Anyone with a UV water treatment unit?

What sort of maintenance does a whole house UV treatment unit need? This is the type that comprises a sealed stainless steel tube about 1.5m long within which there is UV fluorescent light? Does the UV light need to be replaced regularly (in fact, short of doing a water quality test, I guess I don't know that it is actually working!) thanks tony

Reply to
Tony
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Assuming it's a fluorescent tube, these have a life of about 3000 hours - although the efficiency drops off somewhat before they actually fail totally. Isn't there some form of inspection window?

What's this device for? Can't see the sort of concentrations of UV you'd get with this having much effect on flowing water.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

We have one as part of an 8 stage water treatment system. They are pretty worthless on their own.

Reply to
Grunff

No, its totally sealed.

Its for whole house water purification - water comes in from a borehole via a header tank up the hillside, through a sediment filter, through the UV unit and then in to the domestic system. The installation was put in just before we bought the house last year because the statutory water test the council do failed (before then there'd been no treatment). I don't know who put the unit in.

It sounds like you and Grunff don't think its up to much??

Reply to
Tony

Right. As part of a comprehensive filtration system I'm sure it's all been worked out.

It's just that on its own, it sounded a bit like those magnetic water 'conditioners'.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

We have one. The tube isn't usually sealed - the end caps unscrew and the tube slides out. And in darkness you can see some violet light leaking out.

Change the tube once a year to keep the UV threshold high enough to kill the bacteria.

Reply to
G&M

Precisely. I was also told to change the filter element ever 3 months (even if pressure was OK) to absolutely ensure that the water was being efficiently filtered as even tiny amounts of solid matter can impair the action of the UV light.

Also, mine has never been tested - as we are the only home using the water supply, the local environmental health dept aren't concerned about it. Did yours ever retest or were they happy with the setup that was installed?

Alan.

Reply to
Alan Campbell

Agreed one can never filter enough - we now have a 10 micron filter followed by a 0.5 micron filter feeding into the 600 gallon tank. These are changed

6 monthly.

I've asked the council guy to wait a couple of months before retesting as I'm waiting for some metallic traces to flush out of the system fully. I'll let you know what he finds. Just because you are the only house on the supply (everybody has their own supply round here) doesn't mean the council don't have to test it.

Reply to
G&M

It wasn't retested and they never checked the setup that was installed - but I keep expecting a knock on the door!

thanks for all the answers t

Reply to
Tony

I'm no expert and I don't know your setup but do you particle and then UV filter the water from the 600 gallon tank before using it for drinking/cooking?.

I heard that water can't be filtered then stored and then safely used without being filtered again.

Our water is stored unfiltered in a tank at the spring where it comes from and is only filtered when it gets into the house. All the cold water sink taps are fed directly from the filter and we have another tank in the loft which is used for everything we don't drink/cook with. This is filtered but is necessary because the filter is only good for 21l/min IIRC so wouldn't supply our peak demand.

We also run the water for a short while before using it to ensure it has just been filtered.

I might give the guy from the council a call. Part of his problem is that we are an hour away from his lab and he must test the water within an hour of the sample being taken which makes it tricky for him. Not that I am too bothered. The previous occupants lived here for over 50 years without any filtering and both lived well into their

80's - in fact, one of them may still be alive so it can't be that bad. I guess you are in a similar position.

Alan.

Reply to
Alan Campbell

Spring -> 10 micron filter -> 0.5 micron filter -> tank

tank -> pump -> UV filter -> main water taps and to 2 micron filter for drinking/cooking

Input filters are to ensure stuff in tank is clean enough for no sediment and for UV filter to work properly, whilst we found the final filter still improves the taste and will test why soon.

The input filters are to remove sediment, nitrates and metals. Once removed these can't re-appear but of course any tank of water can get bacterial contamination and so this must be dealt with after storage.

If you don't input filter, the inside of the tank can get stained with metals or nitrates, depending of course on what your water is like to start with. Ours has huge amounts of manganese and nitrates, plus iron, lead and nitrites.

So much for 'pure mountain springs' :-)

Reply to
G&M

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