Low water pressure after installing filter/softener

Hello folks,

I just installed a water filter and a water softener, and we have noticed a significant drop in water pressure. Additionally the showers now whine because there is not enough pressure to close the valve completely.

I have isolated the issue to the filter. If I put it in bypass mode then it is fine, when I engage the filter again the pressure goes down. I notice this most in the kitchen sink and in the bath tubs.

I installed a GE GXWH20F filter housing and it has the default FXUSC filter in it, which filters down to 5 microns.

The pressure dropped as soon as we installed the filter.

Is there anything we can do short of removing the filter to get our water pressure back?

We have a well not city water.

Thanks,
Eric

What is the on/off pressure setting at now?

filter

Just because a filter has 3/4" pipe openings on it, does not mean that it has the capacty to handle a whole house system. Apparently that filter housing or cartridge creates a huge pressure drop. You may not be able to use that filter and still have good pressure.

get quality

anything made by GE is junk.

If you bought a water softener from them from some hardware store outlet
you might live to regret it. They are low end units

possibly go to a plumbing supply house and get another filter that a plumbewr would put in and see if this does not do the trick.

EricRLarson said:

Hello folks,

I just installed a water filter and a water softener, and we have noticed a significant drop in water pressure.

I installed a GE GXWH20F filter housing and it has the default FXUSC filter in it, which filters down to 5 microns.

The pressure dropped as soon as we installed the filter.

Is there anything we can do short of removing the filter to get our water pressure back?

Thanks,
Eric

Click to expand...

The answer to the question is no, but, depending on what type of filter it is, you can get a filter that has a higher flow rate. So what is the filter used for, sediment or taste/odor? If taste odor it's carbon but they usually aren't stated as x micron unless they are a carbon block. They can't be used 'whole house' because they can't flow more than a .5 to a few gpm if that. If it is sediment, then check to see if it's not plugged up already. My money is on it being a carbon block.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Years ago when I was on well water.We installed a settling tank, filter,then another separate pump to pump water through the softner into the house.This second pump only ran when a faucet was opened and it had a separate pressure adjustment switch so we didnt have to crank the pressure up on the well pump and wear it out quicker.just a thought!

Gary Slusser said:

The answer to the question is no, but, depending on what type of filter it is, you can get a filter that has a higher flow rate. So what is the filter used for, sediment or taste/odor? If taste odor it's carbon but they usually aren't stated as x micron unless they are a carbon block. They can't be used 'whole house' because they can't flow more than a .5 to a few gpm if that. If it is sediment, then check to see if it's not plugged up already. My money is on it being a carbon block.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Click to expand...

Hello Gary and others,

I figured out what the problem was. The filter is actually going to be fine, the cartridge that was in it was defective. It is a rolled paper(?) filter and one or two layers had com free in the center of the filter, blocking the flow of water out of the filter housing.

This is just a sediment filter, and I replaced it with a carbon paper filter, which we do not really need, but it is all I had in the house (we will go back to just a sediment filter later). Now my water pressure is back and everything is great!

Thanks for your input everyone.

Eric