Your Cart is Empty
Whole House Sediment Filters
Whole house sediment filters for well water and city supply: backwashing media filters on Clack and Fleck valves that clean themselves to drain, sand trap filters that pull grit out before it reaches the pump controls, and Big Blue cartridge housings for finer polishing. Sediment is the first stage of every treatment train; it protects the softener, iron filter, UV lamp and every valve behind it. Shipped free, 5-year valve and 10-year tank warranty on backwashing systems. Sand trap, backwashing or cartridge? Micron ratings and sizing are below the products.
Which sediment filter for your water
Sediment means anything suspended in the water: sand and grit from a well that pumps fines, silt and clay that make water cloudy (turbidity), rust flakes from old iron pipe, and the precipitate that forms after a chlorination or air-injection stage. The right filter depends on how coarse it is and how much there is. Grit and sand want a sand trap or a backwashing media bed, which can hold pounds of material and flush it out; cloudy water wants a finer media; a trace of fines on city water wants a cartridge. Put a 5-micron cartridge on a well that pumps sand and you'll change it weekly.
| Type | Catches | How it clears | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sand trap (centrifugal / settling tank) | Sand, grit, coarse particles, 50 micron and up | Particles settle in the tank; purge from the bottom valve on a schedule. No media, no backwash, no power. | Wells that pump sand; first stage ahead of a backwashing filter or softener. |
| Backwashing media filter (Clack or Fleck valve) | Silt, turbidity, fine sand, rust, precipitated iron; down to ~5 micron with Turbidex, ~20 with Filter Ag Plus | Automatic valve reverses flow on a schedule and flushes the bed to drain. Media lasts 5–10 years. | Most wells; cloudy water; any home where cartridges clog too fast. The workhorse. |
| Cartridge housing (Big Blue) | Whatever the cartridge is rated for: 50, 20, 5 or 1 micron | Replace the cartridge every 3–6 months; drops pressure as it loads. | City water polishing; final stage after a media filter; pre-filter for UV or RO. |
| Spin-down (screen) | Sand and grit, 50–1,000 micron | Open the flush valve; the screen rinses in seconds. No cartridge to buy. | Light grit on a well; irrigation lines. Call us; we size these with the sand trap. |
Backwashing media: Filter Ag Plus or Turbidex?
Both backwashing systems on this page let you choose the media. Clack Filter Ag Plus is a lightweight clinoptilolite media rated to about 20 microns with very low backwash requirements, which suits wells with modest pump output. Turbidex is a denser zeolite rated to about 5 microns, so it clears cloudy water a cartridge would need to handle, at the cost of a higher backwash rate. If your water is gritty but clear, Filter Ag Plus; if it's cloudy or you're polishing after an iron filter, Turbidex.
Sizing: it's the backwash rate that bites
Service flow is set by the tank: a 10″ tank handles about 7–10 GPM, 12″ 10–12 GPM, 13″ 12–15 GPM. The number most people miss is the backwash flow the well pump must deliver to lift the bed and rinse it: roughly 5 GPM for a 10″ tank, 7 GPM for 12″, 10 GPM for 13″ (Turbidex needs more than Filter Ag Plus). A filter that never backwashes properly packs solid within months. Check your pump's output at the pressure tank before choosing a diameter, or send us pump horsepower and pressure-tank size and we'll match it.
| Home | Service flow | Tank | Backwash required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 bathrooms | 7–10 GPM | 10″ × 44″ or 10″ × 54″ | 5 GPM |
| 2–3 bathrooms | 10–12 GPM | 12″ × 48″ | 7 GPM |
| 3–4 bathrooms | 12–15 GPM | 13″ × 54″ | 10 GPM |
Sediment filters: Clack and Fleck side by side
| Configuration | Clack | Fleck |
|---|---|---|
| Backwashing sediment filter, 1.25–2.5 cu ft, Filter Ag Plus or Turbidex | Backwash Sediment Filter (WS1 valve; from $999) | Fleck 2510 AiQ Sediment Filter (from $1,199) |
| Sand trap, 8″ to 18″ tanks | Sand Trap Sediment Filter (from $699); fits ahead of either valve | |
| Cartridge, 10″ or 20″ Big Blue, ¾″–1.5″ | Big Blue housing with 5-micron cartridge (from $156) | |
| Turbidity and tannin media systems | Crystal Quest turbidity filter · Crystal Quest tannin filter (for tea-colored water that stays colored in a glass) | |
Where it goes
First, after the pressure tank and before everything else: sand trap (if needed), then the backwashing sediment filter, then iron or sulfur treatment, softener, carbon, and UV last. A Big Blue cartridge is often added as a final polish just ahead of a UV lamp or an RO, where 5-micron clarity matters. The full order is on the well water filtration systems page.
Frequently asked questions
What micron rating do I need? Sand and grit: 50–100 micron. Silt and cloudy water: 5–20 micron. Pre-filter for UV: 5 micron. Pre-filter for RO: 5 micron, often 1 micron final. Finer is not better on its own: a 1-micron cartridge on silty well water clogs in days.
Is a sediment filter enough for well water? On its own it handles grit and cloudiness. It does nothing for dissolved iron, hardness, sulfur odor or bacteria, which need an iron filter, softener, sulfur filter or UV. Most wells end up with a sediment stage plus one or two of those.
Backwashing filter or cartridge? Backwashing when there's enough sediment that you'd be changing cartridges monthly, or when the water is cloudy; cartridge for a trace of fines on clean water or as a final polish. Many homes run both.
Will it fix orange staining? Only if the iron is already oxidized (red water). Clear-water iron that stains later is dissolved and passes straight through a sediment filter; that needs an iron filter or softener.
How often does it backwash? Typically every 3–7 days, set on the valve; more often on heavy sediment. It uses 50–100 gallons per cycle.
Not sure what's in the water? Call 800-374-2143 or send a water test and pump details. Related: well water filtration · iron filters · retention tanks · filtration media.
