schwim
New Member
Hello there, everyone!
First, allow me to apologize for what will be a very long and drawn out first post. I have to summarize the last three years of effort in trying to tame the water we've got in a house we purchased. To keep interested parties reading, my goal is to learn what changes need to be made, what systems need to be added and what cartridges I need to be running to have water that we can drink.
This is a home on a two acre lot supplied by a private well in coastal Virginia(Gloucester) that we purchased in 2021. On the night of our arrival, this is what we brushed our teeth in:
The next morning, I went under the house to find a settling tank, a pressure tank with a failed bladder and a string wound filter. There was nothing else serving the house system. We immediately replaced the pressure tank and swapped out the filter then I began researching filtration solutions. After a ton of reading, I settled on an Aquasana system with two cartridge filters, two main tanks for smell and softening and a UV filter. This setup cost me $2,500. I built a filter house outside of the main structure and moved the waterheater from the laundry into it and plumbed in the filter system. From left to right(direction of flow), the system is:
Settling tank ~> 10 micron sediment ~> pressure tank ~> 5 micron filter ~> carbon smell ~> softener ~> 1 micron post filter ~> UV ~> powered anode rod in WH
In less than one year, the two tanks were completely packed with mud in spite of 2(!) prefilters ahead of them running down to 5 micron filtration. To replace these tanks, the cost would exceed $2,000 after shipping is said and done. I decided to scrap the system and plumb in a row of 3 4.5x20 catridge filters.
I have 5 micron carbon, 1 micron string wound and .5 micron carbon filters coming from Amazon. I was planning on continuing to run a 10 micron at the filter ahead of the pressure tank. While I'm waiting for them, we are dealing with atrocious water. This brings me up to current events. Over the last three years, we have called the well drillers out to see if we could drill a new well but was told this particular area provides this quality of well. He said they could put a sock of some sort at the end of the well pipe but that it often clogged which required them to remove it. I have done hours and hours of research and reading on many forums(often this one) and have spoken to quite a few local plumbers. The consensus is that the quality of water is trash and the filtration suggestions were whatever they happened to sell.
Which leaves me with the following questions that I've yet to answer for myself.
1) Regarding the 4 4.5x20 cartridge filters and my water issue(mud, smell, desire to have drinkable water), what 4 cartridges would you suggest and in what order?
2) I read on this site that the carbon cartridge filters were too small to effect smell because the water needed more contact with the carbon than a catridge would provide. Would multiple carbon filters suffice?
3) I never want to buy a filter or tank that I have to exchange so I've been looking at tanks that can backflush. For smell, I've found US water systems carbon/peroxide system but it's 3,500$. Is there something less expensive that can do the job and isn't a one-and-done type of system?
4) I'm also considering a salt-based softener for the hard water complaints from my long-haired family members. Is there a system better than the softeners than you buy at the big box stores?
I have a ton of questions but feel I've already made this a bit too rambly and don't want to make more issues than can be discussed so I'm going to leave it at this for now. Any suggestions or insight you can provide in improving my water would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!
First, allow me to apologize for what will be a very long and drawn out first post. I have to summarize the last three years of effort in trying to tame the water we've got in a house we purchased. To keep interested parties reading, my goal is to learn what changes need to be made, what systems need to be added and what cartridges I need to be running to have water that we can drink.
This is a home on a two acre lot supplied by a private well in coastal Virginia(Gloucester) that we purchased in 2021. On the night of our arrival, this is what we brushed our teeth in:
The next morning, I went under the house to find a settling tank, a pressure tank with a failed bladder and a string wound filter. There was nothing else serving the house system. We immediately replaced the pressure tank and swapped out the filter then I began researching filtration solutions. After a ton of reading, I settled on an Aquasana system with two cartridge filters, two main tanks for smell and softening and a UV filter. This setup cost me $2,500. I built a filter house outside of the main structure and moved the waterheater from the laundry into it and plumbed in the filter system. From left to right(direction of flow), the system is:
Settling tank ~> 10 micron sediment ~> pressure tank ~> 5 micron filter ~> carbon smell ~> softener ~> 1 micron post filter ~> UV ~> powered anode rod in WH
In less than one year, the two tanks were completely packed with mud in spite of 2(!) prefilters ahead of them running down to 5 micron filtration. To replace these tanks, the cost would exceed $2,000 after shipping is said and done. I decided to scrap the system and plumb in a row of 3 4.5x20 catridge filters.
I have 5 micron carbon, 1 micron string wound and .5 micron carbon filters coming from Amazon. I was planning on continuing to run a 10 micron at the filter ahead of the pressure tank. While I'm waiting for them, we are dealing with atrocious water. This brings me up to current events. Over the last three years, we have called the well drillers out to see if we could drill a new well but was told this particular area provides this quality of well. He said they could put a sock of some sort at the end of the well pipe but that it often clogged which required them to remove it. I have done hours and hours of research and reading on many forums(often this one) and have spoken to quite a few local plumbers. The consensus is that the quality of water is trash and the filtration suggestions were whatever they happened to sell.
Which leaves me with the following questions that I've yet to answer for myself.
1) Regarding the 4 4.5x20 cartridge filters and my water issue(mud, smell, desire to have drinkable water), what 4 cartridges would you suggest and in what order?
2) I read on this site that the carbon cartridge filters were too small to effect smell because the water needed more contact with the carbon than a catridge would provide. Would multiple carbon filters suffice?
3) I never want to buy a filter or tank that I have to exchange so I've been looking at tanks that can backflush. For smell, I've found US water systems carbon/peroxide system but it's 3,500$. Is there something less expensive that can do the job and isn't a one-and-done type of system?
4) I'm also considering a salt-based softener for the hard water complaints from my long-haired family members. Is there a system better than the softeners than you buy at the big box stores?
I have a ton of questions but feel I've already made this a bit too rambly and don't want to make more issues than can be discussed so I'm going to leave it at this for now. Any suggestions or insight you can provide in improving my water would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!
