Whole House Sediment Filters

For most homes, a 20 inch Big Blue housing with a 5 micron cartridge, on city water or a well. It holds roughly twice the dirt of a 10 inch, flows 15 GPM at about 1 PSI of drop, and 5 micron is the industry-standard rating that catches rust, scale, sand and silt 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. One to two person homes can step down to the 10 inch kit.

$145 to $249 for a complete cartridge or spin-down filter; $1,895 for a self-cleaning backwashing tank. Our 10 inch Big Blue kit is $165 and the 20 inch is $195, each with the housing, bracket, wrench and a 5 micron cartridge. The 1 inch Rusco spin-down is $145 and the 2 inch is $249. Ongoing cost is a $45 (10 inch) or $55 (20 inch) cartridge every 3 to 6 months for a Big Blue, and nothing for a Rusco beyond an occasional $65 screen. Add your plumber's time: a Big Blue or Rusco is typically in within 1 to 2 hours.

Every 3 to 6 months for a 20 inch Big Blue cartridge, 2 to 6 months for a 10 inch, and sooner if pressure drops at the taps. City water with occasional rust from main work sits at the long end of that range; a well with steady silt sits at the short end. A Rusco spin-down screen is not replaced on a schedule: you flush it whenever the clear sump shows grit, and the polyester screen lasts years. The backwashing tank has no cartridge at all; Turbidex is rinsed, not consumed.

5 micron for the main-line cartridge. It is the industry-standard whole-house rating: fine enough for rust flakes, scale, sand and silt, open enough to pass 15 GPM. Going to 1 micron sounds better but the cartridge loads up fast and you will be changing it constantly. Coarse screens run the other way: the Rusco ships with a 60 mesh screen (about 250 micron) built for grit, with 140, 500 and 1000 mesh replacement screens if you want finer. Filter at 5 micron and go finer only if a specific particle problem persists.

Only if you are seeing sediment. Most city homes are not, and we say so on the phone. Municipal water is filtered at the plant, so the sediment that reaches a city house is rust and scale shaken loose from old mains during repairs and hydrant flushing, or from your own galvanized pipe. If you get rusty water after utility work, grit in the aerators, or a layer in the toilet tank, a 5 micron Big Blue on the main line stops it. If your complaint is taste or smell, that is chlorine, and you want a carbon filter instead; a sediment filter does not remove chlorine, hardness, lead or PFAS.

Three honest ones: it only removes particles, a cartridge is a recurring cost, and an undersized or too-fine filter costs you pressure. A sediment filter will not touch chlorine, hardness, dissolved iron, bacteria, PFAS or lead, so it is not a substitute for a carbon filter, softener or iron filter. A Big Blue cartridge runs $45 to $55 every 3 to 6 months (a Rusco screen avoids that). And a 1 micron cartridge or a 10 inch housing on a big, dirty supply loads up fast and drops pressure. Sized right, a clean 20 inch Big Blue costs about 1 PSI at 15 GPM.

On the main line where water enters the house, after the meter and any pressure-reducing valve, and before the water heater, softener or carbon filter. That order protects everything behind it: the heater's dip tube and valves, softener resin, carbon media, and every fixture cartridge in the house.

City sediment is rust and scale shaken loose from old iron mains during repairs and hydrant flushing, or from your own galvanized pipe, not sand from an aquifer, so the load is usually light and intermittent. A 5 micron Big Blue on the main line catches it. Your plumber installs isolation valves on both sides so cartridge changes take a few minutes.

After the pressure tank. Never between the pump and the tank, where a loading filter would fight the pump and the pressure switch. After the tank, the 5 micron Big Blue goes first, ahead of any iron filter, acid neutralizer, softener, carbon tank or UV unit, because sand and silt are what wear out those systems.

If you also run a Rusco spin-down, it goes last, after the treatment tanks, where it catches any media a tank lets past. Our sediment filters for well water page walks through the full well layout, including pump screens and wells that turn cloudy after rain.

No. A sediment filter is mechanical: it catches particles you could see settle in a glass. Chlorine and chloramine taste on city water, dissolved (clear-water) iron that stains orange, hardness that leaves white scale, bacteria, PFAS and lead are all dissolved or far smaller than 5 micron, and every one of them passes straight through a cartridge, a screen, and a Turbidex bed.

Chlorine wants a carbon filter, iron wants an iron filter, hardness wants a softener, bacteria want UV. The sediment filter's job in those systems is to protect them, so it goes ahead of them. Send us a water test and we map the order free.

Big Blue kit: the Pentair Pentek housing (1 inch NPT female ports), the mounting bracket, the housing wrench, and a 5 micron polyspun cartridge already seated in the housing. Fittings, isolation valves and Teflon tape are not included. Rusco spin-down: the housing with its 60 mesh polyester screen and flush ball valve, shipped bare. Both Ruscos are slip x slip PVC bodies for solvent-weld connection; your plumber adds slip x FPT bushings to meet a threaded line. No bushings or fittings are included.

Backwashing tank: the 13 x 54 Vortech tank (empty), the Fleck 2510SXT valve with a stainless 1 inch bypass, the Turbidex media in separate bags, and a fill funnel for loading the media at install. Drain tubing is not included; the plumber runs 1/2 inch flexible tubing to a floor drain or standpipe.

On a well with treatment tanks, the Big Blue goes first and the Rusco goes last. The 5 micron cartridge is the first stage after the pressure tank so sand and silt never reach an iron filter, acid neutralizer or softener; the Rusco sits after those tanks, where its 60 mesh screen catches any media a tank lets past and flushes it out in seconds.

On a supply with heavy coarse sand and no treatment tanks, a Rusco on its own does the bulk removal and a Big Blue behind it polishes the fine silt the screen passes. Either way the screen never needs a cartridge, and the cartridge lasts longer for it.

A correctly sized one barely registers: the Big Blue housings pass 15 GPM at about 1 PSI of drop with a clean 5 micron cartridge, and the 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 is loaded with sediment and overdue for a change, or a filter that is undersized or too fine for the load (the classic 1 micron mistake). If pressure sags weeks after each new cartridge, that is the signal to step up to the 20 inch housing, add a Rusco for the coarse grit, or move to the backwashing tank, not to live with it.

When sediment is continuous and heavy enough that a cartridge clogs every few weeks, the math flips. The backwashing unit is a 2.5 cubic foot 13 x 54 inch Vortech tank holding 2 cubic feet of Turbidex media (the rest is backwash freeboard) and the Fleck 2510SXT valve rinses the trapped sediment to the drain automatically. There is no cartridge to buy; Turbidex is a long-life media that is backwashed, not consumed.

The trade-offs are real, which is why we do not lead with it: it costs $1,895, needs a floor drain, a 110 to 120V outlet and about 10 GPM of supply during backwash, and it is a longer plumber job because the tank ships empty and the media is loaded at install. It serves 12 to 15 GPM continuously and carries a 5 year valve and 10 year tank warranty. It is the right call for turbid wells and homes that are done changing cartridges; it is almost never the right call on city water.