Dirty water we have to pay for in rural Isaan

[Dario]

Hi everyone,

we live in a small rural Isaan village in northern Surin province. Our village has a water cleaning system  and every house is connected to the water supply. Even though after having already had yellow water and the puyai had received 200'000 Baht to renew the system, we have again terribly dirty water. The water looks yellow like piss, sorry for this word. The nearby temple abbot had a team to drill an artesian well 35+ meters deep. The water comes out quite clean, but the next morning the water is again dirty.  I wonder why? People in our village have complained countless times to the puyai baan, but complaints bring nothing. The water remains dirty. The problem is also washing clothes. We have lots of white clothes, some expensive like our daughters Nike tennis wear, all which suffer tremendously. Having a 2'000 l water tank doesn't help. The dirty water goes in there as dirty as it comes from the street and feeds our hot water washing machine.

 

I appeal to my fellow TV members. What can we do? Any constructive help is very much appreciated

[VocalNeal]

Buy your own filter system?

[bankruatsteve]

Has anybody determined what is causing the issue?  If it's just clay sediment, that is easy to filter but the filters need constant replacement.  

[KhunBENQ]

Just now, VocalNeal said:

Buy your own filter system?

If the water is only used for (dish) washing etc. then a filter does not cost a fortune.

Most likely it's sediment that causes the problem.

 

For a start you can try/test the cheap sediment filter cartridges.

Do you have a pump attached after the tank?

[Dario]

4 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

If the water is only used for (dish) washing etc. then a filter does not cost a fortune.

Most likely it's sediment that causes the problem.

 

For a start you can try/test the cheap sediment filter cartridges.

Do you have a pump attached after the tank?

Yes, a strong pump is attached after the tank. Could you recommend us what kind of filter to buy, I guess there are so many to choose from. HomePro is only about 70 km away from our home.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Dario

[VocalNeal]

Not probably piratical space-wise but the late King recommended gravity fed sand and gravel filters.

 

Either on this forum or "the other one" there is a guy with a settling basin on top of his car port !! 

Edited May 22, 2019 by VocalNeal

[KhunBENQ]

Put a filter between tank outlet and pump.

Can be one or two stage.

Typical housings are for 10 inch cartridges.

Highly recommended to buy housings and filter cartridges online.

Prices at hardware shops can be silly exaggerated.

Cheapest I got was 22 Baht for 5 micron cartridge and 27 Baht for 1 micron (ordered in 50 piece packages)

Since we have our own well the consumption has gone down much.

Need to change the cartridge only about every month or so.

With the village water is was dirty after a few days.

 

Example picture for a two stage filter:

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by KhunBENQ

[Dario]

9 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Put a filter between tank outlet and pump.

Can be one or two stage.

Typical housings are for 10 inch cartridges.

Highly recommended to buy housings and filter cartridges online.

Prices at hardware shops can be silly exaggerated.

Cheapest I got was 22 Baht for 5 micron cartridge and 27 Baht for 1 micron (ordered in 50 piece packages)

Since we have our own well the consumption has gone down much.

Need to change the cartridge only about every month or so.

With the village water is was dirty after a few days.

 

Example picture for a two stage filter:

 

I very much appreciate your suggestion, Khun BENQ! Would I find this at HomePro, or might I buy it better on Lazada? I'll send you pictures via PM of the location of the tank and pump.

[VocalNeal]

27 minutes ago, Dario said:

Yes, a strong pump is attached after the tank. Could you recommend us what kind of filter to buy, I guess there are so many to choose from. HomePro is only about 70 km away from our home.

If you put a glass/jug of the dirty water aside does it eventually go clear? 

 

This will give some idea of what the problem is. 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by VocalNeal

[Dario]

27 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

If you put a glass/jug of the dirty water aside does it eventually go clear? 

 

This will give some idea of what the problem is. 

Yes, it does. We have a large water bucket with lid on top in the bathroom, When we put dirty water inside, after a day or two, three it gets clear and the dirt settles on the ground. As illustration I will PM y you 2 pictures one with a blue shirt soaked in "clean" water from the large bucket and one from the toilet, Mind you, the toilet itself is sparkling clean, we clean it 3-4 times a day ...

Edited May 22, 2019 by Dario

[Dario]

46 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Put a filter between tank outlet and pump.

Can be one or two stage.

Typical housings are for 10 inch cartridges.

Highly recommended to buy housings and filter cartridges online.

Prices at hardware shops can be silly exaggerated.

Cheapest I got was 22 Baht for 5 micron cartridge and 27 Baht for 1 micron (ordered in 50 piece packages)

Since we have our own well the consumption has gone down much.

Need to change the cartridge only about every month or so.

With the village water is was dirty after a few days.

 

Example picture for a two stage filter:

 

PM with pictures sent.

[Dario]

9 minutes ago, Dario said:

Yes, it does. We have a large water bucket with lid on top in the bathroom, When we put dirty water inside, after a day or two, three it gets clear. As illustration I will PM y you 2 pictures one with a blue shirt soaked in "clean" water from the large bucket and one from the toilet, Mind you, the toilet itself is sparkling clean, we clean it 3-4 times a day ...

