How To Make Sediment Filter

Written by: Gene Fitzgerald // Concluding Updated: Mar 14, 2022

Please note: This page may contain affiliate links. If you lot buy a product or service through such a link we earn a committee at no additional cost to you. Learn more than about our product review process or check our FTC chapter disclosure.

Is it possible for you to make your own DIY whole house h2o filter in order to salve money, and if and then how? Also, are there any drawbacks to this? What are the things that y'all accept to consider? Where do you even start?

We are going to respond these and many more questions in the following article. Ready to take on your next DIY project? Let's go!

Contents

Why build your own home water filtration arrangement in the first place?
How to make your own DIY whole house water filter
- Having your water tested
- What you will need
- Arrangement components
- The Setup

Why Build Your Own Home Water Filtration System in the Offset Place?

Pros

About chiefly, you volition salve quite a lot of money when you exercise everything yourself. Whole house water filters are not exactly cheap.
You volition become a water expert forth the way and know your system by center which makes installation, filter replacements and troubleshooting then much easier.
You are costless to choose any components you want. If you prefer catalytic over activated carbon, bully. If you don't consider a postal service-filter to be necessary, non a problem!
All that'south needed apart from the filters are common plumbing supplies that you tin can get at your local hardware store at a low price. You might fifty-fifty exist able to apply some of the erstwhile materials that are currently gathering dust in your garage.
You tin can make modifications later on if you like.

Cons

You cannot exist 100 percent certain nearly the filtration effectiveness of your system without having the filtered h2o tested by a certified lab which is costly.
Information technology requires time.

A Word of Circumspection:

Many of the DIY water treatment methods that you tin read about online might be suited for emergency situations where make clean water is inaccessible. Still, they don't provide a good for you drinking h2o solution in the long run for two reasons:

They are impractical and don't evangelize a sufficient amount of water for whole house use – think drinking, cooking, showering, laundry.
They miss many of the potentially harmful contaminants that might be lurking in your h2o.

Bottom line: NSF-certified filters are still the best way to ensure that the h2o in your dwelling is clean and rubber.

How to Brand Your Ain DIY Whole House Water Filter

It's fourth dimension for you to larn how you can build your ain whole house water filtration system. First, we will get into the benefits of having your water tested before we even first thinking near what your perfect organization could look like. And then you go a list of tools and other components that are required. And finally, you will learn how to prepare everything up step past step.

Having Your H2o Tested

It's simple: You cannot know what filtration requirements yous have without knowing the status of your h2o. This is why it'due south always a good idea to have your water professionally tested.

Water Testing Report

It also makes a difference if you are on well or metropolis water. Nigh city waters, for instance, contain either excess chlorine or chloramine used for disinfection. Well water on the other hand might incorporate large amounts of sediment, iron, manganese and hardness minerals.

Lesser line: If you want to make sure that y'all get the cleanest and safest water possible, acquit the testing first and then that y'all know what yous are dealing with. Then y'all can cull filtration components appropriately.

What Y'all Will Demand

Information technology goes without saying that you lot take to have some very basic plumbing skills for this to work. Or at least you should exist somewhat handy with tools – everything else y'all tin can learn by doing.

Oh, and a picayune bit of patience wouldn't hurt either…

Other than that, here is a list of tools and accessories that you volition need:

Tools & Accessories

Drill
Drill bits
2x adjustable wrench
Pipe cutter or hacksaw
Bucket
Teflon tape
Screwdriver
Solder supplies (optional)
Mounting brackets (not always)
Tubing
Close-off valves
Bypass valves (optional)
Pressure gauges (optional)
Different kinds of connectors, e.k. push fittings, elbows, tees, …

plumbing wrenches

System Components

The basic idea is to take multiple carve up whole house filters and connect them in serial. Thereby yous can choose betwixt housings that tin adapt 10″ or 20″ cartridges that are either 2.5″ or 4.5″ (big blue) in bore.

These are industry standard sizes meaning that almost every company on the marketplace has cartridges made that fit these housings. In other words, they are interchangeable. This has 2 benefits:

You can choose from an infinite selection of filters specialized in nitrate reduction, arsenic reduction, atomic number 82 reduction – whatever yous require.
You can make huge savings as many no-name products are much more affordable than what you accept to pay for a cartridge of the same quality sold by one of the popular brands.

Thus you want to stay abroad from proprietary filters and housings. They won't fit annihilation else so that the manufacturer can accuse a lot more for them.

Past the manner, the larger the filter size, the greater the maximum menstruation charge per unit. 2.v″ x 10″ might provide 5 gallons of filtered water per infinitesimal which is ordinarily not sufficient for whole business firm utilize.

With two.5″ 10 xx″ you tin near double that menses rate. 8-x gpm should exist plenty for larger homes with 2-3 bathrooms. If you want to go even bigger than that, opt for 4.v″ x xx (10)".

A bigger filter too has the advantage that it requires less frequent replacements.

