closer, but will also check in with the local county health unit.