Water Filter Change Problems

[Bob C]

I have a Whirlpool whole house water filter. Typical hang from the pipe type to remove sediment. It works fine but I have a problem changing filters. I order to remove the canister from the valve body, I need to put a 2 foot piece of pipe on the supplied blue plastic wrench to break it free. This is scary because all of the filter assembly is plastic. I am afraid of breaking the valve body and having a flood. I have even lubricated the threads and mating surfaces with silicone plumbers grease but it doesn't help much. I change the filter cartridge monthly so I don't think it's an age issue. Is it just me?

Thanks!

 

[Reach4]

You are right to use the silicone grease -- at least on the gasket/O-ring. With a home cartridge filter it is normal to only hand tighten the housing. If hand tightening is not enough, it is time to change the gasket/O-ring. You can use the wrench to loosen.

You should keep a spare gasket/O-ring -- especially if you do not have a bypass setup that would let you keep water to your house if the filter were to leak.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bob C]

I do only hand tighten and I'm not a big guy. The filter does have a bypass. My concern is that I might apply enough torque that the valve body cracks at an inlet or outlet fitting. It is fed by copper pipe and they do flex when I break the canister free.

Thanks

 

[Reach4]

That seems strange that you would need so much torque to loosen the filter. You do want to release the pressure on the filter before attempting to unscrew, so if you are not doing that, that could explain increased torque required.

My whole house filters use Pentek Big Blue housings that take 4.5x20 filter elements. The housing top is held to a wall-mounted bracket, so that takes any torques that I might apply. I don't need a torque multiplier to loosen my housings, but I always have the pressure off. My housings have a pressure release button, but instead of using that, what I normally do instead is to shut the inlet valve, and then open a faucet before closing the valve on the other end. I do not have a bypass for my filters.

If you were to consider replacing your pipe-mounted filter with a bigger one, that could give you more rigidity plus the bigger element would mean that the element would last longer.

 

[Craigpump]

You are releasing the pressure before attempting to remove the housing, right?

 

[Bob C]

Well, I turn off my water at the pressure tank and open a basement faucet to relieve pressure. I guess no point in persuing this further unless someone else has had this issue and resolved it. I appreciate your mention of the Pentek filters. I see that they have a bracket kit as you mentioned. I'm going to look into them a little further.

Thanks

 

[Reach4]

If you were to buy Big Blue housing(s) and bracket separately, note that the housings are not tapped for hanging from the bracket if you buy the housing separately. They expect you to use 5/16 x 1 inch lag bolts. I would use stainless, but that would not be necessary. Some sell the bracket already assembled to the filter.

I tapped the holes for bolts instead, because I did not know about the lag bolt suggestion.

I over-did my filtering because I ordered the parts right before getting the backwashing filter at the front end. That does not leave much for my 3 housings to do. I left the first housing empty. I put a 50...5 micron filter next. Then I put a 1 micron filter last. I changed the filters after 13 months, and they looked near new. I used polyester filters, because you should not use cellulose filters on un-chlorinated well water.