PM with pictures sent.

[55Jay]

Same problem when we lived outside the city in a village, and even now, in a moo baan on the outskirts of the city. 

 

I put in one of those large cylinder filters like the one in photo below, on the right.  Placed between the tank discharge and the house pump suction side.  It has sand, gravel and charcoal inside.  About 9,000 installed (a few years ago), then about 2,700 for them to come once a year and change the filter materials.

 

It does the job, water in the house "looks" good, no bits or tinting but we still don't consume or cook with it.    We don't even rinse with it after brushing teeth.  Bottled.

 

Mine has a maintenance lever on top to back flush the canister, which I do every now and then.

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by 55Jay

[Dario]

Thank you Jay. Looks like a more expensive alternative.

[55Jay]

16 minutes ago, Dario said:

Yes, it does. We have a large water bucket with lid on top in the bathroom, When we put dirty water inside, after a day or two, three it gets clear and the dirt settles on the ground. As illustration I will PM y you 2 pictures one with a blue shirt soaked in "clean" water from the large bucket and one from the toilet, Mind you, the toilet itself is sparkling clean, we clean it 3-4 times a day ...

LOL.  Reminds me of my first trip to Kathmandu.  Hotel put me in the big "suite", nice, but the maids overlooked the toilet - still had urine in it.  So I flushed and walked away, no biggie.  Looked later, still same..... it was the water. 

[sometimewoodworker]

33 minutes ago, Dario said:

Yes, it does. We have a large water bucket with lid on top in the bathroom, When we put dirty water inside, after a day or two, three it gets clear and the dirt settles on the ground. As illustration I will PM y you 2 pictures one with a blue shirt soaked in "clean" water from the large bucket and one from the toilet, Mind you, the toilet itself is sparkling clean, we clean it 3-4 times a day ...

FWIW you can completely avoid the problems associated with having to change your filters as often as you will need to. It's virtually certain that you have clay or similar content in your water. 

 

When the  neighbours come round to us they are amazed that our water is crystal clean. We are using exactly the same supply as they are. The difference is that we have three large tanks that the village water feeds into before it's pumped into our ready use tank. So any solid impurities have time to settle out. The actual reason for the tanks are as a reserve supply but they incidentally work perfectly as setting tanks.

 

So add a second tank, feed your current tank from that and the majority of your problems will be gone. You can add a filter to that system (after the pump not before) if it still isn't clear enough.

 

Just add a filter and you will be changing cartridges very often as you have so much suspended matter in the water.

Edited May 22, 2019 by sometimewoodworker

[Dario]

7 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

FWIW you can completely avoid the problems associated with having to change your filters as often as you will need to. It's virtually certain that you have clay or similar content in your water. 

 

When the  neighbours come round to us they are amazed that our water is crystal clean. We are using exactly the same supply as they are. The difference is that we have three large tanks that the village water feeds into before it's pumped into our ready use tank. So any solid impurities have time to settle out. The actual reason for the tanks are as a reserve supply but they incidentally work perfectly as setting tanks.

 

So add a second tank, feed your current tank from that and the majority of your problems will be gone. You can add a filter to that system (after the pump not before) if it still isn't clear enough.

 

Just add a filter and you will be changing cartridges very often as you have so much suspended matter in the water.

Interesting! Do you need an additional pump between your tanks?

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Dario said:

Puyai had received 200'000 Baht to renew the system, we have again terribly dirty water.

Bad idea. ????????

[grollies]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

Put a filter between tank outlet and pump.

Can be one or two stage.

Typical housings are for 10 inch cartridges.

Highly recommended to buy housings and filter cartridges online.

Prices at hardware shops can be silly exaggerated.

Cheapest I got was 22 Baht for 5 micron cartridge and 27 Baht for 1 micron (ordered in 50 piece packages)

Since we have our own well the consumption has gone down much.

Need to change the cartridge only about every month or so.

With the village water is was dirty after a few days.

 

Example picture for a two stage filter:

 

A common mistake people make is to put filters between the tank outlet and pump suction. Most filters, cartridge, resin, mesh, etc are designed to be 'pushed' through.

 

The filter(s) should go either before the tank or after the pump delivery.

 

Clogging filters on the pump suction side will cause the pump to cavitate. A pump is designed to produce pressure so clogging filters placed downstream of the pump will not cause damage. Plus, if you don't install gauges or a differential gauge at the filter you'll still be able to tell when the filters need cleaning/changing as your water flow will decrease.

[Artisi]

37 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Bad idea. ????????

Good idea for the village head, big reduction in loan on the pickup ????

[Artisi]

1 hour ago, Dario said:

Interesting! Do you need an additional pump between your tanks?

No, just over flow first tank to the second and second to 3rd.

You will require ball cock on the first tank to stop overfilling (as normal)

PS, don't connect via the bottom of the tanks. 

Edited May 22, 2019 by Artisi

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Dario said:

Interesting! Do you need an additional pump between your tanks?

