Category Archives: Automatic Filters

The Local Dealer

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Your local water treatment company can provide you the exact same professional grade equipment that Water Value carries. They are professionally trained and experts at choosing the correct water treatment equipment for your particular needs. They can install and maintain your equipment as well as test the output of the equipment and make recommendations such as when to replace a filter or media. But it only stands to reason that this type of hands-on expert service is going to cost extra. You will pay more for the same equipment due to the fact that the local dealer will discern your particular needs based on what contaminants are in your water. They will then choose the proper equipment to take care of your needs, they will order it, receive it, assemble it, transport it, install it, program it if need be and in most cases, maintain it. There is a certain amount of work hours in this whole process which costs extra, and rightfully so.

Many local dealers see the Internet as taking potential customers away from them when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality web site water treatment companies such as Water Value fill a niche in that we provide to the end user the exact same professional grade water treatment equipment without the extra expenses of hands-on delivery, setup, installation and maintenance. If you are capable of handling these relatively simple tasks, then Water Value can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the long run. We do deliver via UPS Ground or R&L Carrier. We do not install but we can help with setup over the phone, and the service manual and online instructions provide all the information you will need to monitor and maintain your water treatment system(s) yourself.

There is a definite need for the local water treatment dealership. For most, it is worth the extra money to have their water treatment needs taken care of for them. But if you are capable of basic plumbing – or can hire a plumber – and filter replacement, then installing and maintaining your own equipment will save money.

Keep in mind that while Water Value provides the same equipment that most local water treatment companies do, we do not know of any of these dealers local to you.

Repairing Water Softeners and Automatic Filters

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We have always maintained an extensive parts and components list of items for the water treatment systems that we sell and support. Often times the breakdown of a component on a control valve is due to age and normal wear and is usually very easy to replace. In some cases, special tools are required for replacing seals and spacers for instance in the Fleck models 9000 and 2510, but for the most part, replacing parts on softener or filter control valves can be performed with common tools.

Repairing your softener or filter system yourself can save you a great deal of expense but it is important to consider other aspects of your softener/filter before repairing. First, consider the age of the system. For example, if your softener is 20+ years old and you have a control valve with worn piston and seals, you will also want to think about the softener’s media. Softener media can have a very long lifespan depending on the conditions of your water and how much water flows through it over the years, but after 20 years or even less, the media becomes worn out. Friction due to the hundreds of regeneration cycles through the years will wear the surface of the resin beads down making them in effective. At that point you should also consider the cost of replacing the resin media and the repair parts you need for your controller. Often times these costs will come close to the cost of an entire new softener.

Another example: You have a greensand filter which is only 5 years old but because of the high iron content of the water, the injector is clogged or wore out and the media is likely in need of changing as well. In this case, changing the injector and the media are less than half the cost of a new filter system, but a close examination of the seals and piston should be done at this time as well. All of these components can be replaced at far less than the cost of replacing the entire system.

We do not recommend repairing a very old system. While the media and parts can be a temporary fix, in the long run you save money and time by investing in a complete new system.

Toilet Stains

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Many people will contact us about iron stains from their well water left on their bathtubs, showers, toilets and sinks. This iron can also discolor laundered clothing after time. There are several very good methods for removing iron from your water. There is a simple Birm filter if certain conditions of the water can be met, such as a high pH level and no presence of hydrogen sulfide gas. Then there is the Greensand filter method which not only removes iron, but it takes care of manganese and hydrogen sulfide gas. Chlorination will oxidize iron out when combined with a carbon filter. The Terminator iron systems use a 3 stage action which injects air into the water, then bleeds off the air and any gases then finally filters out the now oxidized iron particles. Finally – and without doubt the best method for treating iron – the Sentry I Open Air systems can handle very bad water with very satisfying results.

