Where do I start? Filtering water

[Derek Jamison]

Moved into a house 2.5 years ago. The house was vacant for close to a year prior. The well is 565ft.. When we first moved in, I was freaked out by how the water looked. It looked muddy and very cloudy. There were black flecks coming out of some of the taps. Since then the water has greatly improved. It looks clean, even without the filter cartridge in. When we do use a filter cartridge (Whirlpool WHEF-WHWC ) it only last for a week or two before its clogged and has to be replaced. I decided that I'm tired of replacing the filter and had the water tested using criteria specified by the extension website for my area. I would greatly appreciate any advice on treatment/softener. Here are the results:

Total Iron 0.276 mg/L
Total Sodium 4.78 mg/L
Total Copper .161 mg/L
Total Manganese 0.013 mg/L
TDS 110 mg/L
Turbidity 4 NTU
PH 7.5 pHu
Hardness 57.4 mg/L
Chloride <10 mg/L
Sulfate <10 mg/L
Nitrite <0.01 mg/L
Nitrate <1 mg/L
Nitrate/Nitrate <1 mg/L
TCB <1 MPN/100mL
e. coli <1 MPN/100mL

I was considering a three canister whole house filter with decreasing micron cartridges to perhaps get a bit longer life from the cartridges. I'm open to suggestions. I have been lurking this site since I moved here and am now ready to do something. Thanks.

[Gary Slusser]

If I were you, I'd get rid of the cartridge and find something else to worry about than a cartridge getting dirty in a few days, like the eventual collapse of America and how I was going to attempt to survive that and protect my family from starving to death.

BTW, you have better water quality than most 'city' water systems have. And all waters have some turbidity, which is what your filter is removing down to its particle size rating; smaller sizes go right through it and the lower/smaller the rating, the sooner the cartridge loads up.

[Derek Jamison]

:-) Thank you very much for the reply. The eventual collapse of America be it caused by zombies, rampant government, financial takeover or some war type action, is something that has been on my mind also along with my water. I hope that you have some type of plan in place for this fateful calamity.

I will try to stop obsessing with my water, remove the cartridge, and focus on more plausible problems such as the demise of civilized America and how I can survive it.

[Akpsdvan]

You are using the filters that are 2x10 and it is little wounder that they are loading up with in days....

Filters for the whole house should be either 4x10 or 4x20... and maybe a 5 micron in it . The filter housing is often called a big blue.. they come in white along with black head and blue sump.

There is not much if any thing in your water, but if there is some thing that is there that you do not like then yes take steps to remove it and work on getting the water quality to what you would like.

The country is going to do what it is going to do and doing a freak and peak is not going to help any one.
Be ready? yes be ready and take steps , but life does go on.

[Gary Slusser]

IMO there's little to gain by filtering out harmless invisible 'dirt' in potable water.

I don't know what a freak and peak is but anyone thinking things are not going to get really bad, and IMO much worse than in the depression of the 1930s.... well I feel sorry for them and suspect they are only paying attention to the simpsons and 2.5 men etc. etc.. With the exception of gasoline and propane, I'm totally off grid with a means to provide us with all the potable water we need and some food. Plus I'm mobile. Downside of that is I can't store much of anything. Upside of that is I don't have much to protect from others that didn't plan ahead. I plan on being able to barter meat and potable water and maybe a few other things.

[Derek Jamison]

Thank you for the reply.

I see what you mean by the canister size that I'm using. That Big Blue canister is huge relative to the one that is already installed.

Of course be prepared. Its hard to tell what can happen. I'm not sure about the meaning of "freak and peak" either, but I assume it means lock yourself in somewhere and peek out occasionally? Thats far from my planning if things happen to go bad all over.

You are using the filters that are 2x10 and it is little wounder that they are loading up with in days....

Filters for the whole house should be either 4x10 or 4x20... and maybe a 5 micron in it . The filter housing is often called a big blue.. they come in white along with black head and blue sump.

There is not much if any thing in your water, but if there is some thing that is there that you do not like then yes take steps to remove it and work on getting the water quality to what you would like.

The country is going to do what it is going to do and doing a freak and peak is not going to help any one.
Be ready? yes be ready and take steps , but life does go on.

[JKERN]

Another solution my company has used in the past to achieve longer filter runs is to plumb 2 - 4.5x20 filters in parrallel so as 1 starts to loose a little flow it will go to the next filter this is pretty simple seein as how water always take the path of least resistance. and for particulate that is visible to the eye you might want to try a little larger micron rating like 20 or above since your just wanting to catch the frogs and logs.

[Derek Jamison]

Thanks. If I do keep a filter in place, I would probably do this. Does having two filters in parallel cut any resistance caused by the filters in half? Do you just put a "T" in? Can this be done using one of the premade filter brackets? I dont know how its plumbed under those brackets.

Another solution my company has used in the past to achieve longer filter runs is to plumb 2 - 4.5x20 filters in parrallel so as 1 starts to loose a little flow it will go to the next filter this is pretty simple seein as how water always take the path of least resistance. and for particulate that is visible to the eye you might want to try a little larger micron rating like 20 or above since your just wanting to catch the frogs and logs.

[JKERN]

It does help with pressure drop in that you are actually increasing the time between initial placement of filter to completely loaded ready to change. For installation your inlets all plumbed to gether your outlets all plumbed together try to keep the manifold you build for this equal this allows the filtering to work more unifromley.