Backflush interval on a 12x52 carbon filter tank

[Mikesm]

Hi everyone. As part of a new house build, we had a 12x52 whole house water filter tank with activated carbon installed. We moved in about 4 months ago, and everything had been working fine, but about 3 weeks ago, some fine carbon silt started coming out of the faucets.

After inspecting the Fleck 5810-SXT valve that is supposed to do automatic backflushing, I discovered it was configured properly as a water filter (and not a softener), but that it hadn't been programmed by the plumber to do backflushing. I did a manual backflush, and that fixed the silt in the water issue.

I then programmed it to flush every 50 days (since it had been 4 months since we moved in without any issues), but then this week it started happening again. I did a manual backflush, which fixed the problem, but am curious what the interval should be set to? 7 days?

Thx
Mike

 

[Bannerman]

New carbon will contain numerous broken and small particles so an initial extended backwash is typically necessary. Ongoing, a 10 minute backwash followed by a 5 minute rinse every 14-28 days is generally sufficient, depending on the amount of silt, sand and debris (if any) that is within the incoming water.

Below is an info page regarding carbon and proper startup procedures.

https://view.publitas.com/impact-water-products/2018-catalog-final/page/37

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

Are you getting grey discolored water with no obvious bits of carbon or are you getting pieces the size of sand or larger coming through? If you are getting literal black pieces coming through your system is likely plumbed in backwards. If it just silty water then regenerate the unit multiple times. After that set the system to regenerate every 3-4 weeks.

 

[Mikesm]

Just fine silt. Sounds like it was just not an adequate flushing of the system. I'll flush it for an hour and see what happens...

thx
mike

 

[ditttohead]

Be sure to rinse it in the backwash cycle.