So customers will choose one of these iron systems, install it and see the huge improvement in their water quality. The stains are gone from the laundry, sinks, tubs and showers too! But they end up calling to complain that their toillet still has a black or gray or even reddish-pink stain around the bowel only a few days after cleaning it. Well, it’s not just the well water customers that call about this type of staining, it’s also the city water customers. Naturally, the first thing one would think if there is a reoccurring stain in their freshly cleaned toilet, that something must be wrong with the water. But after some investigation, we found that this stain is not caused by anything in the water. Rather it is introduced into the toilet through the air.

These stains are caused by an airborne spore. The name of the spore is known by some in the scientific community, but it is unknown to me. Suffice to say that it is hard to pronounce and comes in various strains, which would explain why the colors of the growth can be varied. It is microscopic, floats in the air, and the waterline in a clean toilet is the perfect place for it to settle and grow. Actually, bad water will help to keep it away. Once you’ve solved a bad water problem such as iron, this mold will grow more quickly due to the fresh, clean water. There is no known method to preventing this spore from seeking out and finding the ideal living conditions in a toilet.

Before I go on, I should point out that this experiment I’m about to mention is not very scientific. It’s just that these calls were bothering us and upon reading some material, we decided to give this excersize a try. One of our houses has 2 bathrooms, both with the dark stains around the water lines of the toilets. This water is highly treated as you can imagine, being a water treatment equipment professional’s home. So we decided this would be worth a try. First, we cleaned both toilets at the same time. We then sealed off the bowel of one of the toilets (the one not used very often) with common plastic wrap, stretched and tied in place. The idea here was to make that bowl air tight. After only a few days, the uncovered toilet bowl started showing signs of this growth at the water line. The sealed toilet did not. After one week, the open toilet was looking pretty bad. The sealed toilet showed no signs of staining. Okay, this was not a laboratory and nothing was officially documented, but the experiment satisfied us enough to be able to say with confidence that the stains in this case were probably cause by something in the air.

The point of this message is to simply help lay to rest the beleif that not everything that causes stains in toilet bowl water lines is iron, or even something in the water. There is a very good chance that if you have treated your water for iron/rust stains and your other plumbing fixtures have cleaned up while the toilet still produces stains, it’s probably these spores that are the cause.

Solving Well Water Problems

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Private wells can present quite a few problems for homeowners and businesses alike. All water out of an underground well contains some degree of hardness. But hardness is easily removed with a standard water softener. Most wells also produce water with some type of iron contamination. While iron in your water is not considered a health risk according to the US EPA under certain amounts, it can cause many problems with staining of plumbing and fixtures, laundry and often times produces an unpleasant odor. Water Value Company has an excellent iron elimination system available called The Terminator. Using 3 stages of water treatment, it injects oxygen into the water as the well pump runs. It then oxidizes and bleeds off excess air and sulfur gas, and finally filters out the oxidized iron through an automatic backwashing filter system. The Terminator system is very effective in removing high amounts of iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide.

But often times well water will not only contain iron and odor, but bacteria also. Bacteria can be killed with UV filter lamps and chlorinators, but BWI (Better Water Industries) has come out with an ingenious all-in-one device for treating not only bacteria, but iron, sulfur, sulfate reducing bacteria, black manganese, algae, tannins, arsenic and even low pH. It is the Sentry I Open-Air System and it even increases low level well water output. Sentry I Open-Air System

While being ideal for removing very high levels of iron and sulfur gas from your water, the other benefits of this open-air system coupled with a standard water softener downline of the appliance makes for nearly perfect water right out of your tap, no matter how difficult your well water problem may be. The simple design of this open-air system means easy installation. It comes pre-wired and plumbed with a 1-inch inlet valve, adjustable air-draw for oxidation, safety floats, dry pellet chlorinator, submersible pump, and bladder tank. Water enters the Sentry I Open-Air system and is injected with air for oxidation, chlorine for oxidation and disinfection, holding tank and a booster pump to provide higher water pressure to your faucets than a standard well system can.

So if you need to solve multiple problems with your well water and require a simple to use, low maintenance water treatment equipment solution, the Sentry I Open-Air System is the right choice.

