A Backwashing Filter is a much larger version of a sediment except you don’t need to change the backwashing filter when it gets dirty. It cleans itself- automatically. If you have high levels of sediment, debris or if your water presents cloudy having high turbidity then it’s likely you would be best served with an automatic backwashing filter instead of a filter that you would need to change.
Carbon Filters are very commonly used for removing odors as well as the disinfecting products such as chlorine or Trihalomethanes typically found in city supplied water. A carbon filter can be smaller to fit into a sediment type housing or they can be large in the case of a 13 X 54 tank. A tank would be filled with special activated carbon designed to absorb these materials. Carbon has a very large surface area and therefore has the capacity to process a large quantity of water. However, at some point the active sites on the carbon become exhausted and the old carbon needs to be replaced with new.
A specialty carbon filter designed to remove hydrogen sulfide odor is the Kinetico Sulfur Guard filter. (www.kinetico.com) Using a specific type of activated carbon, the system is designed to re-activate the carbon thru the use of hydrogen peroxide. This is a permanent odor eating system that does not require regular carbon replacement as mentioned above. Results with this system for removing even the most severe hydrogen sulfide odors are exceptional.
Arsenic Filters: Arsenic(As) is a natural metal element found in the earth’s crust. While its presence can be a result of industrial or wastewater pollution, in the vast majority of situations it is naturally occurring in the ground and subsequently the groundwater. There is media that is designed to remove arsenic from water. Similar in behavior to carbon, there are active media sites that the arsenic attaches to. After a significant volume of water – typically several years worth – the active sites on the media are consumed and the media needs to be replaced.
