"Water Filters" part 2 - When, What, Why and How to use a whole house filtration system.

Hellenbrand's next-generation Iron Curtain

In this second installment of "Water Filters," we will be looking at whole-house filtration systems for iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide removal along with iron bacteria and coliform bacteria. When to use a whole house filtration system, what to use, why use a particular type of filter system, and how to apply the right system for your water and family.

Frequently, water treatment professionals refer to water that is extremely high in iron, manganese, and H2S as "problem water" because it can be a challenge at times to find the proper solution to treat particular water problems and, quite frankly, it can take some experimenting with different methods to finally find the right water treatment method that works effectively and consistently.

In the first article "Water Filters Part 1" we discussed using cartridge-style pre-filters. As discussed, they are mainly for sediment removal although there is a myriad of cartridge filters that can be used for chlorine and lead removal, along with taste and odor filters.  The types of cartridge filters available (for specific water problems) and sizes are just mind-boggling. As discussed in this blog, a proper water analysis is the most important first step in determining the right water treatment solutions for your water.  In doing research for this blog I looked at quite a few "YouTube" videos because I was curious what some of the so-called "water experts" were

This is a nightmare!!

recommending for iron and odor filtration. What I would say from the videos I watched is "Don't watch any of those videos!"  They all pretty much recommended exactly what I said not to do in Water Filters 1.  Listen, if you have too much iron or ANY odor in your water putting a filter cartridge before or after the water softener is a very short-term fix and is NOT going to solve the problem, period!  Even if you put a bigger filter or a series of bigger filters before or after the water softener it won't fix the problem!  All you will end up doing is spending a lot of money replacing filters and having water that is "OK" until the filters get plugged up again. And guess what? That 20" BB carbon filter you need for odor removal, could easily cost over $100.00 every time you change it, for a short-term fix, possibly every 1-3 months or more frequently!  That is just not a practical solution to the problem or a cheap solution in the long run.

Bad, rusty, smelly, hard water problems take the proper water treatment approach to assure consistently great water for many years, and finding the right water treatment professional to fix your water problems can be like winning the lottery. It's been my experience that for every water treatment expert, there are ten, (what I like to refer to them as), hit-and-run water treatment companies. They literally just take your money and run and don't solve your water problems. It pays to do your research and find a good water treatment expert to keep you in great water and support you for years to come. If you want to do this yourself, and you are handy at plumbing then you've come to the right place!  We help you understand how this all works and find the right water treatment solutions for your water and family.

What is the easiest way to tell if you need a whole-house water filtration system?
1.  You need to use water softener salt like Red Out salt, System Saver salt, Iron Fighter, etc. to help your water softener remove iron or manganese.
2.  You use any powered additives like Iron Out, Rust Out, Softener Mate, etc., to treat your water softener for iron/rust problems.
3.  You are constantly cleaning the toilets, showers, dishwashers, and sinks regularly to remove rust stains or black stains.
4.  The women in the home need regular hair treatments to remove iron from their hair. Then again orange/red hair is in vogue these days!
5.  Your clothes come out of the wash with rust stains, discoloration, or spots. Especially whites.
6.  Your water is consistently discolored. Especially the hot water and bath water.
7.  Your water is constantly rusty, smelly, has a musty odor, or has a swampy smell to it.
8.  Your water is causing corrosion on sinks and appliances. Rusting out or even eating metal away.

If you answered yes to any of these questions you need a whole house water filtration system.  In our area, about 80% of the well water we treat needs an iron/odor filtration system, before a water softener, to assure all the iron and manganese are removed along with the trace amount of hydrogen sulfide.

I can't stress enough that a proper water analysis is key in finding the right water treatment solution to treat your water.  Especially when it comes to problem water solutions.  PH levels play an especially important role in these problem water solutions as acidic water makes it much more difficult to oxidize, precipitate, and remove iron, manganese, and H2S.  If the water is too acidic (below 6.5 PH) an acid neutralizer, such as calcite and corosex media, may need to be added to elevate the PH to levels above 7 (Neutral). There is a myriad of filter media options to choose from to treat every water problem so I will just stick with the most prevalent filtration media for problem water treatment. Every water treatment dealer has their preference and knows what works best in their area by trial and error. In reality, it's really practice, practice, practice by water treatment dealers to determine the proper water treatment solution.

