LLigetfa
DIYer, not in the trades
First off, I have a Banjo prefilter, then a Waterite micronizer feeding into a Wellmate precipitation tank, and an Autotrol Series 160 head on the iron filter. I don't have any bypass valves on either the iron filter or the softener which incidentally also has a Series 160 head. My pump is set to 30-50 and the miconizer stops sucking at 40 PSI.
My pump cannot put out adequate GPM at the needed pressure to do a thorough backwash. When the iron filter is not clogged, the pump runs continuously with the pressure holding at 40 PSI during the backwash. When it becomes clogged, the pump will turn off at 50 and cycle. I think when the pump cycles I get less of a backwash and so it becomes a downward spiral.
Every 3 or 4 months, or when I notice a reduction in pressure at the faucets, I will give it a manual "shake-up" as follows:
I override the pressure switch to bring my storage in the precipitation tank up to 80 PSI but turn off the ball valve leaving the tank. First I flush the precipitation tank by opening the drain cock until the water runs clear and then bring the pressure back up to 80 PSI. Next, I have a drain cock on the supply line a foot before the iron filter that I open along with the one at the tank to purge the supply line.
I manually rotate the cams on the iron filter head to the backwash position and open the ball valve at the precipitation tank, sending a surge of flow at 80 PSI pressure to the filter bed to shake it up. When the storage pressure drops off below what the pump can sustain, I close the ball valve to build the pressure back up to 80 PSI and repeat. I monitor the backwash discharge and repeat this until the concentration of iron diminishes.
I then put the iron filter through a complete cycle at normal 40 PSI pressure. All this shaking up usually results in iron carrying across to the softener and beyond, so I put one cup of Iron Out into the brine tank and follow-up with a manual regen of it. After the softener regen, I flush out the cold water lines in the house as the iron filter "shake-up" sometimes results in some iron discoloured water in the lines. Since the Iron Out is introduced to the softener beads during the brine rinse stage, Iron Out invariable ends up in the water in service mode and I can smell it and the iron until the next regen flushes it away in the backwash stage.
I have done this countless times always with the same results except I did something different this time. On Gary's advice, I put a cup of Iron Out into my Banjo pre-filter that is before the micronizer. This I did after the shake-up but before the complete manual cycle of the iron filter. The intent was to clean out iron from the precipitation tank and lines leading to the iron filter and to better clean the iron filter media. My local water guy advised that I not do that saying it can muck up the filter media (pumicite).
Anyway, it didn't go so well. I ran the cold water afterwards until it ran clear and thought I was done. The next day the wife complained about iron in the water so I drew cold water into a white sink and it didn't look too bad. When I drew hot water into the sink it was much worse. Thinking that the Iron Out laden water in the hot water tank loosened up some bound iron, I dismissed it as that and told her it will clear over time.
The following day it was much worse and now the cold water was equally as bad. I ran a complete manual cycle of the iron filter followed by a regen of the softener with more Iron Out. I had to drain the hot water tank and flush it and all the lines to get it to run clear again.
What puzzles me is why the next day the cold water was OK but not the hot. The only thing I can think is the iron remained dissolved in the cold water without adequate oxygen to precipitate it out but that heating and storing it allowed it time to oxydize and precipitate. I'm still at a loss to explain why the iron filter didn't remove it and why the following day it was much worse.
My pump cannot put out adequate GPM at the needed pressure to do a thorough backwash. When the iron filter is not clogged, the pump runs continuously with the pressure holding at 40 PSI during the backwash. When it becomes clogged, the pump will turn off at 50 and cycle. I think when the pump cycles I get less of a backwash and so it becomes a downward spiral.
Every 3 or 4 months, or when I notice a reduction in pressure at the faucets, I will give it a manual "shake-up" as follows:
I override the pressure switch to bring my storage in the precipitation tank up to 80 PSI but turn off the ball valve leaving the tank. First I flush the precipitation tank by opening the drain cock until the water runs clear and then bring the pressure back up to 80 PSI. Next, I have a drain cock on the supply line a foot before the iron filter that I open along with the one at the tank to purge the supply line.
I manually rotate the cams on the iron filter head to the backwash position and open the ball valve at the precipitation tank, sending a surge of flow at 80 PSI pressure to the filter bed to shake it up. When the storage pressure drops off below what the pump can sustain, I close the ball valve to build the pressure back up to 80 PSI and repeat. I monitor the backwash discharge and repeat this until the concentration of iron diminishes.
I then put the iron filter through a complete cycle at normal 40 PSI pressure. All this shaking up usually results in iron carrying across to the softener and beyond, so I put one cup of Iron Out into the brine tank and follow-up with a manual regen of it. After the softener regen, I flush out the cold water lines in the house as the iron filter "shake-up" sometimes results in some iron discoloured water in the lines. Since the Iron Out is introduced to the softener beads during the brine rinse stage, Iron Out invariable ends up in the water in service mode and I can smell it and the iron until the next regen flushes it away in the backwash stage.
I have done this countless times always with the same results except I did something different this time. On Gary's advice, I put a cup of Iron Out into my Banjo pre-filter that is before the micronizer. This I did after the shake-up but before the complete manual cycle of the iron filter. The intent was to clean out iron from the precipitation tank and lines leading to the iron filter and to better clean the iron filter media. My local water guy advised that I not do that saying it can muck up the filter media (pumicite).
Anyway, it didn't go so well. I ran the cold water afterwards until it ran clear and thought I was done. The next day the wife complained about iron in the water so I drew cold water into a white sink and it didn't look too bad. When I drew hot water into the sink it was much worse. Thinking that the Iron Out laden water in the hot water tank loosened up some bound iron, I dismissed it as that and told her it will clear over time.
The following day it was much worse and now the cold water was equally as bad. I ran a complete manual cycle of the iron filter followed by a regen of the softener with more Iron Out. I had to drain the hot water tank and flush it and all the lines to get it to run clear again.
What puzzles me is why the next day the cold water was OK but not the hot. The only thing I can think is the iron remained dissolved in the cold water without adequate oxygen to precipitate it out but that heating and storing it allowed it time to oxydize and precipitate. I'm still at a loss to explain why the iron filter didn't remove it and why the following day it was much worse.
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