Well Water Filter

[rScotty]

I hear what you are saying. I guess I'm trying to tweak this the best I can. When I bought the house, there was a single, 1 micron big blue filter. I would change it every 3 months. I should have left well enough alone. Everything worked, I was just trying to buy more filter time. Then I heard about the spin down filter. It sounded like a great idea, but fine silt would stick to the screen and the black magnesium would stick to the silt and bake onto the screen where it wouldn't let the silt spin down when purging.

I'd suggest that you sketch out your system and post it. Maybe someone will see something in the way it is designed that might help. Sketch in things like just where are the filters inline with respect to the pressure storage tanks? Approximently how long are the lines between each and what size? And are there any additional things like a UV system, RO, mineral pH treatment (softeners), or booster pumps or additional pressure storage? And real important: At what point do you separate the household water from water used outside the house?

Here's what we do.....Our water comes from a shallow well, so the water has to have a lot of treatment. First in line is a manual self-puging backflow filter - which I think is what you are calling the spin-down filter -. Ours is of the brass type with a 200 micron screen and a manual backflow valve on the bottom which I turn on for a few seconds every week to clean the filter and purge the crud.
Most backflow valves have a choice of 50, or 100, or 200 micron permanent filter screens - which are available in either polyester or stainless steel material.
You might want to experiment.

In our system, the next thing in line is a pressure tank to feed the fine filters. However, important point is that water for the yard is tapped off after this pressure tank but before it goes to the fine filters.

For the finer filters. I use 10" length size filters and put 3 of them in parallel so as one clogs anyone can throw a lever and switch to another. I find it more convenient that way and think it saves time changing filters. At least for me it takes little more time to change three than it does to change one. And if they do clog fast, I can just open the valves on all three and triple the flow until I get around to changing them.. Having them in parallel in their clear plastic containers also gives me a chance to eyeball them to sort of evauate how the different micron & filter medias work compared to each other.

Last in line is another pressure tank with it's own booster pump. One rarely needs more than 15 or 20 gallons of household water at any one time, so because of the second tank there is never a lack of pressure inside the house. And that also means there should be time enough for water to flow through the filters and recharge the second pressure tank even if the filters are getting a little saturated.

Something to think about is that there is nothing wrong with a filter being saturated. They are not only doing their job, but they filter even better as they clog up..... just more slowly. In fact, sand filters don't filter at all well until they build up a layer of crud in them to reduce their effective micron size. Sand filters tend to get better with age and clogging, which explains why they are often quite large. Again, the solution to keep pressure as filters clog is a larger final pressure tank. Cities use water towers for that final pressure tank and the same sort of philosophy applies to house hold systems as well. A larger final pressure tank gives the whole system the time it needs to fill up even when the filters begin to saturate.

This system I've just described works pretty well for water inside the house. Just remember that for watering the lawn and outside hoses to tap into the system right after the first pressure tank but before the fine filters. That way only the household water gets the full treatment.
good luck,
rScotty

 

[lzicc]

Here is how it is setup now. I installed the Rusco sediment filter. It is first in line from the well. This is more like a sediment/Spin down filter. From there it goes to the Big Blue, 20" 5 micron, then from there it goes to another big blue, 20" 1 micron then to the house faucets. I have had this setup for 2 days and this is actually working so far...... My water pressure is better now than it has ever been. I've noticed a difference. It's not huge, but noticeable.

What is nice about this Rusco vs the ISpring is that there is an area below the screen that acts like a sediment reservoir. Also, when you flush it, it has a 1/2" outlet vs the Isprings 1/4" outlet. When you open the valve to flush the water from the Rusco, the water comes out fast and you can see a little vortex in the reservoir while this is happening. The screen cleans out very well. It's only been 2 days, but the Ispring clogged up within a few hours. If this does work out for me, I am going to connect a garden hose timer to auto flush the system.

 

[lman]

I guess I feel blessed as I have a 90 ft. well that was installed in 95. I do not have any filters and still have the original pump and water heater that was installed at that time. I do use a water softener. I have never seen any sign of sediment or anything that needed to be filtered.

 

[lzicc]

Me too. I looked for the transparent ones and the design of the input/output ports, the reviews say these ports would leak because of the tolerance being too large. If Pentek would make one that was clear, I'm sure it would not leak. I only looked at the 20" ones. The 10" ones may have a better selection of brand, but I don't want to go down to a 10" filter.

I do not and never have liked non transparent filter bowls. I want to see what the media looks like at all times.

 

[lzicc]

My last house was like that. Although I did have to add a chlorinator for ecoli and a water softener, but no real sediment to deal with and it was only 100' deep. The one I have now scares me since it is 270' deep. That's a long pull if I ever have to pull it out.

I guess I feel blessed as I have a 90 ft. well that was installed in 95. I do not have any filters and still have the original pump and water heater that was installed at that time. I do use a water softener. I have never seen any sign of sediment or anything that needed to be filtered.

 

[fruitcakesa]

I usually use 5 micron solid media type filter that gets changed about every 2 months or so.
BTW, our deep well pump failed last February after 25+ years. The local well drillers came out and pulled and replaced the old pump in about 2 hours.
Expensive but a relief to get it fixed so quickly in the middle of winter.

 

[goeduck]

I guess I feel blessed as I have a 90 ft. well that was installed in 95. I do not have any filters and still have the original pump and water heater that was installed at that time. I do use a water softener. I have never seen any sign of sediment or anything that needed to be filtered.

Mine is not filtered either and I do not think many people around here filter. It is fairly hard water unfortunately.

 

[lzicc]

I was emailing tech support at WaterBoss water softener, that's the softener I have and they said to connect the softener directly after the pressure tank then install the sediment filters. They said the water softener is designed to capture dirt and sediment. Then put the sediment filters after the softener to capture anything that may have leaked through. Interesting. Mine is setup with the softener after the filters. This could make a difference for my situation. I would have thought that if I would connect it directly to the pressure tank, the sediment would ruin the softener, but that doesn't sound like the case.

 

[check]

I do not and never have liked non transparent filter bowls. I want to see what the media looks like at all times.

I didn’t know you could even get the transparent ones. Will have to check it out.

 

[MF RED in MT]

I didn’t know you could even get the transparent ones. Will have to check it out.

Here's the clear filter I installed after my pressure tank:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JIRLRXY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And here's the filter I am using for a well system:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQWYDO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If I remember correctly, for a well system you don't get very aggressive filtering unless you invest in a big bucks system?

I usually change my filter out every 6 months.

Good luck, KC