Watershield Gold

[Shakaworld]

I recently bought a house that is on a well system (First house with a well)and has a water softener with brine tank looks like the manual Fleck 5600 valve and a Watershield Gold that regenerates - I'm trying to figure out if the Watershield Gold is a carbon filter or something else - I did notice that while is was regenerating that the water in the had the rotten egg/sulfer smell. Does anyone know what this system does - it is placed after the water softener in the plumbing. Has anyone installed one of these and if so is it worth keeping - I plan on upgrading my filtration and softener

 

[Reach4]

It is usually good to get a lab report on your raw water. I like kit 90 from http://www.karlabs.com/watertestkit/

What you have may be useful. You might want to clean the controllers and maybe replace the media. It does seem unusual to have that backwashing filter following the softener.

Looking around, I see the Watershield Gold can have various media and may even have a mixed media. It uses a Clack controller. I think that controller will have plenty of capacity and it should not cause too much backpresure. Your media could be Centaur Carbon. My iron+sulfur backwashing filter uses Centaur Carbon. It is very effective for me, but my iron+sulfur levels may be less than yours. Mine uses a chlorine solution during backwash, and your system uses air. The BLFC controls the backwash rate. Mine uses 5 GPM for a 10x54 tank. Other media use higher rates. If you were to put in a new media, you might consider Katalox Light. That would probably be good with 10 GPM for a 10 inch tank in Florida for KL. Your filter might have Greensand media, or some other media.

You might be well off to have a local dealer who handles that product tune it up for you.

Some mechanical Fleck 5600 controllers are timed, regenerating every x days. Some are the Economizer type where a meter causes the softener to regenerate after some number of gallons. If yours is the economizer, you might want to consider cleaning it up, and maybe replacing, or at least cleaning, the resin.

I am pretty sure the filter should go before the softener. So it is likely that was not installed by a professional. The lawn water should normally not go through the filter, and for sure it should not go through the softener.

For your outdoor system, you need to protect against UV. The tanks need a covering or be painted. The PVC pipes need to be covered or painted. It looks like your pipes have been painted, but you need to keep that up.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Shakaworld]

I have to wipe the controllers down again-tree frogs like to hide out under the covers - I will switch the order and change the media in the watershield tank and the resin in the softener - the softener has a 10x54 tank to increase water flow would going to a larger tank maybe a 2.0 or 2.5 and a fleck 7000sxt head or would setting the pressure tank higher it is at 55 psi on a 62 gallon tank be a better to make up for the pressure/flow loss going through the softener and the carbon tank

 

[Shakaworld]

Thank you Reach4 for the updated Information - I will check with the local place that has the sticker on the tank to see if I can find out the type of media used - not sure if they did the install because of the out of order placement. I will get things painted and put up a awning to help shield the UV- The sprinkler system and garden bed piping seem to be coming straight off of the pump since it has the slight sulfur smell and the pressure and flow through a garden hose is much better than at a spigot on the house.

 

[ditttohead]

If you are getting a significant smell during backwash you may have some bacterial issues. Start with a raw water well test as noted above. If you are planning on DIY this is critical. Without a proper test we cant really make any suggestions.

The softener is a timeclock softener (no meter/meter cable). Not really efficient. Not worth updating to a metered controller, better to replace. The second tank... completely unknown but in the majority of applications the softener goes last except for anion systems. These would also have a brine tank, yours has a screened air injection system. This would lead me to believe it is likely some sort of manganese dioxide ore based system, Birm, Filox, Pyrolox, MTM, Greensand etc... or possibly even carbon.

Please post the water test rsults and we can be of more assistance to you.

 

[Reach4]

Well and plumbing sanitizing is a good idea also. Tell us about your well and pump, and we may be able to help with that. You don't want to do that before you check for E.coli.

 

[Shakaworld]

I have a kit from karlabs coming to test the water at the well spigot - I think it is a 1hp pump I tracked down the well driller/pump installer and he is coming out next week will see if I can find out full specs on the pump - I plan on adding in a chlorine injector system with retention tank or ozone system depending on cost of the ozone system, reusing the carbon filter/watershield -> new water softener Fleck 7000sxt with a 13x54 tank the old tank is showing signs of UV damage - does sst-66 resin make a difference in flow rate - depending on the type of brand/type of pump I had planned on adding a CSV. - Is the moisture/wetness normal on top of the well casing might be a relief valve.

I'm still trying to figure out how the water is run between the Main house and the Garage/Studio apartment - in the garage of the studio apartment there is a second WaterShield Gold to a drain for regeneration.