Water Filter Quality Problems

A few months ago, I wrote about having to replace our 'whole house water filter'. The supply pipe fittings running into the old filter had cracked and we had a mess of shooting, spraying water everywhere, flooding two rooms of our house. We immediately went out and bought a completely new version of the same whole house water filter and I installed it by that night. (All of this happening after being out all day long... it was a long day and night.)

Everything has been fine with this water filter thus far so we have no complaints with this Whirlpool filter itself. The filter cartridges, however...

A few days ago, I noticed that the water pressure was significantly diminished which usually means that the filter cartridge is in need of changing because it is clogged with built-up sediment. No problem... I always have a couple of filters on hand. 

I immediately replaced the filter. I tested the water coming out of our bathroom faucet... everything was back to normal.

Well... within a day or two, the water pressure had dropped significantly again. At this point, I wasn't sure if the water main had a drop in pressure or if it was a problem with our plumbing so I let it go for a few days so I wouldn't waste any time checking all of our plumbing when the issue could have been a water main issue.

It got worse... within a few days, only one fixture at a time could draw water... not good at all.

Since I had just recently replaced the water filter cartridge, the obvious point to check in our plumbing was the new whole house water filter. I opened the cabinet where it is located... pulled out some of the cleaning supplies stored in there with the filter... shined a light on the filter...  no leaks, no obvious problems. Hmmm...

The so-called "premium" filter... lost its shape and bloated...

I shut off the valve leading to the filter... then shut off the valve exiting the filter... turned the switch on the filter to "bypass"... and opened up the cartridge housing so I could pull out the filter. I was thinking that maybe the filter wasn't seated properly and that perhaps I could find a simple remedy to our problem by ensuring the filter was installed correctly... 

The moment I pulled the filter out of the clear housing, I noticed that it was fat and bloated! Hmmmm... in fact, the filter was so bloated that all the pleats in this filter were fully expanded outward and pressing against the sides of the clear housing! It appeared as though the filter had completely lost its form and structural integrity.

As I sat on the floor looking at this filter, I realized it was looking "weird" to me. I seemed to remember that our filters used to have a netting reinforcement wrapped around the filter... hmmm.. this filter just had loose pleats with nothing holding them in place. 

I went to the computer to research compatible filter cartridges. 

Long story short... I had bought the "Premium Carbon Filter Cartridges" for eliminating sediment and chlorine taste. I always prefer to buy the best so I thought it was odd that I was having a problem. The photo with the description looked just like my filters... charcoal color, pleated, no netting. I wasn't going to buy these again so I looked at the other filters available... 

The standard capacity carbon filter... far more robust
than the so-called "premium" carbon filters.

The non-premium standard capacity carbon filter looked much more robust... it was a carbon wrap (rather than pleats that you would normally only see on an air filter) and then wrapped in reinforcing netting. THIS is what I needed. It was time for another run to Lowes.

At Lowes, I again checked my options... they were still selling that crappy pleated filter as the most expensive "premium" filter. I wasn't going to buy that junk again! 

The next level down was the standard capacity carbon filter... a little less expensive but certainly a more robust design... still filtering down to 5 microns... effective for sediment and chlorine odor/taste. This looked far better than those so-called premium filter cartridges so I bought these. (For what it's worth, there were two other basic filters that were less expensive but do not filter well enough for our needs and desires. We could use them but I'd prefer to have the carbon filters to help filter any chlorine taste and odor. Plus, the carbon filter filters down to 5 microns which is far better than the other two types of filters.)

I installed the new carbon wrap filter and everything seems fine... water pressure normal... no noticeable chlorine taste... tastes like filtered water... time for a sigh of relief...

I'm confident that this standard capacity carbon filter will give us no problems whatsoever... hmmm... fairly confident. In this case, the "premium" filter is worthless garbage. I learned the hard way.