Another very important aspect to look at when treating any well water is the well itself.
1. Is the well cap intact and sealed properly?
2. Is the well tank working properly? Is the pressure switch working properly, does the pressure gauge work, is the well tank holding pressure, is the well tank waterlogged, and does the well tank have the proper precharge pressure for the switch.
3. Is there enough water pressure and gallons per minute of water to operate a water treatment system efficiently. The minimum water pressure should be 30 psi. The minimum "gallons per minute" flow rate from the well or cistern should be 10gpm.

The most important thing in beginning to solve your water problem is to take notes on what you see going on with the water inside the home and outside. If you hire a water treatment professional discuss this with them fully. Take them around the house, and show them the problem areas. Toilets, showers, dishwashers, etc. When helping a homeowner solve their water problems listening to them as they describe the problems with their water is always the first step and is vital in any treatment solution. Homeowners live with their water every day and may have valuable insight into something that is not quite apparent at the time the water is tested.  Water can be really weird at times and the people living with it every day have a lot of insight into helping solve their water problems and providing them great water!

Whole House Filtration System Options.

  Manganese Greensand Filter

1.  Manganese Greensand filters - These systems use either potassium permanganate (Oxidizing chemical) or chlorine to oxidize and regenerate the filter media. Typically regenerates every other day or by gallons used. MTM media is also an option. It is lighter, easier to backwash, and has higher service flow rates.

Pros: Reasonably priced, fairly inexpensive to operate, does a good job at removing lower levels of iron, manganese, and H2S.

Cons: Requires a lot of maintenance and regular service. The media is very dense and heavy. Consequently, it has very low service flow rates (3-7 GPM) necessary for today's modern households and requires higher water pressures (30+ lbs) and water volumes to effectively backwash and regenerate the media.


2.  Chlorine or Hydrogen Peroxide Injection - Injection/retention/oxidation and filtration to oxidize iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide, and filtration tank to remove oxidized particulates and residual chlorine or peroxide. This type of system is also frequently used when bacteria is a continual problem from the water source.  With difficult bacteria problems often this is the only option for treatment. Contact time (center blue tank) is vital in this application for the chlorine/hydrogen peroxide to have time to oxidize or sanitize whatever the water is being treated for. Filtration to remove oxidized matter comes next then carbon filtration to remove residual chlorine or peroxide before household use. With extremely high levels of Hydrogen Sulfide, Bacteria, and Iron Bacteria, this is often the only option to treat the water.

Pros: A very effective method of oxidizing iron, and manganese, removing hydrogen sulfide, and sanitizing the water. When iron bacteria or coliform bacteria are a continuous problem in well water supplies this is one of the best methods to ensure bacteria-free water.

Cons:  As you can see from the diagram this can be a rather complex system and can require weekly maintenance having to add chlorine or peroxide along with regular maintenance on the entire system to assure proper operation. Chlorine by-products such as Trihalomethanes are known to be carcinogenic.

3. Ozonation - Ozone treatment is also an option for oxidizing iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide, and treating iron bacteria and nuisance bacteria from your well.

Pros: Ozone adds nothing to the water, other than pure oxygen, and is an effective oxidizer for iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide removal. It's also very effective at killing bacteria such as coliform, iron bacteria, and sulfate-reducing bacteria. It's also very effective at removing Microbes, Giardia,
Cryptosporidium, Fungi, molds, parasites, and common odors in water.

Hellenbrand Residential Ozone System

Cons: Ozone has a very short lifespan, seconds. So it must be constantly generated. Ozone systems can be very maintenance intensive and require an experienced professional to maintain and apply properly. Ozone can be very corrosive to copper and galvanized plumbing as well. The indoor environment the ozone is created has to be very dry so most residential basements are not good environments for this. Frequently a separate air dryer is necessary to properly dry the air out in basement applications so the ozone generator works properly.


4. Aeration - Aeration is a filtration method that uses air either drawn into or injected into a filter tank to oxidize iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide.  The types of filter media used for aeration systems are endless. Birm, Filter AG, Multi-media, Zeolite, and Centaur carbon are just some of the different types of media used in this type of filtration system.

Early Aeration systems used an inline "Venturi" nozzle which drew air into the incoming well line, when the submersible well pump was running, before the well tank. As shown in this diagram. The iron and manganese are oxidized in the bladder style well tank, and frequently an additional aeration tank, then filtered out with a backwashing filter.  The problems with this venturi-style system are several.
1. The venturi nozzle creates so much back pressure on submersible pumps they run continuously trying to build pressure at the well tank. Eventually, the submersible pump will overheat and fail.
2. The venturi nozzle greatly restricts the water pressure and water volume causing insufficient water volume to properly backwash the filter media tanks. Causing the filter media to foul out prematurely. Hence these systems typically need the filtration media replaced every 3-7 years. Depending on the water chemistry and water usage.
3. A common problem with this venturi style also is oxidized iron and manganese plugging up the water line from the venturi nozzle to the bladder/well tank, aeration tank, and/or filtration tank causing severe pressure loss.  This requires annual or semi-annual maintenance to clean out the lines and flush the well tank.  Consequently, the lack of household water pressure and water volumes necessary to efficiently operate a home is a problem. So this style system is rarely used now.

