I have been wanting to build a filter set-up (or purchase one) for a while and after dealing with plumbing recently, I figured it would be better to do it now than later.

I was thinking of having a dual filter set-up; a pre-filter, down to 5-10 microns and a charcoal filter after to either 5 or 1 micron (or less, if DP isn't too high). I was thinking of doing the following set up:

Filter housing (2 of them)
Pre-Filter
Charcoal

I would have 3 valves: one for by-pass and 2 to isolate the filters. I would also have 2 or 3 pressure gauges: downstream, upstream and intermediate pressure. I assumed that would be best to see the life of the filter (DP getting high).

I have PEX in my house, so the other question would be using PEX to do this or copper. I can sweat copper no sweat (HA, pun!) so that was my initial though. Would I use a SharkBite connection or what to go from PEX to copper then back? I assume that a 1" connection is plenty large for my 2-story, ~2,400 sq. ft. house. I know we use about 1-2K gallons a month of water (irrigation would be upstream of the filter set-up), so I was hoping for a 6-12 month life on the filters. I was also going to install a hose connection so that filters could be "rinsed" before being entered into service (flush material out via garden hose; once running clear, close and return to filter mode)

As a potential "value engineering" moment, would this housing work as well or should I not consider it?

Alternative

I know it is smaller, but the idea is that filter life would only be partially impacted; say 4-8 months instead of 6-12 months.

This would be installed in my garage. Which brings up another point. Would it be better served being installed near the ground or "up" about eye level?


Anyone do this? Not interested in water softening; just wanting to get the rocks out of my water from my MUD.

~egon

Do you have a diagram of your layout? You have the gears spinning in my head

Stole this from Amazon. I would have a pressure gauge on either side of the by-pass valve and a gauge between the filter houses. The hose connection I guess would be on the right side.

~egon

Finally got around to drawing up the plans. Anyone have comments or suggestions in which size I should go?

3/4" plans: use 3/4" copper, except for the inlet/outlet of the filter bodies. The I/Os are 1" NPT.




1" plans: convert from 3/4" PEX/Copper to 1" copper all around.




~egon

Would you have a decent place to plumb in a drain for a backwashing filter? That would be my choice all day long over cartridge filters.

A backwashing carbon filter doesn't require much water at all to backwash (like 60 gallons once a week or so). And all you'd have to do is replace the media about once every 5-7 years in a MUD putting on a Cl residual of 3 ppm or so.

So over my 3-day weekend (get every other Friday off), I was going to install the water filter set-up alone, since I had to cut the water to the house. Ended up with the wife home, as she got flexed. So instead of being able to bury my mistakes, I now have management watching me and expected reports.


Went well for the most part. Chose the 3/4" option, as the fittings were cheaper and easier to acquire. Only had one fitting that didn't sweat right, so I had to rebuild it. Two of the fittings in the tee got out of round when I tried to disassemble it so it was easier to just rebuild and add the cost to experience.

Thanks to Ryan the Temp for his use of the crimping tool. 1st time doing anything PEX related and easy enough to boot.

I will go back and fill in the hole in the wall with the pieces I cut out. Will probably cover the middle part and leave only a square for the inlet/outlet connections to the main water line.

Some tips, for those that want to do this: use liquid teflon paste and tape. This is the 2nd time I learned this (first time was on a double-effect evaporator at A&M I built/rebuilt). Buy it, use it, and save a partial tear down later. Use more solder than you think you need. It is cheap and you can clean it up later to look nice. Flux the heck out of everything; makes soldering easier.

Finally, watch the cutting of copper. My cutter liked to 'walk' and ended up adding a 1/4" to a length. Hard to make up the distance with mostly rigid items. Now to the pictures:



The layout of the system beforehand.


Layout again.



So the house is 1" PEX and I am using 3/4" copper. Impossible to find a converter, but I found out that a 1" elbow would fit over the converter and allow me to use a bushing. So fit 3 items in the space of 4-5 items originally. Saved on cost and space.


The pressure gauges with union. So I can easily take it apart should I need to (and I needed to).



One long leg of pipe done.


Bypass valves. So once connected, the filters can be isolated and changed without turning off the house water.


Finally installed. Will patch the holes.



Top filter with pressure gauge.



PEX/Copper connection with crimped SS cinch device.



I will have to go back and insulate the system since it is in the garage. Only getting about 3 psi drop across the system right now, so should be good to go for a while. Also cleaned out the filter elements in the house. In 6 short weeks, my shower went from clean to almost completely full (and explains why I thought my shower was sucking again).

~egon

So posting a 14 month update.


Finally got around to opening up the filters to see what they looked like. I know I had a bit more pressure drop than I would have liked and one evening, the tub looked like I was filling it with bottle water (filling slowly). So I turned on the bypass and looked at it later.


This is the new paper filter (well, the 2nd one). What it should look like.


This is the original paper filter, with about 14 months of service (12/5/15 to 2/20/16).


The red/orange was kind of a sludge that sat on the paper. Would come off in my hand. Would explain why before I put this in, any white surface would get a red tinge after a while, if I hadn't cleaned it in a bit.


The biggest pressure drop was the charcoal filter; I talked to our company water guy (used to work for GE/Betz installing industrial filters) and said to backwash the filter. Bought a new one anyway to change out, but maybe the backwash will work for a few more months. The water came out like this with leaving the filter in a bucket overnight.



Sprayed the filter gently and got it so the water coming off wasn't red/orange.


For the record, I live in HC Mud #400. Didn't think we had that high of iron content, but apparently we do, unless those smarter than I want to say what they think the red sludge is. Hopefully y'all don't have the same issue.



Overall, been worth it. But I think about a year is what I should shoot for in terms of filter life; maybe less, since the filter does actually filter the sprinkler system as well (not my intention).

~egon

Whoa, that's crazy!

Really interesting. The company I work for is a Pentair distributor, however, I work on the industrial side of things such as food and bev companies filtering water, steel mills filtering quench water, etc... I never see the residential side of things, so that's pretty interesting. Thanks for keeping this thread running for so long.

Shameless plug for myself. I can get you the filter (150233), Charcoal elements (455906-43), and standard elements (255493-43) for a bit less than on Amazon (10-20% range). Problem is that I would have to sell those elements by the case which I believe is 6 (That's off the top of my head, so I may be off). May not be worth it. You can reach me at ewing_jb at yahoo.com if interested.

Also, on a side note, the Pentair white filters have the bypass built into the head of the filter. Turn the knob and water will bypass the filter allowing you to change the element. Not a huge deal, but would make your plumbing a little easier. Here is a pic:

Looking at doing something similar for the fish pond we have indoors. Due to evaporation we could use more than a few gallons a day. Probably get some of those fiberglass canisters off craigslist and see how the build goes. PEX the best option?

Dr.Rumack said:

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Looking at doing something similar for the fish pond we have indoors. Due to evaporation we could use more than a few gallons a day. Probably get some of those fiberglass canisters off craigslist and see how the build goes. PEX the best option?

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Trust me, once you go PEX, you'll never go back...to copper! Soooo much easier than messing with copper...

Quote:

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Didn't think we had that high of iron content, but apparently we do, unless those smarter than I want to say what they think the red sludge is.

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Is it magnetic? if it is enough to accumulate like sludge like you describe it should stick to a magnet.

If not it might be some kind of mold/fungus.