New Backwashing Filter Uses Half the Water of Conventional Filters

by Gene Franks

Pure Water Products’ new “Green” design backwashing filter for clean city water dechlorination  uses only half as much water as other backwashing filters in the same category.  The secret is in the use of an advanced tank design which requires less water for backwash plus a modified control valve which cuts standard backwash and rinse times in half.

Here’s the situation.  When manufacturers make products for a broad market, they have to accommodate the “worst case” user.  The Fleck 5600 filter control valve,  the most widely used filter valve made and a traditional favorite because of its low cost, reliable performance, and durability, is used for many filtration purposes.

The Fleck 5600 controls granular activated carbon “whole house”  dechlorination and chemical filters, iron filters for wells, acid neutralizing filters, sand and heavy sediment filters, filters for well-water odor control and more.  The 5600 is a “one size fits all” product and its reliable, simple design has no adjustment for backwash and rinse times.  The manufacturer, therefore, has to make the “default”  backwash time long enough to work effectively for the the most severe and demanding situations.  An iron filter, for example, needs a prolonged backwash and a lengthy rinse to remove iron that has built up in its media bed.  The manufacturer, therefore, provides a 15-minute backwash to keep iron filters clean,  plus an extended rinse to settle and reform the heavy filter bed. The long backwash and rinse cycles are necessary and appropriate for iron filters and dense multi-media sediment filters.  They are much longer than needed, however, for regeneration of a carbon filter running on clean city water.

The city water filter needs little backwash time to fluff the relatively light carbon bed and wash away the small amounts of particulate that might have collected.

With that in mind,  Pure Water Products has created standard 5600 backwashing filters that use a specially made “low water” version of the 5600 control that cuts the backwash and rinse times in half.  This “green” version of our filter is used only on standard carbon and Centaur carbon filters that are intended for use with clean city water.

In addition to the low water control valve, these units use the water saving “Vortech” mineral tank that eliminates the need for gravel underbedding and requires significantly less regeneration water.  The use of the advanced Vortech tank allows us to reduce the backwash stream by a full 20%,  which is in addition to the half-as-long backwash and rinse cycles.

This is a product that’s long overdue.  We’re proud to have it now, ready for immediate shipment, on our main website.  See products BW570 and BW571 on our 5600 backwashing filter page.