Your well water leaves rust stains. You think you need an Iron Filter. You try and research the different options.
But it gets confusing.
Birm Filter, Greensand Filter, Chemical-Free Iron Filter OH MY!
Our clients in Trevor Wisconsin faced this challenge – for the second time. The first Iron Filter they bought didn’t quite work out.
So what made our Iron Filter work better?
Rust Removal – It Takes Time
Several years ago, our clients started their “road to good water” with a Culligan Mark 100 Water Softener. But their water wasn’t good enough.
It didn’t take long before they added a Culligan Super S Iron Filter.
The Culligan Super S uses a single 12” x 45” tank. That’s one of the main problems!
Iron Filtration works in two stages;
- Oxidation: an oxidant like air or chlorine is mixed with water to cause minerals to oxidize and grow in size
- Filtration: once oxidized, minerals are strained out of the water by a filter
The single tank contains air, chlorine, water, and filter media. By our calculations, there was only about 2-3 gallons of air/water.
With “moderately bad” water like our customers had, it takes about 2 minutes to oxidize Iron. If the Iron isn’t oxidized, it stays dissolved. It will pass right through the filter. No Good!
Based on a 2 minute retention time, this “all in one” Iron Filter is only good for about 1.5 gallons per minute of use. In other words, it could barely support 1 running faucet.
Kill Bacteria, Don’t Blow Air On It
Like many of our customers in Illinois, they had an Iron Bacteria problem.
Iron Bacteria is not a health risk. It’s a group of nuisance microbes that make water look rusty and slimy. They often have a foul smell that makes water hard to drink.
The Culligan Super S Iron Filter only pumps air and chlorine during regeneration. It maintains a nice, oxygen-rich head of air in the tank. That’s good for oxidizing Iron (if give it enough time to do the job). But chlorine is quickly used up.
The Culligan Super S doesn’t maintain a residual of chlorine. As a result, Iron Bacteria would grow through the Filter in between regenerations.
An Iron Designed for Their Problems
So a single tank Iron Filter didn’t work. Periodic chlorination didn’t work.
What did we do? It’s simple: Garrelts Water installed a Two Tank Iron Filter.
The first stage used a dedicated 12” x 52” Retention Tank. This tank incorporated both Air Injection and Constant Chlorination.
Yes, Constant Chlorination.
The second stage used a 12” x 52” Hellenbrand H-125 Iron Curtain Backwashing Filter.
We used a dedicated tool for each job: 1 tool for oxidation, and another for filtration.
The H125 Iron Filter uses a larger 1.25” valve. This allows the system to flush more vigorously. It also improves operation when the system begins to load up with Iron.
The old Culligan water softener was using a lot of salt. And the water wasn’t always soft. It would take $100’s of dollars to service the old machine. It just wasn’t worth it.
Our client chose to start fresh with a new E3 Water Softener. The E3 softener was adjusted to operate more efficiently than the old system. Now they use less salt, and there water’s softer!
What Do Our Clients Think?
We got the first call from our customers because they continued to have iron stains and odor issues. The service they were getting wasn’t helping.
They were happy to find Garrelts Water. A company that truly specializes in Iron Filters and Well Water Treatment.
Now, the water is perfect. It has been ever since we installed the equipment in November 2013.
They have called several times just to tell us how happy they are, and to use them as a reference.
Now that’s a success story!
About Garrelts Water
Garrelts Water is not a mass marketed “Water Softener Company”. We service and sell Water Softeners. But we really love fixing “Bad Water Problems”.
Do you have rusty, stinky water? Give us a call at (815) 344-8186, or send us an email us at jim@garreltswater.com. We’ll test your water, and help you get a system that works – for your water!