I ran my whole house water filters one year.

[HonorAndHonesty]

I am on a private well, its roughly 75 foot deep and is 40 years old. About 5 years ago I added whole house filters before the water softener and since the I have noticed a noticeable improvement in our water quality.

I usually change the sediment filter every 6 months and the carbon filter once a year. This time I ran them both a year for no reason in particular. Aside from water pressure that was getting fairly low at times and the sulfur smell in our water picking up a bit, I noticed no degradation in water quality.

I will probably stick with 6 month intervals on the sediment filter for water pressure sake.

The sediment filter is a Dual gradient Pentek filter, 25 micron outer and 1 micron inner media. Its about 12 bucks on amazon, made in china. The carbon filter is to help block smells, and It is a 25 micron filter.

It was a bit redundant to set it up the way I did, but I installed the system and figured it would give me a lot more options having a dual filter setup.

We use roughly 850 gallons of water a week, so these filters have 40k to 50k gallons thru them.

I forgot to take pics of the carbon filter, but it wasn't much different from the new one. The sediment gets most of the junk anyway, the carbon does seem to help with the waters sulfur smell.

P.S. I believe the black stuff on the filter is silt and sulfur.

P.s.s Yes I know Our well water is nasty. That's why by the time we drink it it has gone thru 6 filters, 7 if you include the softener.

 

[TexasVaquero]

Change it every 5,000 gallons or 6 months whatever is first

 

[A_Harman]

Filters work best right before they clog up.

 

[E150GT]

sulfur huh? How does that taste?

 

[Camprunner]

I don't see any tears so probably not a Tearolater!

 

[Nick1994]

$12 for a filter? I'd be changing them every few months if they're that cheap.

 

[RichardS]

I'd be leery to run the carbon that long. When it's exhausted, does it continue to hold on to the contaminates that it's collected and just let others pass? I'd assume it's bituminous coal carbon, supposed to be the best. Back in the day, it was said that old carbon (in fish tanks) starts to release gunk once it's full, but that could just be an old fish keepers tale.

 

[Mr Nice]

Yuck, that is why I'll never own a house with well water.

 

[JustinH]

Family is on a well in Ohio, and they have sulfur smelling water as well.

They don't drink the water, Uncle has had delivery service for about 15 years now.

My uncle can't even fill his pool with the well water, he had to have a truck deliver water, and he has a little pool.

 

[SZR48207]

Next time go with a Fram Ultra and try 2 years.

JK

I've used the Pentek 10" filters for my kitchen sink, so that my coffee brewing and general cooking water is a bit more pure.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

As long as you don't have Cryptosporidium (test your water to be sure, it's everywhere in the world) which requires a 1 micron filter minimum to remove, and if you want to be safe, reverse osmosis is highly recommended, your two filters are probably OK. We use three.

 

[Egg_Head]

Your water is running through 8 filters, you forgot to include yourself. I'd go back to 6 months at least.

 

[michaelluscher]

Wow...

Glad I live in NYC, home of some of the best tap water in the country

 

[AlaskaMike]

I guess I'm pretty lucky with my well water. I get it tested once a year, but with no filtering or treatment of any kind it tastes way better than city water. It's a little bit harder than city water, but not bad at all, and certainly not enough to need a water softener.

I'm in the Anchorage area, but up north in Fairbanks it's a completely different story. Lots of iron in the water, and most everyone who's not on city water has it delivered.

 

[E150GT]

I just get rusty galvanized pipe bits and lots of calcium in mine.

 

[bioburner]

When I moved in to my house in 2003 the county had free water tests. Mostly they were going after farm chemicals and nitrates. The 10 minutes from the hydrant to the tester was 10 minutes and the water had changed to a rust color. Borderline toxic from iron. Run a whole house filter, iron filter system with a pre filter and into softener. Useable for most household uses but not to drink. Lemonade goes instantly bad and coffee is terrible and the remains of the softener would kill the Keurig shortly. Bottle water for drinking here
Lightening hit the well last spring and when they serviced the pump we flushed the well and it helped a lot in fact I have not changed the whole house filter since. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[HonorAndHonesty]

When we bought this place in asked the seller who was the original owner if he ever had the water tested. He said "no, but I drank this water 30 years and I'm fine" hard to argue with that...lol...
In fact he liked the water so much there is a straight well water tap at the kitchen sink. No filter, no softener, nothing. I tried it and it's like licking an iron pipe.

For drinking, we run an Apec RO. It's really nice tasting at that point.

 

[HonorAndHonesty]

Fwiw, the county sanitary officer will test your water for about 12 bucks I think. It's a basic go/nogo test. I have it done every few years and it's passed every time.

I know a guys whose wouldn't psss due to bacteria and he had to get the well shocked.

There was a time I was on municipal well water and we got a letter stating that the water had exceeded the federal limit for some chemical between such and such a date or something like that. Man I was ticked, we paid dearly for that water.

I do miss water and sewer service, to a point.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Yuck, that is why I'll never own a house with well water.


You should use one regardless of your water source.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Yuck, that is why I'll never own a house with well water.


You should use one regardless of your water source.


I do have a similar setup as the OP at my house.