Cost For Activated Carbon Goes Up

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The cost of granular activated carbon for water treatment has tripled in the last few months. There are all kinds of speculation as to why but in fact, there are a few reasons. These price increases currently affect automatic backwashing carbon filter systems and will no doubt start showing up soon in the manufactured cartridge filters.

Up until a couple of years ago, the vast majority of activated carbon coming into the U.S. was manufactured in China. For various reasons, the U.S. government wisely assessed and enforced import fees on this popular filter media. Water Value was already incorporating U.S. made carbon media in its systems all along, but when the Chinese media was no longer practical to purchase due to the increased cost, the other water treatment companies were forced to buy U.S. carbon. Because their prices went up and ours did not, we even went so far as to upgrade our carbon media to a nationally known name brand manufacturer in place of the generic U.S. media we were using.

We are still using that name brand carbon in our automatic filters, but the cost has risen above what anyone in the business had anticipated. A great deal of this can be attributed to the cost of oil for sure. While oil is not directly used in the manufacture and processing of activated carbon, producing the heat required is. It will either come from electrical or gas energy.

Rest assured that any of the activated carbon systems/products you purchase from Water Value have, and always will contain the highest grade of media available and it’s certainly made in the U.S.A.

Do You Need Water Treatment?

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In most cases throughout the U.S., the answer to the above question is yes. In some cases though, and so long as there are no health issues with your water, water treatment is not needed. Because all water eventually filters down through several layers of minerals until an aquifer is reached, due to the solvent nature of water, it is going to gather minerals such as calcium along the way. When this aquifer is tapped either by a private well or municipal water distribution facility, the hardness minerals come right along with it. This calcium or lime can cause problems with your water pipes due to deposits on the inside walls of the pipes and plumbing fixtures over the years. The hardness also requires higher levels of soap and detergent to produce suds and lather when bathing or washing laundry and cookware. This calcium in the water poses no threat to health, but no benefit either. It is not the type of calcium that can be absorbed into your blood stream such as the calcium your body gets from food or vitamins. But it sure can be annoying when it comes to plumbing fixtures, washing and deposits left on surfaces such as a shower door or bathtub. If these annoyances do not cause you any bother, and there are no other contaminant issues with your water, you will not require any sort of water treatment.

Chances are though, if you’re reading this, you’ve decided that you do require some sort of water treatment. Once you know what is in your water that is causing the problems, it’s easy to figure out what you need. The best way to determine the nature of the contaminants in your water is to test the water. Simply pick up a water test kit at your local hardware/plumbing supply store or even get one of our Complete Home Water testing kits. There are 2 tests for every kind of water problem common to drinking water. There’s even a single test for bacterial infection.

Now that you know how much of what is in your water, you have come to the right place. Hardness, iron, bacteria, chlorine, fluoride, nitrates/nitrites, copper, taste and oder can all be treated easily with one or two devices. Hardness (and even some iron) can be treated with a regular ion exchange water softener. Iron in its many forms can be treated with one of our iron filter systems or chlorination. Turbidity is normally treated with a sediment filter, chlorine with a carbon filter, and even pH can be raised with a Calcite filter system. Nearly all chemical contaminants in the drinking water can be removed with a reverse osmosis system.

Some water treatment devices might require a pre-treatment method for proper operation. For example, reverse osmosis systems require a hardness level of less than 10 grains per gallon to operate properly. If your water hardness is over 10 grains per gallon and you require reverse osmosis treatment, you will also need to add a softener to your water treatment system.

If you cannot find what you’re looking for, try searching this web site. We take every question we have been asked over the phone for the past 7 years and addressed them in a search-able format. Simply type in your question at the “search this site” box in the left side of this page.

Iron Bacteria

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We have a great deal of information on the web site pertaining to iron. The vast majority of private wells contain iron in one form or another. Our FAQ section deals with the different kinds and the various treatment methods, but here we will address bacterial iron.

Iron bacteria are living organisms which naturally occur in water and feed off of dissolved iron and oxygen. Symptoms of iron bacteria are slimy water, foul odor and discoloration of the water. It can be difficult to discern between hydrogen sulfide in iron water and this bacterial odor. Iron bacteria can form a film on the surface of standing water kept in toilet bowels and such.Iron bacteria in water.

