charles balchunas

Nov 17, 2015

Timely Delivery, very fair price, and Product that works as advertised

I ordered 2 cu ft of Katalox Lite and 25 Pounds of gravel to replace the resin that was in my existing Iron Filter. The system that I had installed three years ago was a Terminox ISM, 10 x 52 tank with 2 cu ft of Teminiox Resin which is a Budget Water Inc proprietary product. My home was a shallow well serviced with a 1.5 HP jet pump that delivers a flow rate of 24 gpm at 50 psi just past the pressure tank. My water has a hardness of 10 grains and iron content of 5.5 ppm. Budget water recommended the system based upon their water test and the water flow rate data. The system required once a day backwashing of 15 minutes. (even though my water usage was at most 200 gallons a day) The media tank had no gravel--but had what is called a VORTEC system which is designed to better lift the media for backwashing and hence nor requiring gravel. The system reduced iron to zero for over two years--then started to let some iron through. I tried various things based on Budget Water consult but the system continued to let some iron through----the water coming through had just over 1 ppm sometimes as high as 2ppm. Budget water said that the media should last well over 10 years and was ascribing the failure to everything and anything except their product and system SO I decided to try something different. I took apart the system and emptied the resin tank---the resin was caked up very bad inside the tank making it difficult for me to remove----it appears that the resin must not have been lifting and backwashing properly---could be the resin itself--or pehaps the Votec having no gravel bed------it certainly was not water flow---the well puts out 24gpm---passes through a 50 micron sediment filter then into the iron filter--which has a backwash valve that allows a 12gpm backwash flow rate---there is no evidence of iron bacteria or any other matter that might clog the system I received the gravel and Katalox about 4 days after I ordered it-----I relaced the Terminox media with the gravel and Katalox------filled the tank then ran two backwashes------tested the water-----iron content was ZERO---and has stayed at zero for the last two weeks. I set the Autotrol 740 with Logix control to backwash for 15 minutes every second day----I set it to two days because all the references said two day backwash was sufficient---an because my iron content of only 5ppm is miniscule compared to the advertised capability of Katalox media. Because Katalox is a lighter media and because I am using both the Votrtec and gravel---I feel confident that I am getting good media rise/expansion when the system goes into backwash and hopefully will avoid the problem I had with the Terminox Media. Any Input or Advice from you would be appreciated