We have been on well water since we built the house in 2015. A few years ago we started getting red scaley looking "goop" for lack of a better term in our cold water lines. Like a rusty sludge. We had our water tested and found we had a ton of iron and manganese in the well water.
I installed an iSpring 3 Stage whole home filter that uses a 5 micron sediment filter, a carbon filter, and a special iron/manganese filter. These are all 20" x 4" filters in the big blue cans. Water comes out looking and tasting like Evian or Fiji. I do use a 50 micron spin down filter upstream just to catch some of the larger stuff. Did not do UV or any kind of softener.
The one main drawback I see is we use alot of water so I tend to have to change the filters out once every 4-6months.
My suggestions:
- If you can, and there is a split, install it just on the in-home outlets. My grass doesnt need Fiji water.. but it gets it. My pressure tank is in the garage. The house line leaves the tank and heads straight into the finished wall of the garage so that location made the most sense.
- Install a bypass around the whole filter system or whatever you install. That way if you have an issue or need to swap filters you can bypass and fix whatever.
- Install pressure gauges upstream and downstream of the filters. Other than lower water pressure, a large differential reading between the two gauges is a good indication that the filters need replacing.
- Install a pre-filter if you have larger sediment. 50-100 micron. Helps the larger filters last longer. They make these with automatic flush scrapers so you just need to pipe the outlet somewhere outside the house.
- Make sure whatever system you get provides enough flowrate for your house. I went with a 1" setup and the iSpring filters are rated to 15GPM. If I am running the dishwasher, clothes washer, and tub/shower at the same time I will choke it out so I just have to be aware of that.
