If you’ve been an RVer for any length of time, you’ve probably come across the Camco Tastepure water filter. Well, Camco has just relaunched the New and Improved Tastepure. When they asked us to make a video for their relaunch, we agreed on one condition… we’re cutting one open on camera! Done, and done.
We’ve used the Tastepure as part of our RV water treatment regimen in the past, and with this redesign, we’ll be using it going forward. We actually drink the water from our RV’s on-board tank – it saves us a bunch of weight, space, and money. Our first step in doing that is to filter all… literally all… of the water that goes into our RV. That’s where the Tastepure will come in. It’s an inexpensive, no-hassle inline hose filter that will be the first treatment step for our RV’s water when we fill up.
KDF – Why Should You Care
Part of the 6 step filtration process you can see in the video is the inclusion of KDF material in the filter. Why is that important? Think about how you use your RV’s water filter. If you’re like us, you probably use it… then toss it in a storage compartment for a week or so… then use it again, and so on and so on. But by doing that, you’re creating an environment where mold, mildew, bacteria, and the like could thrive. THAT’s why the KDF material in the filter is important. KDF helps protect against the growth of microorganisms while the filter is in storage. The Tastepure has it. Others do not. You can learn more about KDF right from the source, here: https://www.kdfft.com/
Certifications?
It’s shockingly easy to just contract for the manufacture of filters and offer them up for sale with your own brand name. (I’ve actually investigated this once. It really would be easy.) But getting a laboratory to certify that your filter actually does what it claims is another matter. Lab tests to published standards can be exacting and expensive. So I think it says something that Camco has gone through the trouble to get their filters certified to ANSI/NSF standards.
Other Products in the Video
There are a couple other things I use in our personal water treatment regimen that you can see in the video. And yes, we really do use these products.
The first are the Camco EvoFlex hoses. We travel with two, a 25 foot hose, and a 3 foot hose. (And we keep a longer, 50 foot one at home!) They’re drinking water safe. They have quality machined fittings that I haven’t seen leak yet. And as far as I can tell, there’s no brass in them at all. (News flash: Even “lead free” brass can contain 0.25% lead. Who knew?)
And quick connects. The ones you see in the video are plastic quick connects, also by Camco. I try to use them everywhere I can to speed things up when I’m connecting and disconnecting our water hoses. These also have a shutoff so I can stop the flow of water at any point in our chain, and (importantly) no brass.
And that’s pretty much it. The rest of what you need to know is in the video, so have a look.
Comments or questions, sound off below!
I’m always afraid of filling up with super hard, soft, or heavy iron water, and have gotten to the point where I won’t fill up the tank from tap unless it’s my house or a relative’s house where I trust the water. Our new favorite way is to fill up four 2.6 gallon collapsible bags at grocery store water kiosks. They’re surprisingly everywhere unlike potable water spigots. Many of these kiosks have RO filters and the water taste is always very consistent. Price is anywhere from 25c to 50c per gallon, so a 10 gallon refill is only 2.50-5 bucks. This is the only reliable way I’ve found to get water when temps drop to freezing and most outdoor spigots get winterized. I 3d printed hose adapters to screw on the bag and anchor the other end in the gravity fill, then it’s fun to give the bag a squeeze and watch 2.6 gallons of water gravity siphon out in mere seconds. The only downside is sometimes the kiosk is slow to fill up the bag. I often add a tiny amount of bleach to the tank water just to help the water stay more stable since the chloramines would’ve been filtered out. It’s hard for me to trust the tank knowing that sometimes between trips it just sits there, so we also carry four 1 gallon refillable jugs that we’ll fill at the same time for our own drinking water.
We’ve filled up with store-bought water on more than one occasion. I remember once, we bought 20 one-gallon jugs from a store, because that’s all that was available. We felt bad with 20 empty jugs, but at least they had a recycling center right there at the store.
With our 50 gallon tank now, filling that way would be a bigger challenge. Although, with 50 gallons, we have a lot more time to plan fill-ups, so we’ve not needed the grocery store option in a few years.
James,
Thanks for all your research and information on everything you post.
You said that you have replaced all the brass fittings with plastic ones, do you utilize a pressure regulator? Is it plastic? Also, do you use an elbow (facing down) to take the horizontal strain off the hose and fittings?
We do not use a pressure regulator, nor do we use one of those right angle elbows for strain relief.
But the reason why is that we never hook up to campground water to use. We hook up only to fill our tank, then we disconnect, and use the water from our tank.
RV fresh water tanks always have an overflow tube, so they can’t be pressurized – hence no need for a pressure regulator.
And since we only hook up for a few minutes at a time to fill, I just prop the hose or hold it so that a strain relief isn’t necessary.
The spec’s on these appear to filter to the same level filtration (20 micron) as their previous product did but perhaps they are a bit more effective. The market is getting very tech savvy with Clear20 offering 5 and even 1 micron filters. But the Clear20 filters are about 3x the price of the Camco and not as easy to find. Personally, I grew up drinking from the garden hose so I may not be the best judge of water.
