Air in Lines and a lot of Iron Sediment

[Chris Catinella]

We bought this house about 2.5 years ago, and just before we bought it a new well was drilled, and a new pressure tank and softener installed. I recently added a whole house filter with a spin down sediment separator after the pressure tank, then it goes into a cotton spun filter, then the softener. Out of the softener there is a two stage granular activated carbon, then an activated carbon block. It's a big 4.5 x 20" filter system because I wanted high flow and to not have to change it a lot.

This change had made me notice some things and question a lot about my system.

1. As soon as I pressurized the system I noticed tons of iron chips getting stuck in the spin down filter, and the cotton spun filter started to turn iron red. At first I thought this was great that I'm capturing all this sediment, but before this upgrade we would only occasionally get a little dirty water, but I was only getting it times with the softener cycling, and there where never any particles coming out the faucets or in the toilet, so I can only assume it was all getting trapped in my softener.
   
2. At first start up of this new system I bled the air and could see the system was full. No air or sputtering from the faucets either. Over time I noticed that a large bubble of air formed in the spin down separator, and in the cotton filter (both these stages are clear so I can see this). I can't see into the softener (obviously), nor the final two stages.

Is my softener toast? I can't help but think that for 2.5 years it has been getting gunked up with all the iron particles and sediment I now see in my filters.

Where is all the air coming from? I'm pretty handy, so is there something I can do at the well end to check if I'm sucking air? I'm nto sure what pump I have or if there is a check valve in the well. I know I have a check valve in the basement just before the pressure tank.

Lastly, if there really is this much iron getting pumped into my pressure tank and system, is my pump OK? Is my tank OK? Is the well itself in a bad spot? There is so much iron that when I installed the filters I noticed that the inside of the PEX tubing had a thick layer (maybe 1/16") of caked iron inside.

 

[Valveman]

Moving this to the softener forum where you may get more help.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

I recently added a whole house filter with a spin down sediment separator after the pressure tank, then it goes into a cotton spun filter, then the softener.

Don't use a cotton or cellulose filter with non-chlorinated water. Those support bacterial growth. Use polypropylene or polyester. Your cartridge may be one of those already, but check.

At first start up of this new system I bled the air and could see the system was full. No air or sputtering from the faucets either. Over time I noticed that a large bubble of air formed in the spin down separator, and in the cotton filter (both these stages are clear so I can see this). I can't see into the softener (obviously), nor the final two stages.

Those are before the softener, right?

It seems that the air would probably be from the well or pump. Do you have a submersible pump (down the well)? If you have an above-ground suction pump, there could be a suction leak. Is there plenty of water in the well, or can you pump it dry if you use too much water too fast?

 

[Chris Catinella]

Thank you for calling out the cotton filter. I double checked and it's a 5 Micron Polypropylene filter.

The spin down and polypropylene filter are BEFORE the softener. The two Carbon stages are AFTER the softener.
Here is my setup.

My pump is submersed in the well. I don't know anything specific about it.

I'm suspicious that maybe I am running the well dry because I think I'm getting the dirtiest water when I run my sprinklers for long periods (I need to verify this though). There is a hose bib bypass so when I water the lawn I'm not using "clean" water. My lawn is big, 16k sqft., so it takes a long time. Can I check myself to see if I'm running the well dry?

Thanks.

 

[Reach4]

Yes, pumping the well down to the intake is a good way to add air to the pipes.

There are electronic devices that might be sensitive enough to detect that you are out of water or even nearly out of water.

You may want to limit the irrigation by schedule or orifice size. You would probably not want the softener to not backwash when the irrigation is competing for water.

That clear housing sure makes it graphic.

Do keep extra o-rings on hand for when you change cartridges. You cannot always get an 0-ring back into place for reuse. Without bypasses, a bad o-ring puts your water system out of service.

Do very lightly lube o-rings when you change cartridges. A 5.3 ounce tube of Molykote 111 or Dow release compound #7 will last many years. I wear nitrile gloves to lube the o-ring to keep the hands clean. I have not changed filters this year. My filter housings are not clear, but the cartridges have always looked clean when I replace them. My cartridges are after a backwashing H2S+iron filter, which takes out most sediment.

 

[ditttohead]

Have you had a real water test done? Use this link, great company to get a good test from. Well standard is usually adequate.

NTLWATERTEST

Air can be coming from a bad aircheck in the brine tank. The clear BB filters, be very careful, those are not original Pentek, the clear cheap Chinese housings have a tendency to break in the middle of the night. BB carbon blocks are not typically recommended. A backwashing carbon tank works far better.

 

[Chris Catinella]

Thanks, I'm probably due for another test.
Just before I bought the house a raw water test was done. That's when they put in the new well. These results are from Dec. 2017.

We then had it retested April of 2019, but they did it at the kitchen sink.