Venturi Nozzle

 2 Tank Aeration Filtration system

This "Two Tank" style Aeration system has been popular for a very long time and was the next generation after the Venturi style. The first tank or "Contact Tank" has air pumped into it with a small air compressor. This creates "Microbubbles" of oxygen so iron and manganese are oxidized, become a particle, fall out of the water, and then travel to the filtration tank for removal.  Depending on the manufacturer. The system can be programmed to run the air compressor at certain intervals. Example: Every 10 min for 30 seconds. Depending on water chemistry and household water usage. This system is normally set to backwash every night. Small amounts of hydrogen sulfide can also be removed with this method. Generally, 1ppm of H2S or less can be successfully removed depending on the levels of iron and manganese present in the water supply. Higher levels of H2S require chlorination or hydrogen peroxide systems as described above. One of the issues with this style is mud balls developed in the bottom of the contact tank and the valve heads would become plugged with iron. This style of filtration system typically needs to be rebuilt and the filtration media replaced about every three years, depending on the water chemistry and water usage. These systems use a "Multi-Media" filtration pack as the filter media. This would need to be replaced at those same intervals and have the contact tank flushed. Causing this system to be rather a service-intensive and expensive proposition to keep rebuilding.

Single Tank Aeration Filter System

The newest generation and, in my opinion, the best aeration filtration system, is now a single-tank filtration system. It is very simple and works extremely well. Air is drawn into the tank during regeneration through a small venturi nozzle that is incorporated into the valve body, this can be cleaned very easily when necessary. This is the same type of process used on water softeners to draw brine. With the electronics available now, especially on "Clack" valves, each system can be custom-programmed for every household. Allowing for greater flexibility in setting up the system for water chemistry, draw time, and backwash lengths. The Clack valve also runs according to gallons or a day override to ensure you have filtered, conditioned water even during peak periods of water usage. This diagram shows most of the oxidation of iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide occurs in the upper third of the tank. But the whole tank is flooded with oxygen so the oxidation process happens all through the filter media bed. This system typically regenerates every 2-3 days or by gallons used. Whichever comes first.

When using any filtration system bed depth and contact time is of the utmost importance. Oxidation and filtration of iron, manganese, and H2S can take some time so it is generally better to have a taller tank, such as a 10x54 or 13x54 for residential use to allow enough time for this whole process to work effectively. The higher the iron and manganese levels are the larger the size tank is required to work effectively and have a longer lifespan. Larger filter tanks like a

Duplexed backwashing filtration system

13x54, along with duplexed or triplexed filter tanks should be considered with iron levels above 5ppm and manganese levels above 2ppm. Especially with households that use high volumes of water. Water pressures of 30psi-70psi are optimal for proper backwashing and cleaning of the filter media, no matter what type is used. Filter systems require at least 5gpm to backwash properly. Larger systems may require 7-10gpm, depending on the filter media used. The good news is these systems can filter down to 5 microns meaning they are very efficient at the filtration of fine particulates.

Pros:  The Aeration process is the simplest method and, with a single-tank aeration system, requires very little maintenance. Many different options for filter media are available to accommodate your particular water problems.

Cons:  Aeration systems are not for use with high levels of hydrogen sulfide or iron bacteria. High levels of dissolved oxygen, with an aeration system, can cause copper corrosion.

To summarize: Every water treatment problem has its own unique solutions. To find your solution start with a complete water analysis to determine what's in the water first and then you can begin to address the proper solution for your home.


I wish you Good Days and Good Water!

Ray McConnell,
The Water Softener Blog


Below are links related to the topics discussed in this article.

Water Testing: Water Check

Find a Certified Water Treatment Dealer in your area

Selecting a Home Water Treatment System

WellOwner.Org

How the Oxidation and Filtration process works

Water Filter Media Guide

Water Treatment Manufacturers:
Hellenbrand Water Treatment
Water Right Inc.
Nelsen Corporation

Clack Corporation

Fleck Water Treatment by Pentair


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