I used to drink garden hose water, too!
We do have a secondary filter, so our drinking water gets filtered beyond what the Tastepure does.
Great video… and it got me thinking. We use a Clear 2O Dirtguard Pre-Filter and then a Clear2O CRV2006 Inline Filter (the green one!). Wonder if there is someone… somewhere… a scientific kind of person for instance… that might want to cut through that brand and see what’s what.
They advertise the Pre-Filter as 10 micron (two times better!… better than what, I’m not sure!). the Inline Filter is supposed to be a 1 micron solid block of carbon.
Is that better? Is that overkill? Does it matter?
Just wish there was someone… somewhere… a scientific kind of person for instance… that might want to do all that exciting testing!
lol!
We have a secondary filter with a separate tap we use on our drinking and cooking water. The inline hose filter is just to keep anything nasty out of our fresh tank. We’re not counting on it for final filtration. So for that purpose, 20 microns seems fine enough.
When you get down to the one micron and less area, then you’re thinking about filtering out bacteria, cysts, and the like. Again, we count on our secondary filter for that.
And as for the pre-filter – I think they’re a gimmick. Why filter to 10 microns only to then filter to something finer? Makes no sense to me. Are they trying to save wear and tear on your already inexpensive filter? To keep it from clogging? Seems weird to worry about the lifespan of such an inexpensive item. Just replace the filter like you should, and don’t carry around an extra bulky pre-filter. Saves space and hassle.
Looked up prices… the Camco Taste Pure runs around $20 while the Clear2O filter runs around $34. Doesn’t sound like much of a price difference, but it’s a 70% increase!
The pre-filter (at $19) is supposed to make the regular filter last longer.
BTW… Camco also has a pre filter, but it’s only $9.
Might save a few bucks and just go with Camco in future… we’ll see.
I posted this on James’ FB, but your comment got me motivated to re-post the content here. Here is the video you requested, someone cutting open a Clear2O filter.
I second your desire to see James apply his scientific thoroughness to compare which is the better filter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbEG4TDIyfg&pp=ygULY2xlYXIybyBjdXQ%3D
Well, since I’m not a complete water testing lab, the rigor I would apply is verifying the filters performance claims through the completion of third party testing and certifications.
Camco advertises their certifications. Clear2O… I couldn’t find any. They should publish such results if they have them, or make them easier to find if they are already published somewhere.
I have no reason to doubt though, that the Clear2O is a solid carbon block, as shown in that (and other) videos. The Camco filter is exactly what you see in this video.
We treat the water entering our RV differently from the water that will be entering our bodies. So the thing to keep in mind is that we are using the Camco (and any similar inline filter) only as a point-of-entry filter.
We have a separate filter we use as a point-of-use filter. Our point of use filter has multiple stages, sub-micron filtration, and UV purification.
Probably would have been better to have filled the filter with water then froze it and then cut it. I think it would have keep the layer intact.
Oooh. That would have been a good idea. And fun.
Interesting thought… but wonder if that would change the composition of the materials, or possibly break some of the more plastic parts?
As long as you don’t freeze the filter while it’s 90% or more full of water, I think you’d be OK… assuming you’re just going to cut it open anyway, it wouldn’t much matter if it burst a bit.
My bigger concern would be that the heat of cutting it would melt the water, and dump it into my bandsaw.
If I had a buddy with a butcher’s meat-cutting bandsaw, that might be OK to use.
1. Why does it make sense to cap off the wet filter when storing? Doing so will prevent the media from drying out and promote the propagation of bacteria. The anti bacteria layer is not going to somehow reach out and kill off all the bacterial growth that results. 2. From a scientist I would have expected a more complete coverage and discussion of the certification, most critically about the ability of the filter to prevent bacterial growth since that is what the new and improved version claims to do. So, does the certification address this point? What and how did they test trois functionality/claim? Merely certifying to lead free nature or taste issues misses thr bacteria issue, which is critically important to being able to use and reuse the filter over multiple trips. Thanks
The point of capping the filter is to keep anything from getting inside of it. The caps that come with the filter are solid, but I have some hose caps that are ventilated. Other filters (the green one, for example) also recommend capping the filter before storage, so the risk of fouling from something in your RV’s storage bay must be greater than the risk of contamination from running city water through it.
As to the ANSI/NSF standards – That can get to be a long and (for most people) boring conversation, and I was trying to keep the video under 10 minutes (which I still couldn’t do). I figured anyone who wanted to know more detail about the specific testing could search and read the standards, which are published. Suffice to say they couldn’t use the claims and logos in their packaging if they didn’t meet the standard – that would be illegal.
You can read as much as you like about the NSF standards for water treatment here:
https://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/articles/standards-water-treatment-systems