Cottage owners and homeowners always ask us, “What is the cheapest way to remove dirt from your lake or well water?”

It’s a popular question, but a better question may be, “What is the best way to remove dirt from my water.”

The cheapest way isn’t always the best way. The trade-off is that there is often more work and less success associated with cheaper solutions.

With that in mind, here are the cheapest and best solutions to choose from.

Cheapest: A Sediment Filter

The cheapest way to remove dirt from your water is just to use a simple sediment filter (polypropylene filter) which we have available here. They are available in different microns. You can go with the coarse one that's 50 microns, or you can go with finer ones that are 5 Microns.

We even have some great filters that are dual gradient filters. These have a coarser filter on the outside and a finer filter inside like these.  

One of the issues with these is that, if you have a lot of sediment in your water, you have to make a choice. If you go with a course one, then the finer particles will still get through and you're still going to have to deal with that. On the other hand, if you go with fine ones, they are going to clog too quickly.

These are OK, if you’re not spending a lot of time at your cottage. Maybe a week or two a year, and you’re used to a certain amount of work to open and close your cottage. Swapping your filter out can be a part of that process.

But, if this is a full-time home, or somewhere you’re going to use a large volume of water, you will probably want something more effective and less work.

Better Option: Spin Down Filter

If you’re looking for something more effective, you can go with a spin-down filter.

Basically, these are installed as the water line comes from the well, before the pressure tank, so the water flows in one side and flows out the other side, while using centrifugal force to flush the dirty water out of the bottom. Check out our spindown filter here 

This is more effective than just a sediment filter. However, the finest spin-down filter you’re going to find is 60 microns. That isn’t enough for most families.

On the other hand, you could go with a combination of a spin-down filter and then add the sediment filter after that to do some of the fine filtering. There are a lot of people who do this, and of course, you’re going to see better results than either of these single options alone. However, there is still quite a bit of maintenance.

Best Option: Automatic Backwashing Filter

If you want the best and lowest maintenance solution for your home and family, we recommend an automatic backwashing filter like ourHUM automatic sediment filter.

It’s very simple. It's connected to your plumbing, after the pressure tank. As the water flows through, the dirt accumulates inside. Then after three or four days of use, the system goes through a backwash cycle to flush out all that dirt into the drain. Our customers love this because there is so little maintenance and no filters to change.

Of course, you can combine this system with other components to get even better results. A lot of homeowners that are on well water combine with an ultraviolet disinfection system. They will install their automatic backwash system after the pressure tank, and then go to a fine 5 Micron filter just before the ultraviolet light. This is super low maintenance because the backwash system is going to do all the heavy lifting.

Worst Options

We would not recommend using any of the following:

·A water softener

·A tannin filter

·Chemical injection systems

·A carbon filter

None of these solutions will be effective. We highly recommend using any of the other options we discussed today instead.

Check out our video here:

Do You Have More Questions?

If you have any questions, you can contact usby clicking here.