Whole House Water Filter?

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Hiya, I'm considering adding a filter to my incoming water (fed by a well). I get iron bacteria every now and again but would prefer not to use chlorine (I'm on a septic) so was considering a carbon filter as this is what was recommended to me by the well company. Anyway, it seems there are a number of options available and I'm just not sure which one to go with. Specifically, is something like this adequate:

or should I be looking at something a bit more "industrial" like this?:

Thanks for any advice you may have. Cheers, cc

[louie]

My last home had a well with horrible sulphur and iron (as well as all of the usual hard minerals). We installed a carbon filter much like the 5600 you link to in series with a normal water softener. They worked very well, however... you need to realize that you'll probably need either chlorine or hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the carbon media during the backflush. We ran for about a year before the carbon bed clogged up with iron bacteria growth. The company that installed it came back and added a small tank for peroxide and the backflush from then on would sip some of the peroxide and kill bacteria while it flushed the sediment from the filter. It required that we purchase about 8 gallons of 7% peroxide every 6 months or so, but it was worth it to avoid the rust stains and aweful smell of the water.

Do you have a sump pump? If so, you could easily discharge the backflush water into the sump rather than the septic system to avoid problems with chlorine or peroxide in the septic tank (also it's probably not good to dump large amounts of fresh water into the septic tank either).

[beerguzzler50]

We had a real bad sulphur problem and I tried carbon filters which lasted only a short while before the problem persisted.

I wound up purchasing a pyrolox filter. It is similar looking to the

5600 you have listed. It contains granite media then pyrolox which gets backflushed. Has been running great for a while now. I bought it at and they had a more advanced version called "terminox", but I suspect it is similar to pyrolox, just more active treated. The guys at budgetwater were very helpful in educating me. Beware, you need to know what you gph is inside your house system to properly size your filter.

None of the options are cheap, but there's nothing worse than smelly water. I am a very satisfied customer now.

[Toller]

I have a bad sulfur problem with my well. When I first bought it I tried carbon filters, but they lasted a couple days. That was too much trouble and expense, so now I just live with it. YMMV.

I don't know anything about the larger filter, but I am skeptical about renewing carbon filters.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

No sump pump unfortunately. I am looking at running the washer's drain out to a grey water system and I could tie the backflush water into that. Thanks for the help! cc

[Robert Gammon]

Not to mention that the 5600 wastewater has a good load of salt in it,

2-3 pounds is not uncommon for the amount of salt dissolved in a backflush operation.

Water softeners and RO water purifier both produce somewhat concentrated brine. So much so that many communities that rely on septic tanks have BANNED water softener AND RO waste water from being connected to septic tanks!!!!

A water softener with a peroxide/chloring flush is likely the only meaningful solution. RO is a downstream polisher of the water softener output, at least in the units sold for residential use.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Thanks Robert! I didn't realize this unit used a salt medium? I'm actually starting to lean more towards this unit that was recommended earlier. Not sure if this uses any sort of salt medium as well but I'd better check:

I still really need to get a water test done before I get too serious about this as who knows what the test will reveal. Thanks for the help!!! cc

[Robert Gammon]

the unit you selected with this link is NOT a water softener, as it ONLY deals with Iron Chlorine and the like.

Yes, you need a water test to see not only what contaminants, but also what the hardness level of your water is. Soft water makes an AMAZING difference in clothes washing, bathing, drinking, cooking, water heating, EVERYTHING to do with water. Comes at a price of a brine flush a few times a month.

[Michael Strickland]

And a higher Sodium level in the water - it's a simple ion exchange, Calcium for Sodium. Need to watch that if you're on a Sodium restricted diet - something the water softening folks won't tell you...

[Goedjn]

Mine did. They said that it didn't actually make a significant difference, but if the idea bothered me, I should use potassium salt instead of sodium salt, and they couldn't remember why, but I shouldn't mix the two.

>

[Robert Gammon]

Sodium carbonate has a very different absorption rate in the body than sodium chloride. Sodium carbonate has no taste.

Soft water is NOT salty to the taste, whether you use Potassium chloride or Sodium chloride for the salt in the tank.