Depth Filter, Multi Layer Filter, there are all sorts of names for these One Filter Fixes All systems sold almost exclusively on the internet. These filters are a rip off and you should avoid them. This week's debacle was at a home where one of these was installed as a downflow filter. It had "layers" of different sized mesh coconut carbon, bituminous coal, pumice, KDF, and other materials. First of all, these units are shipped already filled, with the heaviest media (KDF) on the top of all the other medias. You can be positive that with shipping vibrations, the KDF works its way down through the other medias even though it is supposed to be on top. It is two to four times denser than the other medias.
If it were possible for the product to be shipped without the six different layers jumbling and mixing, there is a bigger issue. There is not enough of any of the medias to be truly effective for whatever that media's job was supposed to be. There are only somewhere between four and six inches of each media in the filter, and that does not leave enough contact time to get any job done. And when they de-stratify and mix, there is not effective contact because the water finds it's way around the easier granules to flow through and around and will therefore miss some of the media.
The product design is truly built around a poor business model - the desire to sell something, anything, on the magic internet. "How about a water filter! Oh, but what about the fact that every home has its individual water issue and someone right there would be better able to help the customer? No matter, just throw a little of anything we can think of in the filter, and ship it off. What a great idea!" Not really.
The customer in this case needed a neutralizer. There were no neutralizing minerals or medias in this "do everything" filter, and therefore, after spending over $1000.00 on it, the customer found that it didn't work. I removed it and installed a neutralizer with 40" of calcite media, plenty to do the job that needed to be done.
There are no do everything filters for water treatment. I use several catalogs with hundreds of pages each of components and medias and controllers so that I can put together the best systems for my customers. Anyone selling you something that claims to do everything is just stealing your money. Run the other way.
If it were possible for the product to be shipped without the six different layers jumbling and mixing, there is a bigger issue. There is not enough of any of the medias to be truly effective for whatever that media's job was supposed to be. There are only somewhere between four and six inches of each media in the filter, and that does not leave enough contact time to get any job done. And when they de-stratify and mix, there is not effective contact because the water finds it's way around the easier granules to flow through and around and will therefore miss some of the media.
The product design is truly built around a poor business model - the desire to sell something, anything, on the magic internet. "How about a water filter! Oh, but what about the fact that every home has its individual water issue and someone right there would be better able to help the customer? No matter, just throw a little of anything we can think of in the filter, and ship it off. What a great idea!" Not really.
The customer in this case needed a neutralizer. There were no neutralizing minerals or medias in this "do everything" filter, and therefore, after spending over $1000.00 on it, the customer found that it didn't work. I removed it and installed a neutralizer with 40" of calcite media, plenty to do the job that needed to be done.
There are no do everything filters for water treatment. I use several catalogs with hundreds of pages each of components and medias and controllers so that I can put together the best systems for my customers. Anyone selling you something that claims to do everything is just stealing your money. Run the other way.
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