Thoughts on post water treatment sanitization idea?

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Redrum

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Hello;

I could use some thoughts on an idea I have...

First the background:

I have a seasonal cabin in northern new york, with a shallow well (say 15' deep, 36" diameter) which is located very close (say 10') to a small lake (70 acres, no motorized boating, very clean water). I mention this because I assume that some of the ground water is migrated from the lake if that matters...

When I purchased the cabin, the previous owners had no treatment, and there was considerable staining. I had it tested and the results indicated manganize, ferrous and ferric iron. Also coliform. They never drank the water.

I had a water system installed, which consists of:

well->pump->greensand filter (pot perm) -> softener (salt) -> UV (Viqua) -> plumbing (hot/cold).

We sanitize the well, but added the UV "just to be sure".

The water is pretty good, there is a very slight yellow tinge that the water guy referred to either colloidal or bacterial iron. You can barely see it in a clear glass, but in a white toilet bowl you can. No fowl smell. We use the water for everything, including coffee and washing vegetables, except drinking and ice cubes. In general we are happy with the water

The water guy left the area, and anyone new I have had in wants to replace all the equipment, so I am on my own. I have been working directly with Master Water Corp (equipment manufacturer) who's support has been excellent. I am knowledgeable from the mechanical aspects, but oblivious with regard to the chemical treatment itself.

Now to my question:

Because of frequent power failures (Tall trees + wind = no power -> UV off until I get the generator up and running), and cabin opening, I would like to develop and easy way to sanitize the plumbing downstream from the UV. Master had recommended doing this using the greensand, but its in a tough spot to access.

My thought was to add a canister filter with ball valves before/after, before the UV, to allow introduction of a clorine solution.

One location - I could add it before the greensand, which can handle the clorine solution, put the softener into bypass, remove the filter element, then run water to each of the fixtures to sanitize. In this location it could also act as a sediment filter before the greensand. Currently there is none.

Other location - I could add it after the softener, before the UV. No need to bypass the softener and perhaps the filter element might could be finer, and perhaps (?) help a bit with the particulate that gets through?

I have searched on the web and I really have not come across much on this practice, so I thought I would ask. The primary motive would be to add a convenient way to sanitize the UV->downstream plumbing. A secondary benefit (if possible) would be adding filtration that might be beneficial.

Thanks for any thoughts.
Jim
 

ditttohead

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Use a Pentek Big Blue (not a cheap knockoff), tap inside the filter knife edge inside the cap with a 1" NPT tap. Get a 1" x 18" pvc nipple, thread it into the cap and add a cup of bleach to the sump... very simple way to sanitize the plumbing. You could also drill a few 1/4" hole up the PVC pipe so as to allow for a little bypassing so you don't take all the bleach out of the sump in the first gallon...
 

Redrum

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Use a Pentek Big Blue (not a cheap knockoff), tap inside the filter knife edge inside the cap with a 1" NPT tap. Get a 1" x 18" pvc nipple, thread it into the cap and add a cup of bleach to the sump... very simple way to sanitize the plumbing. You could also drill a few 1/4" hole up the PVC pipe so as to allow for a little bypassing so you don't take all the bleach out of the sump in the first gallon...
Thank you for your suggestion. Since I have never held a big blue in my hand, , let me make sure I understand completely.
2020-05-27 07_02_21-Clipboard.jpg


So, I would be using the big blue without a filter cartridge, and tapping into where the inner sleeve of the filter cartridge would normally feed, and adding the nipple to that tap, and perforating so that the outflow would be a mix of the bleach in the bottom of the sump, and the in comming water. That is, as water is drawn out of the nipple, it is drawn from the bottom and through the perforations, similar to what the filter cart would do. Do I have it?

So, my remaining questions would be -

How many perforations? Would I need to calculate it based on the capacity of the downstream plumbing (pipe length and diameter, hot water tank capacity, etc) or is there a good rule of thumb, or is it not that critical.

Also, I imagine there is a good reason you can't just do this with a filter cartridge, or a modified cartridge? I am thinking that by tapping you are eliminating the ability to use this as a filter after clorination. It seems like it would be more flexible to be able to use the big blue with a cartridge normally, then during sanitization, swap in the "jig" (for lack of a better word)...

Thanks again,
Jim
 

Bannerman

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The number of holes is not critical as it is a non precise method to allow the 1 cup of bleach to mix with water, extending the time a chlorinated solution will continue to exit the filter housing. Without the holes, the entire 1 cup of chlorine bleach is likely to be directly pushed up the nipple, out from the bottom of the sump within the 1st few seconds of flow.

If you wish to utilize a cartridge in the housing after sanitation, simply unthread and remove the nipple and keep for next time.
 

ditttohead

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Nice! Looks great, well done. We use this design in house for a lot of unusual tests... and we manufacture a few companies products using this same method. It has a lot of potential knowing that it taps so easily.
 

Reach4

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Use a Pentek Big Blue (not a cheap knockoff), tap inside the filter knife edge inside the cap with a 1" NPT tap.
Here is a marked-up photo. The yellow and green characters are to help reference radial position. It's fuzzy because I compressed it to 26.3 Kbytes, since that was adequate for this purpose.

This is the cap to the housing I use to filter my recirculating water when I sanitize my well (twice so far).
IMG_BB_cap2.jpg


Would the drill and tap be at spot n?

A cap or a valve can block a nipple.
 

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Redrum

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Thank you all,
I got my answer, sounds like a great solution, looking forward to giving it a try! I'll post back if I get stuck, but seems like a straight forward solution
Jim
 
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