What’s the Micron Level of your whole house water filter system

WHY DOES MY TAP WATER TASTE LIKE DIRT, METAL, CHLORINE?

Hey everybody, James again from Jila Water, we’re talking about microns.

We get a lot of questions from Brisbane homeowners that refer to microns. What is and why is it so crucial in water filtration systems? So today, we’re going to dive into that a little bit to help you understand what a micron is firstly and then explain what we mean by a unit of measure. So when we’re looking at getting rid of particulate in a water supply, for example, We go through a series of filter cartridges; these are sediment cartridges, typically that we’re doing dealing with particulate can have a specific size to it.

And depending upon the load of particulate in the water that you’re filtering, we might want to use a specific micron-rated filter so that we capture that stuff before it goes downstream. A sediment filter is kind of like your screen door at home. We want to get the airflow, but we don’t want the flies.

So we have a mesh that stops the flies but allows the air to flow through. Well, a sediment filter works the same way except for the debris, and the particulate that we’re trying to get out is a lot smaller. So when we get below a level of 35 microns, that’s when we’re not going to be able to see it without a microscope to help us.

So a filter that is rated to remove debris three at 25 or 20 or 10 microns, as you can imagine, that’s getting pretty small, and these filters are almost. Silent, except, they have a specific poor structure that allows the water to flow through but captures that particulate at that particular site. So the question is, what’s the best filter or what’s the best micron size filter for me?

What, should I use? Well, that’s going to depend on your water supply. For example, suppose I’m treating well water. Typically, I’m going to expect some dirt and debris to come out of that. Well, water. Usually, we would start with maybe a 20 micron there, but the thing to always keep in mind with this type of filtration is every water supply every well is going to be doing.

It’s going to be different, even on an invisible supply. Brisbane is a great example where that dirt and debris are super fine. Well, in Brisbane, we’re going to want to filter. That might even be down to one micron, like what’s found in the Jila Water whole house water filter systems, to capture all of that fine particulate. So there’s a little bit, it’s going to vary from place to place.

Another consideration for a micron-rated filter will be, are you what you’re trying to get out of them? A lot of times, we’re, uh, protecting our household from cysts. Cysts are parasitic bacteria that can wreak havoc with you and make you very, very sick. Most local councils and water suppliers worked very hard to keep that out of your water supply.

Cysts can get into the city’s water supply. So it’s good to have a whole house water filter system from the point of view. That is rated for cyst reduction and typically has a micron rating of one or less, but the filter should also be tested and certified for that SIS reduction. So a question comes up a lot about pressure drop. The pressure drop refers to what pressure is going into the filter versus how much pressure is coming out.

The filter. And the difference is pressure drop. So anytime you’re going to flow water through some media, like, this blown metal filter or, or a resin bonded filter, as you can imagine, there’s going to be a level of restriction. So the water is going to have a little bit of restriction going through the filtration media.

Now from a sediment filter standpoint, that pressure drop is how we determine it’s when it’s time to change the filter because it’s collected enough to breathe. So that pressure drop has increased out of the box. Typically there’s not a lot of pressure drop through these when that pressure drop gets bigger.

That’s a good indication that we’ve collected enough dirt on the filter that it’s now becoming more and more restricted. And we’re losing pressure. Another thing to look for in terms of micron rating is the terms nominal and absolute. Most filters are going to be nominal, but you can buy them. The difference is nominal would be associated with the word about, so a nominally rated filter, uh, will have a plus or minus factor.

It will allow a certain percentage of, let’s say it’s a five-micron filter. It’ll allow a portion of five-micron debris through an absolute filter that is over 95% efficient, which means it’s not going to let hardly any of that micron rating through. So very simply nominal is about and, the absolute is what it is when it comes to filtering ratings.

So if you have an instance where you have to get a certain level of debris out of the water, you might want to look at an absolute filter over a nominally rated filter. Well, that’s all I’ve got on micron-rated filters fitted to all of our Jila Water Whole House Water Filtration Systems.

So remember when fitting a whole house water filter system to your home ask the experts and get the right system and micron for your family’s needs.

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