Stained whole house filter cartridge

[Foster Scribner]

Here is my setup from my well: 50 micron spin down filter - whole house 5 micron rust and sediment filter - water softener - charcoal taste and odor filter. 42 gig hardness and Ithink 3 ppm iron as it has been awhile since it was tested.

Just in the last two months the inside of the clear housings of the first two filters have become opaque with a reddish brown film that is difficult to remove. The rust and sediment filter gets really full of the reddish color within two weeks. The water coming into the house is slightly cloudy. The water in the house is crystal clear, tastes good and leaves very minor staining in tub. Toilet tank is stained on sides. No staining on white washes.

What would cause this sudden change and does the staining of the sediment filter and spin down filter impede their filtering ability? I really don’t want to change them every 2 weeks.

 

[Taylorjm]

I have the exact same setup and I know what you mean about the staining of the filter housings. It's obviously from the iron. There's only one thing that will remove it. Either get some of "The works" toilet bowl cleaner, or some oxalic powder and mix with water to make oxalic acid. I use the toilet bowl cleaner and just pour some around the edge of the filter housings and in a few minutes they are completely clean without any scrubbing. Just rinse and your good to go. I know of some people that buy the powdered oxalic acid and make a gallon or two and fill the filter housing with the filter in it and then pour it back into the jug and use it over and over again. They clean the filter and the housing and use the filter again too. My filter gets stained orange as well within a very short time, but it never seemed to affect my water pressure.

 

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[Foster Scribner]

My filter gets stained orange as well within a very short time, but it never seemed to affect my water pressure.

Thanks for responding....I should get a second pressure gauge to see if there is an increased pressure drop but disabled @73 yrs old I can’t get it done. I do change the sediment filter now every 4 weeks. Don’t know if it needs it performance wise....it surely needs it looks wise.....the downside of clear filter housings!

 

[Bannerman]

3 ppm iron is significant. While a softener canbe effective to remove that much iron, it is neither efficient or sustainable without ongoing maintenance to the softener. Because each 1 ppm iron is equivalent to 85.5 ppm (5 gpg) hardness removal capacity, your 3 ppm iron will require an additional 15 gpg hardness setting to compensate for the iron, in addition to the actual hardness level contained in the water.

Consider the reddish brown film that is accumulating on the filter housing, will be also accumulating on the surface of the softener resin. Because that accumulation will impair the resin's ability to remove hardness (iron fouling), the resin will require more frequent regeneration than usual using a larger quantity of salt, and also frequent cleaning with an acid based cleaner.

A better option is to remove the iron prior to the softener. There are various methods such as air or hydrogen peroxide or chlorine injection which is followed by a contact tank and carbon filtration (not carbon cartridge). Another option is a dedicated back washing iron removal media filter tank which will likely utilize ozone or hydrogen peroxide to oxidize the ferrous iron to convert it to ferric iron which can be removed by the filter media. The appropriate iron removal method will be highly influenced by a current lab test report for the raw water.

The Water Softener forum is typically the best forum to discuss water conditions and treatment.

 

[Foster Scribner]

Thank you for directing me to a different forum. I had already upped my hardness by 5gpm and regen every 7 days, looks like I will get a complete water test done before I go any further!

 

[Foster Scribner]

Thank you for directing me to a different forum. I had already upped my hardness by 5gpm and regen every 7 days, looks like I will get a complete water test done before I go any further!

 

[Taylorjm]

Thanks for responding....I should get a second pressure gauge to see if there is an increased pressure drop but disabled @73 yrs old I can’t get it done. I do change the sediment filter now every 4 weeks. Don’t know if it needs it performance wise....it surely needs it looks wise.....the downside of clear filter housings!

What kind of 5 micron sediment filter are you using? Pleated? Gradient? String wound? I'm not concerned about the looks of the filter housings any more. What size housing are you using?

 

[Taylorjm]

3 ppm iron is significant. While a softener canbe effective to remove that much iron, it is neither efficient or sustainable without ongoing maintenance to the softener. Because each 1 ppm iron is equivalent to 85.5 ppm (5 gpg) hardness removal capacity, your 3 ppm iron will require an additional 15 gpg hardness setting to compensate for the iron, in addition to the actual hardness level contained in the water.

I have a follow up question for you. If the filter and housing is stained orange from the iron, isn't at least some of it considered ferric and can be removed by the filter? An iron test doesn't tell you if it's ferric or ferrous, so if you are able to remove some of it by filtering, wouldn't the amount of iron being treated by the softener be lower than the 3 ppm?

I recently replaced my water softener with a bigger and better quality unit. I have 51 gpg of hardness and anywhere between 1-4 ppm of iron depending on which lab you want to believe. There was a little kenmore unit in place for 10 years. I tore it apart and there was very little iron staining on any of the plastic fittings and nothing really apparent in the tank or on the resin. So I had to believe that at least some of the iron was being filtered out with the 5 micron string wound filter that was in place before the softener.

