Under-sink water filter change frequency (seems excessive)

 We are lucky to have pretty good water here in the SF Bay area. When they
switched
from chlorine to chloramine for disinfection I noticed a more unpleasant odor in
the water than the familiar chlorine, and installed an under-sink filter. The
filter is a Kenmore with a single 10" cartridge; I have been using the 42-34373
"Premium Taste and Odor" cartridge. It is supposed to filter 4500 gallons,
typically, and have an initial flow rate of 0.6 GPM.

The replacement advice for the cartridge is 6 months, or whenever the flow rate
become unacceptable. The first cartridge lasted 6 months with no noticeable drop
off. The next and all succeeding cartridges lasted about 2 months, maybe a few
weeks more at an unacceptably low flow rate.

My question is this. Is there a deliberate wear-out mechanism in there to make
me
change the carts more often ? Or perhaps my water has become more dirty and the
filter is simply doing what it is supposed to do ? In either case, I would
appreciate a less frequent maintenance schedule and a better flow rate too. Any
suggestions ?

Thanks,
George

 

It sounds like you got some gunk in your filter if it plugged up
that quickly.  Good think you had the filter, otherwise that gunk
could have ended up in your body.

What I do is put a few filters in series.  I put a very, very cheap
one up front, and the last one is a fairly expensive taste and
smell filter.  That way, the cheap filter takes care of the bulk
of the stuff, and the expensive one deals with water that is already
filtered twice, so it lasts a long time.

-john-

--
======================================================================
John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
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George Pontis wrote:

switched

drop

I have seen bad filters self clog almost immediately. These are usually
the real low micron filters though, not what you are using. If you have
two filters you need to look at the instructions more carefully. They
say to install the first filter and flush through the second. Then
install the second filter. Not using this process will send carbon
particles into the second filter and clog it early. You can even back
flush a bad filter to unclog it if you know how.
In summary, the filters should not clog in two months. Recheck the
installation procedure before condemning the filter.

 MSfortune@mcpmail.com says...

Understood, but this is just a single filter system. If it turns out that the
water is actually dirty enough that it is clogging the filters then perhaps I
should add a cheap pre-filter as suggested in the response by John Weeks. The
other alternative would be a less expensive cartridge. These are $14-16 each -
not
bad if they lasted half a year.

On the subject of dirty water clogging the filter, I tried a less expensive
version. It was the "Taste and Odor" cartridge, not the premium version. The
label
claimed a particle size capture of something like 25 microns compared to the 10
microns of the premium version. Simple logic would suggest that it might last
longer. But in fact it also was rated for lower lifetime, only 3000 gallons
compared to 4500 gallons. Sure enough, the flow through it deteriorated in short
order.

 George Pontis wrote:

I lived in a house once that had a lot of sediment in the well water.  I found
that a carbon filter would clog within a week or 2.  I finally installed a
second filter in line.  The first one was a [much cheaper] sediment filter, and
kept the carbon filter from clogging.  If there are coarse and fine sediment
filters available, experiment to find which works best.