Removal methods for iron bacteria include “shocking” the well with bleach or chlorine, removing the iron that the bacteria feeds off of or filtering it. We have dry pellet chlorinators for disinfecting the well which attach to the well head and release pellets automatically when the pump runs, which fall down into the well and quickly kill the bacteria. Another popular method is a Greensand filter which filters the iron and uses potassium permanganate to regenerate the filter media bed.

When using chlorine to treat iron or iron bacteria, it is strongly advisable to use an activated carbon filter system to remove the chlorine once it has done its job.

Logix Manuals on Backorder

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It appears that the service manuals for all of our Autotrol LOGIX controlled softeners/auto-filters were out of stock. We were not informed of this until now (2 weeks later). So to everyone that ordered a LOGIX controlled system; your service manuals are on the way.

These manuals are normally very well stocked, but even the manufacturer can run out from time to time. After all, I’m certain they do not print these publications themselves, rather they have a printing company do it. While it is rare that any of the water treatment systems listed on this web site ever run out of stock, it can happen. We are normally notified of the shortage and pass that information on to you via your email address. In this case, because the manufacturer also includes a quick reference sheet for setup, they correctly assumed that the customer would be able to get up and running without the entire 84 page manual. We have informed them that if there is an outage of service manuals in the future, they should let us know.

Even though there were no complaints or phone calls from customers informing us of the missing manuals, we sincerely hope there were no difficulties or delays caused by this temporary shortage.

Backwashing Filter Sizing

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Automatic backwashing filters use coarse media to treat water problems such as iron, taste & odor and even to balance pH. Because these filter media are so coarse, they do not allow for the easy passage of water, thus making the rated flow for filter media in general much less than water softener media which is spherical, smooth and slippery. Often times the flow rate for a given media is lower than the required backwash rate. For example, a 10-inch diameter filter media tank containing activated carbon will provide a flow rate of 3 to 4.5 gallons-per-minute (gpm) but has a backwashing flow requirement of 5gpm. So your water supply will need to have a maximum flow rate of 5gpm to backwash the carbon properly, but when the filter is in operation, your 5gpm flow rate will be restricted to 4gpm.

Yet another consideration is the amount of media to use which directly affects the size of the media tank. If you are removing 2 parts-per-million (ppm or mg/L) of chlorine with your carbon filter, then at least 1.0 cu/ft of granular activated carbon should be used. And if you are a heavy water user with several people in the household, then you may want to consider doubling that capacity. But you will first need to make sure that your water system’s flow rate is high enough to handle the 7gpm backwashing flow rate requirement. The more media you use, the larger the diameter of the media tank. The larger diameter of the media tank, the higher the service flow rate, but again, the higher the backwashing flow rate requirement.

There are some filter media that have as high of a service flow rate as the backwash flow rate, but for the most part, filter media needs a high backwash flow rate. The various filter media and their flow rates in different size media tanks can be found at our Filter Media Flow Rate page. Keep in mind that water pressure and temperature can also affect flow rates.

Softener and Backwashing Filter Control Valve Replacement

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The main component of your water softener or auto-backwashing filter system is the control valve. It initiates and controls the regeneration and/or backwashing of the water treatment media. The media requires regeneration or backwashing to remove any contaminants it was designed to filter out of the water. In the case of softener resin media, the control valve regenerates it by exchanging the hardness ions trapped by the resin with sodium ions and rinses the hardness down the drain. For filter media, the controller backwashes it to remove any trapped particles and to refresh the media bed which prevents water channels from forming. Water channeling would drastically reduce the filter media’s effectiveness.

Over time, control valve components can wear out or break down. While the professional grade controllers we offer are less likely to malfunction, standard consumer style controllers often do fail. Replacing parts on these controllers is usually quite simple, but over time can become economically impractical. This would be a good time to consider replacement of the entire control valve. But before you do, there are some points to consider.