If your tanks are on the same level as my 3 storage tanks are then you do not need a pump between them, as mine are configured as storage not specifically as settling tanks I have just linked them at thr bottom with isolator valves and drain valves

 

the tank at the back is fed by the village supply

 

 

as our setup has a tank at about 6 metres above these that is our current use tank we have a float switch controlled cheap pump to supply it from these tanks if the village supply is cut or low pressure. Though most of the time the pressure is enough to fill it controlled by a ball float valve

 

If we are getting dirty water from the village I can easily (well not very easily but simply) draw only from the storage tanks and pump up to the main tank from them.

 

 

 

your setup would be much more simple 

 

village sypply feading one tank with a float valve control, that feeds a second tank either at the top or bottom and your pump draws from the second tank (optionally pushing through a filter never sucking through one) and feeds your house.

Edited May 22, 2019 by sometimewoodworker

[Dumbastheycome]

2 hours ago, Dario said:

Yes, it does. We have a large water bucket with lid on top in the bathroom, When we put dirty water inside, after a day or two, three it gets clear and the dirt settles on the ground. As illustration I will PM y you 2 pictures one with a blue shirt soaked in "clean" water from the large bucket and one from the toilet, Mind you, the toilet itself is sparkling clean, we clean it 3-4 times a day ...

That  confirms the color issue is sediment and quite efficiently removed by filters. Before I installed a bore and pump we had same issue. Then we had a  3 stage  cartridge system. In the  first two I used the  5 micron followed by the  1  micron and in the  3rd a carbon. Problem was that the filters  clogged  quickly.

To offset the  cost of  constant replacement I resorted to "peeling the filters  a few times and  putting another 1 micron  in place of the  carbon. The water was clear  but never did I trust it  for more than washing laundry etc. due to concerns  sediment filters do nothing to remove chemical pollutants.

Nearby a German  expat has used to  sand  tower system mentioned plus a reverse osmosis  system which  feeds into a large stainless steel tank. He drinks that water with no issues.

There  are many options but the drawback to  small systems is the capacity for  household general consumption.

My  eventual choice was to  go to a deep bore which luckily  is clean but has a moderate  lime content. No problem  for  general household use apart from lime scaling  in the  toilets and showers.

But I still  buy drinking  water.

 

 

[KhunBENQ]

3 hours ago, Dario said:

Would I find this at HomePro, or might I buy it better on Lazada?

Not sure whether HomePro has such.

And as written, prices at hardware stores are often inflated.

 

I order my stuff from a specialized seller at Laem Chabang.

But there is no English version of the website, so maybe not the best choice for you.

 

I have browsed Lazada and if you look carefully you find acceptable prices.

Searching for filter housing:

https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?q=filter+housing

reveals this complete 2-stage set:

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/2-hidex-filter-housing-2-stage-i297054008-s506344013.html

Hard to tell whether you should try with a single cartridge and see how it works?

 

Five cartridges (5 micron) for 190 Baht is "acceptable":

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/pp-5-10-5-i169186791-s210034435.html

Expect to pay 100 Baht per piece in a home mart.

 

Six cartridges, (1 micron) for 259, "expensive":

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/pp-aquatek-super-pp-sediment-filter-10-1-6-i266388073-s415183179.html

 

Options are endless...

[KhunBENQ]

For comparison.

At the Thai shop (www.duan-daw.com) a single housing is 320 Baht (*2 = 640).

Add a plastic wrench and two brackets and end with about 760 Baht.

 

5 micron cartridge 22 Baht.

1 micron cartridge 27 Baht.

 

Some "PVC plumping" and adapters might be necessary.

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, grollies said:

The filter(s) should go either before the tank or after the pump delivery.

Maybe I don't run into the problem because our tank outlet is some 7m above ground/filter.

 

But your advice sounds plausible.

I would then put the filter after the pump.

[a10ams]

Is drilling your own well on your land an option?

 

It's a lot cheaper than you would think. 

 

Ours is unfiltered and is crystal clear.

[Dario]

I feel overwhelmed by all the advice and help I get in this thread! Thanks so much to every contributor. To the woodworker: thanks for all the pictures. I think I'll go for your solution. I'll buy another 1'000 L water tank at HomePro (link to the tank) and have them connected. and can store together a total of 2'050 litres of water at the same time. I don't like the idea of stocking lots of replacement filters and change them every week. My wife just said that the pump (a 240W Hitachi) has just given up again, electrician will come tomorrow.

[shaemus]

@Dario

 

I have been in the same situation. 

 

I have just installed a sand media filter and a carbon filter then I go into 20" filters from 10microns to 5 to 1.

 

Save yourself a 70km trip. Go to www.duan-daw.com 

 

Ideally you could buy another rank and use that as a settling tank. 

 

I have used filters for a while put when the village water people decide to back flush there systems they put the bad water back into the system and it wipes out the filter cartridges. 

 

If you have cartridges alone you will be changing them quite regularly and allthough cheep, the cost does add up. 

 

I can Send  you pics if you want of my system. PM me if you want to chat. 

 

Shaemus

[bankruatsteve]

23 minutes ago, Dario said:

My wife just said that the pump (a 240W Hitachi) has just given up again, electrician will come tomorrow.

If it failed due to the sediment, then you should consider options to filter (or settle) before the main holding tank.