Marlo Combo Unit vs Separate Filter and Softener

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nafterclifen

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I'm looking for some help in choosing between the two options below, irregardless of price. Both options include Clack, on demand valves. Please offer any pros/cons or advice if possible.

1. Marlo CMP-25 (filter and softener combo unit containing MID-10 media)

2. Marlo CMP-30K softener and 10x40 filter containing BIRM media
 

nafterclifen

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Water report? Application?

Using systems to remove iron and soften water but also to front-end a UV system. Water is being supplied by well. Equipment will either be installed in 4' crawlspace or in closet on 1st floor of house. Water report is below...

Iron is .20 mg/L
pH is 7.8
Hardness is 6.0
 

ditttohead

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Either system will work. I am not a fan or fine mesh resins for iron removal, but considering how low your iron levels and hardness are, you should be just fine. For your low levels of iron, the Birm should do just fine too, and th UV quartz sleeve should only need nnual cleaning with this level of treated water going into it. I would go with either system. The birm system may be a bit overkill for this low level of iron, but I still prefer to let an iron removal system do that instead of a softener.
 

nafterclifen

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Either system will work. I am not a fan or fine mesh resins for iron removal, but considering how low your iron levels and hardness are, you should be just fine. For your low levels of iron, the Birm should do just fine too, and th UV quartz sleeve should only need nnual cleaning with this level of treated water going into it. I would go with either system. The birm system may be a bit overkill for this low level of iron, but I still prefer to let an iron removal system do that instead of a softener.

Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't so much looking for validation that the equipment was correct for the application but instead, I was looking for opinions about a (Marlo) combo unit vs separate units. One train of thought is that while a combo unit may save space, if it fails then you potentially could loose all filtering and softening. Separate units would take up more space and in the event of equipment failure, the system would continue to work in a limited capacity until fixed. Are there other things to consider when opting for a combo unit or separate units such as water and salt usage, total annual maintenance costs, etc?
 

Gary Slusser

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Make sure the valve is not proprietary to Marlo in any way.

I am not a fan of combo units. If you have any odor in the water I would not use Birm but then, I would use just the softener and a 5 or20 micron disposable cartridge filter ahead of the UV.

I would use that filter housing to chlorinate the UV light and the plumbing past it to all fixtures as part of the installation and then every few months if the light doesn't have a dosage sensitivity meter alarm. Without a meter I would spread that maintenance out based on how the quartz looked.
 

ditttohead

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Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't so much looking for validation that the equipment was correct for the application but instead, I was looking for opinions about a (Marlo) combo unit vs separate units. One train of thought is that while a combo unit may save space, if it fails then you potentially could loose all filtering and softening. Separate units would take up more space and in the event of equipment failure, the system would continue to work in a limited capacity until fixed. Are there other things to consider when opting for a combo unit or separate units such as water and salt usage, total annual maintenance costs, etc?

The Marlo combo unit is actually fairly well designed with only some minor potential issues. They use a newer media for the underbedding that should be backwashed more heavily than the resin, but in our in-house testing of this design, it works fairly well for resdiential applications that do not have too much sediment loading potential. And if it did, a simple pre-filter would take care of the problem. The media they use keeps itself well seperated from the resin and is basically maintenance free for many decades ina residential application.


Hope this helps.
 
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