First of all, you should have some experience with water treatment equipment before you begin a project such as this. Either you installed your water softener/filter yourself, or you are an experienced “do-it-yourselfer”. The manufacturers of the Fleck, Autotrol and Clack control valves we carry and support recommend a professionally trained service person do the job. There are other considerations as well. The water’s flow direction on the old controller you are replacing might be opposite of the new controller you are considering. If that is the case, your water pipes will need to be re-plumbed.

Another consideration is the size of the riser tube or “distributor” that runs down the length of the media tank. The majority of the control valves we have available come default with a 1.05-inch diameter opening to accept a 1.05-inch diameter distributor tube, but some older models used to be set up with 13/16-inch distributors. The newer 1.05-inch control valves will not seal properly over those. And the newer Fleck 7000 accepts a 32mm distributor tube which will not work with a standard 1.05-inch distributor without and adapter.

If you purchase a new control valve from us, you will need to know the diameter of your media tank. This information allows the manufacturer to configure the control valve for your softener or filter. Also, control valves come in basically two configurations: softener or filter. Softener control valves can be metered or “on demand” while filter control valve should not. Filter control valves are designed to schedule backwashing over a user-defined period of days rather than the amount of water that flows through the tank like a softener does. There are a few good reasons for this, but the main one is that filter media is of a different consistency than softener media. It needs to be backwashed on a regular basis to avoid water channeling. Some filter control valves also use “brine” injectors while others do not. All softener control valves require a brine injector system.

There are a few nation wide water treatment companies out there that produce tanks and control valves that do not conform to industry standards. For a standard residential water treatment application, the threads on the media tank are 2.5 inches in diameter by 8 threads per inch. All of the residential control valves we carry use these dimensions. Larger commercial controllers are designed for 4-inch tank openings. Some of the national companies will use a different style of thread to prevent industry standard control valves from being used on their equipment. For residential applications, make sure your media tank’s threads are 2.5 by 8.

Removing The Old Control Valve

Hopefully, your water treatment system will have some sort of water bypass system in place, either a bypass valve or a 3-valve shutoff. If not, you will need to shut the water off for the entire house in order to disconnect the control valve from the pipes. Pressure inside the control valve and media tank can be released after the water is shut off or bypassed by manually initiating a regeneration or backwash. See your water treatment systems instruction manual for the proper method. Once water pressure is released from the system, you can disconnect the water pipes and unscrew the control valve from the media tank. Be careful when removing the control valve that you are replacing. The distributor tube that runs up the center of the media tank is held in place with at least one o-ring inside the control valve and there is nothing holding it down inside the media tank except for the media. If this distributor tube is pulled out from the bottom of the media tank, it can prove very difficult to get it back down in there. When lifting the control valve from the top of the media tank, rock it back and forth to help the internal o-ring release the riser tube.

Attaching The New Control Valve

Check the top of the riser tube to ensure there are no cracks or damage which could lead to leaks, then make sure the top of the tank itself is clear of media debris. Even a small particle can prevent the control valve o-ring from sealing properly, resulting in a leak. Place the new control valve over the media tank with the distributor tube centered into the receptacle in the bottom of the  valve. It should slide right in. Then screw the control valve down tight but do not use a wrench or other tool. The control valve’s o-ring will seal very well when it is hand-tightened.
If you purchased the exact same controller you are replacing, then chances are the pipes and drain line will already be set to connect. Otherwise, you may need to use a different drain line fitting and possibly redo your water pipes.

Your control valve will now need setup. If it is an electronic control valve such as the Fleck 7000 or Fleck SE, Autotrol LOGIX or Clack WS-1, you will need to program it for your particular water situation. Softener control valves will need to know how much compensated hardness is in the water for example. You can migrate the settings from your old controller as well. In either case, you will need to refer to the service manual for your control valve for programming or setup instructions.

Because tanks have such a long lifespan, you basically now have a new water treatment system with warranty. Often times this can be achieved at nearly half the cost of a whole new softener and up to 30% less than a whole new backwashing filter system.