 

[Foster Scribner]

What kind of 5 micron sediment filter are you using? Pleated? Gradient? String wound? I'm not concerned about the looks of the filter housings any more. What size housing are you using?

I am using a string wound 10” x 2.5” in a U25 housing.

 

[Foster Scribner]

I have a follow up question for you. If the filter and housing is stained orange from the iron, isn't at least some of it considered ferric and can be removed by the filter? An iron test doesn't tell you if it's ferric or ferrous, so if you are able to remove some of it by filtering, wouldn't the amount of iron being treated by the softener be lower than the 3 ppm?.

I did find the lab report from when the pump was replaced, but that has been almost 16 years. The Hardness was 42 gpg and still is according to a Hatch 145300 test. The iron at the time was 1.6 ppm. I do not have a problem with iron in the house. Drinking water is good and all fixtures and appliances, save some minor calcium deposits and staining inside toilet bowl ar fine.

Besides the look of the clear housings being bad I am not all that worried about it. If I take a clean clear glass and half fill it with untreated water, it takes at least three days before I see any deposits on the bottom. All else in glass remains clear. Since I do not have a second pressure switch, I was hoping someone could tell me if the deposits actually degrade the filtering ability or is it just a visual thing to be concerned about.

 

[Reach4]

Since I do not have a second pressure switch, I was hoping someone could tell me if the deposits actually degrade the filtering ability or is it just a visual thing to be concerned about.

Normally, a filter with increasing deposits continues to filter out particles as well as it did, but it will have higher backpressure as the deposited material accumulates.

 

[Bannerman]

Ferrous iron (clear water iron) requires oxidation to convert it to a Ferric state. Unless an oxidant such as chlorine is added to the well, the majority of iron from the well will usually remain in a ferrous state. Ferric iron is a solid (rust) which can be seen as solid particles which will typically precipitate from the water, but when there is a large quantity of ferric iron suspended in the water, the water will commonly appear orange, red or brown.

Iron in a ferrous state will adhere to the plastic resin beads within the softener even as the iron will remain invisible. It is that adhesion that allows a softener to remove some amount of iron even as softener resin is a poor filter media. More efficient iron removal processes typically incorporate oxidation to permit the solid ferric particles to settle and/or be filtered out.

Without oxidation, the iron will remain clear but some air will enter the filter housing when the cartridge is replaced so some oxidation will often occur within the filter. In addition, air will adhere to a new filter cartridge so some amount of oxidation will initially occur directly on the cartridge surface.

 

[Foster Scribner]

Ferrous iron (clear water iron) requires oxidation to convert it to a Ferric state. Unless an oxidant such as chlorine is added to the well

Nothing is added to the well. We went through a period about 6 months ago with a lot of rust particles, some rather large, caught in the sediment filter. That has cleared up. The filter will gradually change color once replaced and the housing cleaned. After one week, it looks as it always has for the 34 yrs we have been here. After two weeks, I can not see the filter for the film on the inside of the housing. Since my “experiment” with the clear glass did produce very little rust film on the bottom, based on what you said about requiring oxygen, I think I will do it again, stirring it once a day, and see what happens. I am curious what may have changed with the physical properties of the well and its water to suddenly cause this change. More importantly, is this a sign of more serious problems?

 

[Taylorjm]

Ferrous iron (clear water iron) requires oxidation to convert it to a Ferric state. Unless an oxidant such as chlorine is added to the well, the majority of iron from the well will usually remain in a ferrous state. Ferric iron is a solid (rust) which can be seen as solid particles which will typically precipitate from the water, but when there is a large quantity of ferric iron suspended in the water, the water will commonly appear orange, red or brown.

Iron in a ferrous state will adhere to the plastic resin beads within the softener even as the iron will remain invisible. It is that adhesion that allows a softener to remove some amount of iron even as softener resin is a poor filter media. More efficient iron removal processes typically incorporate oxidation to permit the solid ferric particles to settle and/or be filtered out.

Without oxidation, the iron will remain clear but some air will enter the filter housing when the cartridge is replaced so some oxidation will often occur within the filter. In addition, air will adhere to a new filter cartridge so some amount of oxidation will initially occur directly on the cartridge surface.

Thank you. So are you saying that the iron staining on the filter housings is caused by the air introduced just when the filter is changed? Seems like there wouldn't be enough air in there that the housing to continuously get more and more orange when the filter is in use. Not saying that isn't the case. Maybe it is, I'm just using logic and learn as much as I can. Appreciate the response.

 

[Taylorjm]

I'm not sure how much faith I put in iron tests any more. I've had 3 done in the past 5 years. One by the state lab, two by independent labs. The state lab was 1.1ppm iron. The independent labs were 3.3ppm and 4.1ppm. Not sure why such a large discrepancy or if there are multiple ways to test for iron. I've used test strips as well and that always shows under 0.5-1ppm of iron. I know those aren't as accurate.