Any gotchas to plumbing two Big Blue sediment filters in parallel?

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Rx1559

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I have a 5000 gallon water tank that supplies water to a main 5-bathroom house, and to a near-by 2-bathroom ADU.

The water is great quality and doesn't need any treatment. However, we occasionally get sediment coming out of the taps and toilets. It usually corresponds to having to depressurize the system or shut the water off to do plumbing work; a cistern cleaning; or, a drain-down of the cistern below its normal 90% lower limit because the well pump is being moody.

My water store told me I'd want to put a 20" Big Blue 20GPM 50/05 sediment filter after the shut-off valve to each of the two residences.

Instead of putting one big blue at each residence, which will require some plumbing gymnastics, is there any reason why I can't simply put both of them in parallel coming right off the pressurized line from off the cistern's pressure tanks? It would make life a lot easier for me, and from a water pressure / water flow perspective, I can't really see how it would make any difference.

wholehousesplitcropped1.jpg



Some additional details if you care: water pressure is provided by two 25 GPM 1HP Goulds 25GBC10 booster pumps that are joined in parallel. Here's a picture (yes, I cleaned the leaves and debris out of there!). The pumps fill up two Goulds Hydropro V250D pressure tanks, which then combine together into a single pressurized output line that heads toward the residences. That line then tees off so that each residence has its own water shut-off valve.



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WorthFlorida

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If the filter has a rating of say 3000 gallons, each filter would handle 50%. Thereby, you'll have 6000 thousand gallon filter if the filters are connected as shown in the picture. Each filter plumbing is a mirror of the other.
 

Reach4

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Are you saying that the filters are before the pressure (booster) pumps? I would try one filter, and leave provision for adding a second.

Note that a failure in one filter shuts down your entire system. If using isolating valves on each filter, you could keep the system running while you changed the cartridge in the other. If using isolating valves, it is important that the filter housings have a pressure relief button.

Keep extra O-rings. If you cannot get an O-ring back, and have no spare, that filter is out of action, and maybe your whole system is out of action. I like Molykote 111 for my O-rings.

I have isolating valves, and I can run a potable water hose around my filters, if the housing were to fail.
 

WorthFlorida

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Some canister filters have a built in bypass valve. It might read on/off/bypass
 

Rx1559

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Are you saying that the filters are before the pressure (booster) pumps?

Nope! There are no filters installed yet, and I do not plan to install anything before the pressure (booster) pumps.

Sorry if it's a bit confusing.

The water system is set up as you might expect: 5000 gallon cistern, to dual pumps (in parallel), to dual pressure tanks (also in parallel), that recombine into a single water line heading for the two residences. That water line then T's at some point into two laterals, one for each of the two residences.

Then at each residence, the respective water lateral daylights to provide an accessable shut-off valve, and then disappears again into the depths of that residence's crawlspace.

What I'm trying to figure out is, if it makes any difference where I put the Big Blue water filters. The options as I see it are:

Option 1) Install one Big Blue at each residence, two total, just after that residence's shutoff valve. This is what my water guy recommended, but it's a pain in the neck because the shutoff valves do not have much room to work with.

Option 2) Just install both big blues in parallel on the single water line that is coming off the cistern / pressure tanks. This is much preferable, because there are gobs of room to work with back where the cistern is.

I like the idea of installing a bypass as well.
 

WorthFlorida

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I would place the filters at the home since water usage probably be different. Any idea on the water usage for each resident is?
 
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