Our well water has manganese in it. Enough to be annoying. The water softener no doubt gets some of it, but, clearly, not all of it.

The local water treatment folks are coming out tomorrow morning. In conversation, today, their recommendation, if they feel the manganese is enough to require additional treatment, will be a greensand filter system.

In doing our homework, we keep running across the comment that such systems require a lot of maintenance.

The unit he showed us does automatic back-flushing, but, the articles we're reading are talking about regular (?) regeneration with potassium permanganate? Apparently a manual process?

So, anybody here (ever) have one and, if so, what's the scoop?

I don’t have green sand. But I just installed this in my house. I can’t say how good it works yet as I just installed it. I did it mainly for iron but it’s supposed to remove manganese also.

https://www.amazon.com/iSpring...tag=ispringwate03-20

No maintenance other than replacing cartridges. I do have to mention mine leaked between filter based and I’ve seen other reviews stating this issue. The company is sending me a new head machine (the 3 filter bases that are connected. But I ended up taking it all apart and fixing it myself using Teflon tape and tightening the bases better. It was a pain that I should not have had to do. Also if you go this route the recommend like 15 wraps of Teflon on you NPT connectors. Just as an fyi. Seems excessive.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
No maintenance other than replacing cartridges.

Yes, but, note, on that page:

quote:

... this whole house water filtration system will NOT reduce Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) ...

Manganese, until exposed to sufficient oxidizer, will remain in solution. That's what a greensand filtration system does: Exposes the water to sufficient oxidizer such that the manganese is precipitated out of solution so it can be filtered.

I had one at my old house in NC to remove iron. It was basically, throw a chlorine tablet in the bucket every three weeks or so.

Ours back flushed every other night. Four people in the house, with a 20 something who took motel showers.

My dad set it up cause he was in the business.

I bought a bucket of the tablets once a year at a local water company.

The hard part was remembering to add another tablet. So I put a calendar on the wall in the garage next to the system.

Never had to add more sand or anything else.

I plumbed it to run to the ditch out by the street so the backwash(chlorinated water) wouldn’t go into my septic. It never even browned the grass in the ditch.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
No maintenance other than replacing cartridges.

Yes, but, note, on that page:

quote:

... this whole house water filtration system will NOT reduce Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) ...

Manganese, until exposed to sufficient oxidizer, will remain in solution. That's what a greensand filtration system does: Exposes the water to sufficient oxidizer such that the manganese is precipitated out of solution so it can be filtered.

I don’t have an answer to this since that say it reduces manganese. I only bought it to reduce the rust stains in the toilets. It may be worth asking the manufacturer.

Update

The guy was just out here. Tested the water. (Both raw [softener bypassed] and softened.) Our manganese level is low. Low to moderate are ideal for a greensand filter.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I had one at my old house in NC to remove iron. It was basically, throw a chlorine tablet in the bucket every three weeks or so.

Sounds like a CR (continuous regeneration) system. The other is IR (intermittent regeneration).

These guys do neither. They simply replace the media every so many years. They say the media (Greensand+) has an average life expectancy of three years.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I plumbed it to run to the ditch out by the street so the backwash(chlorinated water) wouldn’t go into my septic. It never even browned the grass in the ditch.

Ours will go into the septic system. No reasonable way around it. The water guys (they've been in the business in the area for decades) claim it won't harm the septic system.

So we're going ahead with it. It's spendy ($3k), but, the manganese thing has gotten old. The good news is we can order via Costco. We'll get a 10% rebate, another 4% cash back using our new Costco VISA card, and extended warranties on some components.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
I don’t have an answer to this since that say it reduces manganese. I only bought it to reduce the rust stains in the toilets. It may be worth asking the manufacturer.

That quote was from their product page on Amazon. I know how manganese in well water works. Studied it extensively when, twenty-five years ago, a deeper well was put in (that's when the manganese first reared its ugly head) and again since yesterday.

If it works for you, that's all that really matters. I know it wouldn't work for us. But, thanks for mentioning it, nonetheless.