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Howdy, welcome to the Clean H2o Made Piece of cake Podcast Question & answer episode 5.  My name is Gerry Bulfin, and I'm WQA certified master water specialist & long time water treatment contractor.

Each calendar week on our principal podcast we go deep into various well water treatment systems and water quality issues and bug, merely I also accept these quick Q&A episodes that go over quick questions that folks ask us.

Every day nosotros get a lot of telephone calls, e-mails, chats and I try to selection the nigh interesting 1 and answer it.

Today Karen contacted us through our website and said:

"I want to order and install a h2o fe filter, just it'south in my basement. I don't have anywhere to put the drain for the iron filter, can I run it upward to the 1st floor into my washing auto drain?"

Karen, that'south a very good question, that comes upwardly a lot besides.

Folks put in h2o softeners or fe filters, which require a aftermath or drain line and information technology'due south usually a 1/2″ diameter tube.

The respond is, Yes, you could run it upwards into the washing machine drain, but you may want to use a slightly larger diameter tubing. And be sure to check the flow charge per unit to brand sure the water coming out is at the proper flow rate for that iron filter.

An important point is that you have enough h2o pressure and flow in club to practise that.

So, equally an case: Say, your iron filter is nearly 3 or 4 anxiety alpine, mayhap it's five feet alpine, you know, the size you lot get, and the drain would come off the top. So you can run that up virtually 10 vertical feet without too much trouble, I hateful without having a lot of pressure loss or drop in the flow charge per unit, simply you don't want annihilation restricting your bleed.

When your iron filter backwashes, you want it to go a overnice fast flush and anything that's restricting in your drain line is going to affect how well the atomic number 26 filter gets cleaned. It's truthful with water softeners equally well and other backwashing filters.

There are a couple of things you tin do mitigate this problem, one matter you can do if you have to run the tubing x anxiety or longer, you can upsize the size of the tubing.

Say it is coming out at half-inch but you could convert that to three/4″ or 1″ diameter tubing. With 3/four″ tubing, you're not getting friction loss for that tubing.

Whatever size tubing you lot use, if you need to run the tubing up in height, or a long run beyond a room exist sure to double check the flow rate and make sure yous're getting the rated capacity that you need.

Poly Tubing
Poly Tubing

For example, say you demand ten gallons a minute, y'all want to measure information technology at the tubing where it'south coming out on, near your washing machine to make sure that information technology's backwashing at the right rate.  You tin measure the flow into a 5 gallon bucket and fourth dimension it.  For 10 gallons per minute, the 5 gallon bucket would demand to fill in xxx seconds.

You might exist able to conform your h2o pressure a little bit on your well. Information technology is non going to change the actual flow of your well pump but it has to do with how much h2o pressure yous take and the flow charge per unit yous take already coming from your well pump.

Sometimes folks will realize that they accept a drain but it's on the other side of the room and don't want to run it through the air or through the floor, so they run the tubing upwardly on the wall or the door and then downward into the drain. That'due south okay too, y'all can run information technology sometimes thirty anxiety, only over again, yous wouldn't desire to utilise half-inch, yous'd want to upsize the size of the tubing.

Poly tubing is cheap so y'all can get three/four″ or 1″ tubing and that way you don't have problems with pressure drop in that aftermath tubing.

Okay, I promise that helps some folks out there, that's a mutual question that comes up.

Do you take a question about your well water?

Delight e-mail me at [e-mail protected] and nosotros'll be happy to answer any questions you lot have about your well water or water quality in general!

Guide to Iron Treatment