Lakos Sub-K vs. SandMaster PLUS for sand/sediment mitigation (whole house+irrigation)

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Dixiedoodle

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Hi all. Would tremendously appreciate your advice and thoughts re: the following...

Background: We are exactly 5 years into our residence, which was new construction built between 2006 and 2008. We have an ~600' in depth well, which yields unfortunately only ~7GPM. We have a Franklin SubDrive Quick Pak solution consisting of a 3HP 3-phase motor and a 1 1/2HP 18GPM pump, installed ~500' deep in the well. While our max water usage is somewhat ridiculous in theory (ex, master shower runs @ ~20+GPM), we have so much inherent storage in the water column of the well that we've never encountered any problems in spite of our abysmal well yield. Water line enters crawl space, and includes a tee to a 21 zone (~6 heads per zone) Hunter irrigation system, before plumbing into a 35gal Well Mate Fiberglass Pressure Tank that serves the entire house. Directly upon exit of the Pressure Tank, we've installed a 20" Big Blue Filter, in which we maintain a 100 micron (I think?) polypropylene cartridge to filter out grit/sand/sediment.

We have enjoyed good water quality -- great pH, no excessive minerals, etc -- however, from day one, we've been plagued by sand/sediment in our water. Essentially, the material is tiny, gritty and looks exactly like mica (the toilet tanks look like treasures of "fool's gold"). After ruining the mixer cartridges in a $1k kitchen faucet within 8 months, we then had installed the Big Blue filter noted above, which has mitigated nearly all issues inside the house. However, the grit has absolutely ruined our entire irrigation system -- literally, every sprinkler is non-functioning, with its gears and head clogged with grit, and all 21 valves are shot on account of the sediment issue. I've spent 3X the cost of the irrigation system in fruitlessly replacing sod and landscaping that has died as a result of no watering...

As we're pretty much stuck with our existing well (who knows whether it was even developed correctly by the driller), I need to figure out how to mitigate the silt issue once and for all in advance of dropping an additional $10k to completely rip out and replace our irrigation system.

Question: Does anyone have experience with the Lakos Sub-K, which essentially is a pump protection separator that uses centrifugal action to keep sand and silt from entering the pump (thereby protecting the pump and presumably keeping the bulk of this crap from even entering into our system)? This is option #1 I'm considering. Option #2 would be to install one of the Lakos SandMaster units inside the crawl space prior to the irrigation tee and the pressure tank. The SandMaster also uses centrifugal force to separate the sand/grit, which falls to the bottom of the tank (where it can be purged out, worst case daily, and best case every couple of weeks). Does anyone have experience with the SandMasters? Off the cuff, which of these options (or any others) would you recommend to nip the sediment issue in the bud?

Thank you!
 

VAWellDriller

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I've had good luck with both above and in-well units.....the above ground units really need to be sized to match your flow to work right. They are expensive, but they sell a really nice programmable auto purging valve for the above ground units.
 
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