House water filter housing..

snappy

snappy

YHDG's adopted son!!!
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Ok need some knowledge. My Gf's house is in the county and is on a well. This area has a lot of minerals and sedment in the water. We have to change the filter every 3-4 weeks or it will clog up so bad you cannot take a shower. I have broke 2 of the screw on housings from Lowes now and cuss everytime I have to cange them. I have changed the whole housing and still sucks. Is there a housing that does not use a screw on bowl to house the filters? I did a quick search on google and it seems that most are just the screw on type and I would like to get away from this......
What's out there? Anyone know of something better???
 
Snappy, I have the same setup and yes it sucks. Try putting a little (lot) Vaseline on the threads and the gasket. It really helps to use a chain vise grip. We have been changing ours for 20 years this way and haven't broke the thing yet. Maybe I'm better with hand tools than you!:flipoff2:
 
The one in our current house, and the last one, were teh same screw-on, drop-in cylinder filter like this.
Ours has a special wrench tool that exactly matches the ribs in the screw-off cylinder, like a special giant hex box-end wrench w/ extra notches.
That works pretty well, I can grip it and unscrew/tighten fine.
i've found you don't really have to get it super tight, there's a rubber o-ring gasket around the lip of the cylinder that keeps it from leaking.

To me the worst part is that once you unscrew it, you're now holding a cylinder full of water up to the very top, standing in the basement. I always splash some on the floor, but just keep a big bucket under it and empty it out in that, dump the bucket after every few changes.
 
Jeff B said:
Maybe this?


http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...66-_-Ecopure Automatic Sediment Filter, Model
Click to expand...
60 microns might not be small enough. For my well, a 25 micron filter just catches most of the sediment and turbidity.

Snappy, the Lowe's whole house filter shoulda come with a specific wrench to remove the housing. Try the vaseline on the threads if it's not spinning freely and you don't have to crank it down too hard. The Lowe's filter, as you know, is made of a pretty brittle plastic. The other "spin on" filters sold online are made of a blue plastic that doesn't break as easily. Usually, the online stores that sell them also sell 5-50 micron drop in filters that are cheaper than the ones at Lowe's.

Now, having just gone through the crappy water situation myself, a drop in filter may not be what you need. Does the well have a jet pump or a submersible? What does the casing say about the depth, static water level, casing depth and GMP? Answer these questions for me and I might have some possible permanent fixes for your problems.
 
Well me and my big mouth!

lol I'm in the process of adding some pressure gauges to mine, just after the inline filter, and after the calcite tank. Went to remove the filter (need to use that as a drain point to clear out the lines to add the new stuff)... that sucker is STUCK! !@#$! I broke the dern above-mentioned wrench getting it off.
and i'm the guy that put it on, lol.

looks like I may be replacing mine too, haha.
 
I still say he's not that familiar with tools! LOL
 
Here's a little trick I learned a long time ago for industrial filters of the same design as the whole house filters that (I think) you are referring to.

If you don't already have one, install a ball-type valve between the water source and the filter. When it's time to change the filter, close that valve and crack open a faucet, etc. to drop the pressure within the filter. You will find that in most cases the cartridge bowl not be nearly as tight.

I still do it this way on my whole house filter and thus far it hasn't failed me in 25 years. Hope this helps someone. :)
 
I agree with Don on this, our filter housing has a bleeder valve on top that releives the pressure with out going in the house.
 
Mine has the pressure relief valve too, but I just shut off the open up a faucet, turn off the power at the pressure switch and wait for the tank to empty.
 
The sedment is really small gravel looking stuff. She said its been that way since she moved in 10 years ago. They are about the size of coarse ground salt.....
 
Ok, you're lucky it's that coarse. You may just need a simple, manually flushable sediment bowl. My last house had that issue due to the well producing over 56 gpm.

First thing I would do is to pull the pump and make sure the torque arrestor is PROPERLY installed, if it has one at all. The torque arrestor keeps the pump from banging around in the shaft when it cycles. You can buy it from Lowe's. It is a simple expandable rubber contraption that clamps on the pipe about 4' or so above the pump. It needs to be expanded about 1 or 2" bigger than the diameter of the casing. It will be a bit tougher to get the whole works back into the hole, but it will help a ton.

Second, if you have "wet pipe" well above the pump (like 30' or so), I'd raise the pump about 4' to maybe get the pump above the water vein that is bringing in the silt. Only do that if you have the water volume above the pump to do so. Knowing what GPM the well is capable of will be a determining factor as well as the total depth and static water level. I'd still like to see those numbers.

Third, I'd install a sediment pre-filter. It will catch a bunch of the bigger stuff before the drop in filter. The cartridges will last much longer.

Now, if you're still reading, I'd wait on the pre-filter to see if the torque arrestor and pump raising works. I'm willing to bet a dollar or a six pack that the torque arrestor isn't there or isn't spread out enough to do it's job.

Torque arrestor:http://www.lowes.com/pd_130540-1564...t=torque+arrestor&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151

Pre-filter:http://www.cleanwaterstore.com/MS005270-p-filter-strainers.html

While you have the pump out, it's not a bad idea to install the wire standoffs to prevent chafing. Chafed wires has haunted me in the past. Well pump wire is EXPENSIVE to replace. Wire standoffs are cheap. I'd put up a pic of the standoffs, but I can never find one on the net. They're just white plastic spacer that keep the wire from rubbing the casing or rock. they're found at Lowe's in the same place as the other well stuff.
 
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