How to Ensure Regular Maintenance of Drinking Water Filters? It Can Be Completely Worry-Free

If you want to have quality water at home, you usually can't do without a filter. Water from waterworks is full of chlorine and other disinfectants, while water from your own well or borehole can unpleasantly surprise you with mechanical impurities, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Additionally, all water sources contain harmful residues of pharmaceuticals or industrial fertilizers that water treatment plants cannot remove. Installing a home filter solves these water quality issues, but filters also need to be regularly cleaned and replaced. However, it can be completely worry-free. How?

How to Choose a Drinking Water Filter

Before choosing a filter, consider whether you need to filter water throughout the entire house or just at one of the taps. A tap water filter is much cheaper and easier to install, but it can only be recommended for recreational properties or households where water is supplied from the mains. In such cases, filtering water in the kitchen is usually sufficient, which is a great way to remove chlorine from drinking water. However, if you only have water from a well or borehole at home, filtering water at the entry point is absolutely essential for your health. This system is often part of a home waterworks.

Another important selection criterion is the type of impurities that the filter should capture from the water. You can find out the exact composition of the water either from the local waterworks, which is legally obliged to provide you with this information for free, or through a professional water analysis. Types of pollution include:

mechanical,
chemical,
organic.

A water filter can be designed for one type of pollution or be multifunctional. No device is universal, so you must always tailor your choice to your individual needs and the specific composition of the water. Don't fall for sellers who "guarantee" that their filter will remove all unwanted impurities from the water without knowing the composition of your water. That's simply not possible. Consult the selection of water filters with professionals, especially if you are looking for a filter for well water. Proper treatment of well water is always necessary.

We wrote more about choosing water filters in the article How to Choose a Home Water Filter.

Do you really have clean water at home?

How to Clean a Water Filter

Each filter works on a different principle, and its maintenance depends on the type of filter.

A filter for mechanical impurities contains a fine mesh that captures impurities and needs to be regularly cleaned.
Filters designed for water treatment (such as carbon water filters, softeners or hard water filters, iron water filters, nitrate filters, etc.) contain so-called filter cartridges that need to be regularly replaced at intervals specified by the filter or cartridge manufacturer.

Everything about replacing filter cartridges can be found in the article Home Drinking Water Filtration: How to Replace a Filter Cartridge.

Now we will focus on the maintenance of mechanical water filters, specifically on rinsing the mesh.

How to Rinse the Mesh

First, it is important to emphasize that the mesh in water filters should never be cleaned manually, with a sponge or brush. The mesh is so fine that any mechanical cleaning could damage it. Therefore, we always clean the mesh by rinsing, and depending on the type of water filter, this is either a manual or automatic rinse.

You should perform a rinse at least once every 6 months, but if you have heavily contaminated water or your taps are clogging, don't hesitate to rinse more often. A clogged or heavily fouled mesh no longer serves its function. With proper and sufficiently frequent rinsing, water filters will always work correctly and provide you with water of the desired quality without mechanical impurities.

Honeywell Filter Mesh

Manual Mesh Rinse

Before a manual rinse, prepare a bucket, cloth, wrench for unscrewing the mesh, and ideally a spare mesh, which will significantly speed up and simplify your work. Follow these steps:

Turn off the water supply using the valves before the filter entry and at the outlet.
Carefully unscrew the filter using a wrench or by hand. During disassembly, water may leak from the filter, so have a bucket or cloth under the pipe.
Remove the cartridge with the mesh and gently rinse it under running water.
Once the mesh is completely clean, return it to the filter.
Screw the filter back together with the gasket.

If you have a spare mesh, you can insert it into the water filter immediately and rinse the used mesh later.

Manual Mesh Rinse with a Rinse Valve

In the case of water filters with a rinse valve, rinsing is somewhat simpler because you don't have to disassemble the water filter. The procedure is as follows:

Connect a hose with the appropriate diameter to the rinse valve.
Open the valve and let the contaminated water drain into a prepared container. Let the water drain until it runs completely clear.
Disconnect the hose and close the rinse valve.

Automatic Mesh Rinse Saves You Work and Worries

Water filters with automatic rinsing are the most advantageous for many reasons. You can completely forget about the need to clean the mesh, as the filter cleans itself at intervals determined by intelligent software based on various parameters. Although you need to prepare for a higher initial investment with water filters with automatic rinsing, you save yourself work and all worries about its maintenance.

Automatic Backwash Honeywell.

How does automatic rinsing work? These filters use reverse water flow for self-cleaning. In the case of the patented backwash system of Honeywell filters, the filter mesh is rinsed by a bundle of water jets created by a rotating nozzle. This water stream, with its high pressure, removes and flushes away all deposited impurities without damaging the mesh. Small particles of sand, rust, and other impurities simply flow into the waste. What other advantages does this system offer?

Each mesh has an auxiliary part that ensures water supply even during rinsing.
Automatic rinsing is very efficient, reliable, and fast, consuming minimal water during rinsing.
During rinsing, there is no water leakage, so you don't need to prepare containers or cloths anywhere.
You don't have to think about rinsing or set anything, the filter monitors the rinse intervals itself.
Rinsing occurs thanks to intelligent software completely automatically, and due to the uninterrupted water supply, you won't even notice it. Automatic rinsing occurs based on the analysis of various parameters approximately once every two months.
However, if you want to rinse the mesh beyond the necessary maintenance, you can manually start the rinse by turning the control wheel of the drain valve.

NOTE: Not all filters with automatic rinsing have their own control unit. For filters that do not have this software, rinsing must be started manually, i.e., by turning the wheel. Although this is a very simple solution, it is not completely worry-free. If you want to enjoy a truly maintenance-free home water filtration solution, choose filters with a control unit.