On Sep 8, 11:42*pm, Eric in North TX wrote:
On Sep 8, 10:24*pm, gwandsh wrote:





We have a rural cabin with a well, which unfortunately taps a pretty
mean iron vein. *Our tap water had significant metallic taste and
water would eventually leave a pink residue as the iron oxidized. *It
is potable, just not pleasant.

I plumbed in a whole-house filter that runs water from our pressure
tank through a large cartridge filter before hitting our pipes. *We
have been using a larger pore carbon filter for the unit (options
include just particle filters, down to tiny pore options). *The
resulting water is clear, tastes and smells great.

We can get to this cabin only on weekends, and I have noted that we
get about 6 weeks of decent filtering from a cartridge before it needs
changing. *We do have a tap filter on the kitchen sink for drinking
water, but I prefer to keep the iron out of the hto water tank and
faucets where possible.

So my question is: *When we leave the place for 4-5 days at a time, is
it better to leave the filter cartridge in place, or remove it until
we return. *The first choice would leave it sitting in iron rich
water, possibly clogging it up. *The second allows it to dry out, but
perhaps also letting the iron "set" in the filter pores.

We asked the place where we buy filters, and their "tech" saild it
really didn't matter for that lenfth of time. *But for $65 a pop for
the cartridges, I'd like to see if we can get as much use from them as
possible.

Anybody been down this road and have any first hand info to share?

Tnx

My experience with water filters is: buy the 2 for $4 ones at Walmart
and change them once a month. We do that with 2 people 5 cows and 50
trees pulling on the water supply. The setup I finally ended up with
was 4 filters, 2 pair in parallel. That makes for 2 that get change
monthly and 2 that get changed 2 times a year. You can get by with a
lot cheaper filter if you strain it twice.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Same boat here. I'm in a rural area and have well water, but
unfiltered it has a lot of metals in it. I also have the pink residue
that you mentioned.

I have a whole-house filter, and have been using filters that are
supposed to last for 6 months, but I can taste a difference in the
water after 4-6 weeks.

For me, the 2 for $4 filters from Wally World last about a week. I get
the ones from Lowes that are more like 2 for $12; I figured that $12
for 2 or 3 months isn't horrible.

I had a very feasible solution presented to me a few weeks that I
intend to try, and it may help you, too. The suggestion was to buy a
water heater and connect it to the cold pipes, but don't hook up the
heating elements. This way, the tub will fill with water, and all of
the heavy elements will sink to the bottom while the pipes pull from
the top! I use the same logic when I change the water in my fish
tanks, so this seems like a good long-term solution for a few hundred
dollars (or less).

To answer your actual question, though, I would think that removing
the filters would give them more life, but I've never been in your
position so I can't be sure.

HTH,

Jason