How often do you change out your sediment filter?
We have pretty hard water out here in Kansas and I try to change mine out every month, looking at my last change out however maybe I need to check it each week.
what have you found? I have had my 4 stage cart a little over a year and just had to change out my DI and carbon/KDF as well. Given I have ran probably 35,000 gal through it already.
How long do your filters and membranes seem to last?
The more the better… And it depends on the cart. If you wait too long you will lose pressure, the ro will have to work harder to filter everything that is not stopped by the sediment filter. If you are changing the carbon the same time, when the carbon runs out the chlorine is sent to the ro membrane, and from what hear is the chlorine eats away at the membrane.
The carbon filter and sediment filter are each 80 times cheaper (depending on the size) than the RO membrane. So change them very regularly.
I change mine about every 6 weeks for safe measures. Again this will depend on the size and gallons run through the machine.
Thanks Josh for your input.
I Had not changed my Carbon filter till last week. Someone had told me when I bought it that it didn’t need to be changed very often, I should have done some more checking. Any way, the pressure over time had dropped and I figured it was the carbon, but after I changed it the next job my TDS was crazy high. I freaked out! Had two houses that day… did it with 11-15 tds. We had to redo a few panes by hand but no big deal. Then I got home did some checking and ordered a new R/O (4x40) I didn’t order it from here so I won’t say where, however I got it for $277 free ship. Cheapest I ever saw.
Then I remembered I had an extra D/I ready to go in my office. BAM! That solved it! Next job my TDS was 000 coming out! Whew…
But now I have this R/O coming and not sure if I need it yet. I heard they must be refrigerated so I guess I’ll stick it in my extra one in the garage.
Back to this, so, you change the carbon every six weeks? That is not cheap, my carbon/KDF cost my like $70. I might as well wait till my R/O goes out at that price. My filters are 4.5x10. Maybe I need to do some more checking and see if I even need the KDF in there. That is the only filter I don’t even know what it is for and really raises that cost of the carbon.
I changed mine at 2.5 yrs, then the R/O DI at just about 3yrs. I’ll be coming up on a yr for the carbon and sediment filters. They are still within 5lbs of each other without the pump on. TDS averages @300 here, most wells are around 400 in my area by my house. Yes, they were dirty when I changed them, but not plugged or anything.
Hey Jeremiah,
The micron filter is easy to determine when exhausted, the debris, dirt, rust, dirties from the outside to the inside…lets say the rust was showing up about 1/2 way from the outside to the inside and from that halfway point to the middle the micron filter is white…It would still be good.
Once the obvious dirtiness of the filter was all the way to the middle then it would be exhausted.
This particular filter below on the right is exhausted…
Dange-Ster
I thought the flow was from the inside to the outside…isn’t it? That’s where the water is directed from, inlet, center to the outer part of the filter. No?
Hello David, MR. Freeborn…
I’ve been using micron filter for 15 years for my DI tank and they have always dirtied from the outside in !
Here’s a picture of my filter from the outside in…Now how a RO machine works I have no idea but I not sure if they use a micron filter like mine or like the one at the start of this thread !
Have a good one Dave…
DangerousDave / " Son of Ettore "
Hmm… Quite possibly, I have the type in the first post, it was dirty all the way through like the pic. Gavin would know…I wish they made a rubber seal for the center so it seated in line, when I took mine apart it was half cocked to one side.
Jeremiah, are you getting big pressure differences between your two pre filters with just water going thru and no pump on at one month?
Thanks Dave, I didn’t know which direction it went. That really helps bud. 
David, Yes I was. I should have known what was going on but I have been running so ragged lately with needing to hire more help I didn’t quite notice how off the pressure was. It must have been 15 to 20 difference in PSI. Stupid I know, I think I am going to make a note to check the pressure difference each job so that doesn’t happen again.