Whatever filter(s) y'all get for, it's always all-time if they were tested and certified confronting NSF Standards (42 and/or 53) which guarantees filtration effectiveness.

Step-Down Sediment + Carbon Filtration

Filter Chain Example

Pace-downwardly filtration is for applications with multiple (sediment) water problems. For case:

Yous can apply 3-stages of filtration starting with a 20-micron sediment pre-filter, followed past 5-micron and lastly a 1-micron filter stage.

The pre-filter volition trap larger particles to protect all subsequent filter stages from clogging prematurely. If you are on a well supply, y'all might take to start with a fifty-micron pre-filter to remove sand, dirt and rust before everything else.

FYI:

one micron is a thousandth of a millimeter. As you probably have already guessed, a filter rated at i micron can also capture particles downwards to a size of one micron, such as leaner. Thus a smaller micron rating indicates a more than thorough filtration.

The dilemma: The smaller the micron rating, the lower the water flow rate. Now keep in mind that a whole house filter has to provide enough water for your entire home. Therefore, sufficient water flow is mandatory unless you don't heed a drop in pressure level when using multiple h2o outlets at the aforementioned time. What's more than, each boosted filter volition contribute to the menstruation/pressure decrease.

You tin can besides mix in 1 or 2 activated carbon filter stages for improved h2o taste & smell (and condom) – in fact that'due south what we recommend. Y'all have the choice betwixt granular carbon and a carbon block filter. Both are great at removing chemicals like chlorine and its byproducts. They likewise help with other natural and constructed compounds – remember pesticides, heavy metals such every bit lead, chromium, arsenic, nitrates and so on.

If your urban center supply uses chloramine instead of chlorine for water disinfection, regular activated carbon won't suffice. A much longer contact time would be required to achieve noteworthy results, which is problematic for whole business firm applications. That'south where catalytic carbon comes into play. We like to call it carbon on steroids. It tin finer eliminate chloramine and chloramine past-products and just like regular carbon likewise reduces THMs and VOCs.

Do yous receive water from a private well? Then yous might require a specialized iron/manganese filter or a softener to tackle water hardness. In some cases, well water is also polluted with chemicals and microorganisms from agronomical runoff. Unfortunately, we can't give you more advice than that without knowing your h2o situation.

Featherbed + Shut-Off Valves (Optional)

A shut-off valve before and after the filter setup allow for easier cartridge replacements. And whenever you lot have to service your organization you lot can only open the bypass so that your family still has access to h2o in the entire house.

Force per unit area Gauges (Optional)

Pressure gauges allow you to measure out pressure level before and subsequently your filter chain. If y'all discover a significant drop it'due south time to supersede ane or more of the filter cartridges.

Bleed Connection for Backwashing (Optional)

Particularly if you are on a individual well, a sediment pre-filter has to do a lot of initial work to remove the larger contaminants from your h2o. As a result, it volition clog up quickly and crave more frequent replacements.

This is not just inconvenient, y'all will also have to keep a stock of replacements cartridges or order new ones on a regular basis, both at additional cost.

So consider adding a bleed line connection to your sediment filter(s) for backwashing. This way, whatever trapped sediment that accumulates over time volition be discharged out of the filter trunk. All the same, this does not work with all types of sediment filters, such as solid propylene cake filters. Pleated ones on the other hand are fine.

Using an automated timer-based valve that opens for a infinitesimal or so each solar day fifty-fifty allows for self-cleaning. All that is left for you to practise is check the batteries every once in a while – information technology doesn't get whatever more convenient!

The Setup

The setup itself is pretty straightforward. Because we've already covered how to install a whole house water filter here, nosotros won't get into great detail almost it at present. Just a couple of hints:

Make certain that you lot comply with local plumbing codes.
Avoid outside installation if possible.
Cull a location that's easily accessible and shut to where the main water line enters your home so that you lot have filtered water at every outlet. If you lot desire unfiltered h2o outside, split off those lines before the filtration concatenation.
Become upstream of your water heater.
Start by shutting off the main water supply to prevent major leaks. You also want to drain all remaining water by opening nearby faucets and other fixtures.
The installation itself will require a lot of dry fitting. Push fittings are great if you don't like to solder.
Apply plumber'south tape on all threaded ends for proper sealing.
Be careful not to over tighten any plastic fittings to forbid cracks.
Grease O-rings and make sure that they sit tight.
When washed, bank check for leaks. And so affluent the entire system for several minutes to remove any installation debris. Dissimilar filtering media also require priming. Follow manufacturer instructions here.

On top of that, yous can observe many helpful installation videos on YouTube:

If you have any questions about how to make your own whole business firm h2o filter, please don't hesitate to leave a annotate below!

About the Writer Gene Fitzgerald

Gene Fitzgerald has been with BOS since the very beginning. She is caput of content creation and has fully immersed herself into the dwelling house water handling manufacture merely to become an proficient herself. Exterior of BOS, Cistron loves reading books on philosophy & social problems, making music, and hiking.
Larn more near .

Gene