Sediment Filter Systems

If your well delivers any visible sediment, yes, and it should be the first stage. Sand, silt, and grit are the number one killer of everything downstream: they foul iron filter media beds, grind softener valves, coat UV quartz sleeves, and clog fixtures and appliances. A $45 to $195 mechanical filter after the pressure tank takes that abuse so the expensive equipment doesn't. The free check: lift your toilet tank lid. A layer of sediment across the bottom means your well needs one.

For most wells, a 20 inch Big Blue housing with a 5 micron cartridge. It holds roughly twice the dirt of a 10 inch, flows 15 GPM, and 5 micron is the industry-standard rating that catches fine sand, silt, and rust without choking flow. The exceptions: visible coarse sand wants a Rusco spin-down screen (reusable, zero cartridge cost), and continuous heavy sediment that clogs cartridges in weeks wants the self-cleaning backwashing Turbidex tank. Dirtiest wells run a spin-down and a Big Blue in series.

Immediately after the well pressure tank, before everything else. The order of a well water treatment train is sediment filter first, then iron filter or acid neutralizer if needed, then softener, then carbon, then UV last. Putting sediment first protects every other stage; putting it anywhere else means sand has already passed through the equipment it was supposed to protect. Never install it before the pressure tank, where a clogging filter would strangle the pump.

Not reliably, and you should not ask them to. Cryptosporidium cysts run 4 to 6 micron and bacteria are smaller still, so a nominal 5 micron sediment cartridge is not a disinfection device. If your well tests positive for coliform or turns cloudy after rain (a surface-influence signal), the right fix is a UV disinfection system downstream, with the sediment filter ahead of it keeping the quartz sleeve clean so the UV dose actually reaches the organisms. Test first; we read results free.

Whenever you can see sand in the clear sump, and weekly on dirty wells. Open the bottom ball valve for 5 to 10 seconds (30 on the 2 inch) and household pressure blows the collected sediment out; no tools, no replacement media. One of our verified Rusco reviewers put it well: 'simply open the ball valve to flush out the collected sediment,' though expect surprising pressure when you open it. The polyester screen lasts years; replacements run about $15 to $40.

5 micron is the industry-standard whole-house rating, and it's what both Big Blue kits ship with. It catches fine sand, silt, and rust fines while still flowing 15 GPM. For a first-stage pre-filter ahead of other equipment, 30 to 100 micron (or a coarse Rusco mesh) catches large debris without restricting flow.

Going finer to 1 micron sounds like an upgrade but usually isn't: the tighter the cartridge, the faster it loads up, and a 1 micron cartridge might clog up pretty quick if there's a lot of sediment. Filter at 5 micron first; step finer only if a specific particle problem persists, and expect more frequent changes when you do.

Every 3 to 6 months under typical residential well sediment loads, and sooner if you notice pressure dropping at the taps. The 20 inch cartridge holds roughly twice the dirt of a 10 inch, so on the same well it goes about twice as long between changes. That capacity difference is the main reason the 20 inch kit is our default recommendation.

Replacement cost: the 20 inch 5 micron polyspun cartridge is $55 and the 10 inch (Pentek WP5BB97P) is $45. If cartridges are clogging in weeks instead of months, stop buying cartridges: add a Rusco spin-down upstream to eat the coarse sand, or step up to the self-cleaning backwashing tank.

Only the iron you can already see. Ferric iron (rust particles) is a solid, so a 5 micron cartridge catches some of it. But dissolved ferrous iron, the clear-water iron that stains fixtures orange after it hits air, passes straight through every cartridge, screen, and media bed on this page. No micron rating fixes a dissolved mineral.

If your water stains orange, smells metallic, or a lab report shows iron at 0.3 ppm or more, you need a dedicated iron filter, and the sediment filter's job is to protect it: sand and grit are the number one killer of iron filter media beds. Sediment first, iron filter second. Send us your test and we'll map the order.

Before. The spin-down's job is bulk removal: its reusable screen catches the coarse sand and grit (down to roughly 150 micron) that would load up a fine cartridge in days, and you flush it clean in seconds for free. The Big Blue's 5 micron cartridge then polishes the fine silt and rust the screen can't see.

On continuously dirty wells this series combo is the best total cost of ownership in the catalog: the $145 spin-down extends Big Blue cartridge life from weeks to many months, which pays for the screen filter several times over in cartridges you didn't buy.

When sediment is continuous and heavy enough that a cartridge clogs every few weeks, the math flips. The backwashing unit holds 2 cubic feet of Turbidex media in a 13" x 54" Vortech tank and the Fleck 2510SXT valve rinses the trapped sediment to the drain automatically. There is no cartridge to buy, ever: Turbidex is a long-life inert media that is periodically backwashed, not consumed.

The trade-offs are real, which is why we don't lead with it: it costs $1,895, needs a floor drain and a standard 110V outlet, and uses about 10 GPM of well supply during backwash. It serves 12 to 15 GPM continuously, carries a 5 year valve and 10 year tank warranty, and is the right call for turbid wells and homes that are done changing cartridges.

A correctly sized one barely registers: the 10 inch Big Blue is rated 15 GPM at just 1 PSI of pressure drop with a clean cartridge, and the full-flow 20 inch housing with 1 inch ports is even harder to bother. Rusco spin-downs flow 1 to 25 GPM (1 inch) and 18 to 100 GPM (2 inch) with minimal restriction.

Pressure loss shows up in two situations: a cartridge that's loaded with sediment and overdue for a change, or a filter that's undersized or too fine for the load (the classic 1 micron mistake). If your pressure sags weeks after each new cartridge, that's the signal to add a spin-down upstream or move to the backwashing tank, not to live with it.

Taste and odor polishing, not sediment. The granular activated carbon cartridges fit the same Big Blue housings as the sediment cartridges, and a popular two-housing setup runs a 5 micron sediment cartridge in the first housing and a GAC cartridge in the second: particles stop first, then carbon polishes chlorine taste and musty odors.

Keep the jobs straight: a GAC cartridge will not catch sand, and a sediment cartridge will not fix taste. And for serious chlorine, chloramine, or sulfur odor problems, a cartridge is a polish at best; that well belongs on a whole-house carbon tank from the carbon collection.