Well Water Filtration Systems
Well Water Filtration Systems help ensure you get safer, healthier water for your home. They remove harmful contaminants like bacteria, iron, and chlorine. They also reduce hard water minerals and turbidity. They also eliminate hydrogen sulfide, a rotten-egg odor common in well water.
This system features an upflow design that increases water contact time with the contaminant grabbing media, increasing efficiency and preventing clogging. It includes a sediment prefilter and an antibacterial system that kills bacteria, cysts, and algae.
Water Softener
A water softener removes the hard minerals that cause your well water to be considered “hard.” These hard minerals are not only a nuisance, but they can also damage pipes and appliances throughout your home. A water softener can help protect these expensive investments and extend the life of your home plumbing and hot water heater.
When your well water passes through a water softener, it flows through a resin tank filled with plastic-like beads. These beads have a negative charge and are coated with sodium ions. Since opposite charges attract, the positively charged calcium and magnesium minerals that make your well water hard are attracted to the negative ions on the resin beads and removed from the water. The resulting water is then softened and ready for use in your home.
During regular use, your water softener will periodically go through a regeneration cycle. During this process, the resin beads are rinsed free of hard water minerals and recharged with sodium ions from the salt solution stored in your brine tank. This process helps to keep your well water softened and reduces the amount of sodium in your household’s drinking water.
A brine tank is a short tank located adjacent to the resin tank that holds a heavy salt-water solution used in the well water purification system regeneration process. When your control valve registers that the resin tank is low on salt, it sends a signal to the brine tank to refill with a fresh supply of salt.
Chlorine Removing System
Chlorine has many uses and is essential to our survival, but it can also have detrimental effects. Chlorine is a chemical that, when added to your well water, disinfects it to kill bacteria and other pathogens. However, chlorine can also irritate skin and hair, cause problems with the stomach, and cause other health complications. Chlorine can also etch metal pipes and affect certain tastes and smells in your water.
Well owners often use chlorine to treat their water for iron bacteria (and sometimes other contaminants as well). A chlorine injection system can be an efficient way to inject and maintain an accurate chlorine residual in your well water.
One type of chlorination system works by using a proportional feed to pump more or less chlorine into your water, based on how much it’s needed. This is a great option for homeowners with wells where it’s impractical to install a chlorine injection system directly at the well pressure tank.
Another type of chlorination system works by incorporating granular activated carbon into the softener system to remove chlorine from the water. GAC has a high surface area that attracts chlorine molecules and organic contaminants, removing them from the water by a process called adsorption. This method has the advantage of using a system that is already in your home, but the GAC can wear out after about 2 years and it’s difficult to replace only the GAC without replacing the entire hardening resin in the softener.
Iron Breaker
If your water has the odor of rotten eggs, or your aqueous filter sinks and bathtubs have iron stains and your laundry has a rusty hue, chances are you have high levels of iron in your well water. If left untreated, excessive iron can cause mineral build-up that clogs plumbing and shortens the lifespan of appliances like washing machines.
An iron filtration system will remove the contaminants that are responsible for these problems and leave you with fresh-tasting, odor-free well water. Unlike general water filters that don’t specialize in treating specific contaminants, an iron removal system uses specialized technology designed to address iron and hydrogen sulfide specifically.
While chlorine injection systems may work to treat iron in moderate amounts, they don’t deal with other contaminants and require a lot of maintenance as the chlorine crystalizes in the storage tank and must be replaced regularly. Other types of iron treatment systems use oxidation to convert the soluble iron into an insoluble form that can be sieved out of the water. However, these systems typically require an oxidant such as chlorine, ozone or potassium permanganate that must be added on a regular basis.
A better solution is a chemical free iron filtration system such as Charger’s Iron Breaker III. This unique, patented iron removal system stores an air “bubble” of compressed air in its media tank that is constantly swept by your well water. As your water passes through the iron breaker, it converts both iron and H2S into solid particles that are trapped in the filter’s catalytic carbon media. During the periodic regeneration cycle, the system backwashes itself to flush out the collected iron particles. Then it replenishes the air bubble by drawing in air, temporarily emptying its media tank and infusing it with oxygen.
Sulfur Optimizer
Hydrogen sulfide gas forms in low-oxygen environments and is produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria that feast on organic matter such as rotting vegetation or sulfur minerals. If you have hydrogen sulfide in your well water, it’s likely because these bacteria have colonized the plumbing system and oxidized iron and other metals. Fortunately, there are plenty of well water filters for sulfur that can eliminate the smell and protect your health.
One popular option is air injection sulfur filtration systems, which use oxygen to convert hydrogen sulfide gas into solid sulfur particles that can be filtered out of the water. Another alternative is a chemical oxidation filter, which uses chemicals such as chlorine or peroxide to oxidize iron and hydrogen sulfide and kill sulfur bacteria.
Both systems have their own pros and cons, but a chlorine injection system is ideal for many homeowners because it eliminates both iron and sulfur and disinfects water to kill dangerous pathogens. Additionally, it features a unique static mixer that prevents the system from clogging, reducing maintenance and eliminating the need for massive chlorination tanks.
A new study by Stanford University researchers paves the way for mining sewage for valuable materials that could be used in fertilizers and batteries for smartphones and airplanes. By optimizing electrical processes for transforming sulfur pollution into useful materials, this research could help reduce energy consumption and enable affordable, renewable electricity-powered wastewater treatment that creates clean drinking water.
