Water filtration system ideas

LKSF

Member
Mixed Farmer
Does anyone have any ideas or experience of this? Do you know of any Northern suppliers of filtration systems?
We've recently taken on a small holding in NE Lancs which is fed by a borehole. The previous owner didn't go to the extent of fitting a filtration system so we're having to do it. It's cloudy (technical term 'turbidity') has iron and manganese in it. All 3 have roughly 20 times the recommended limit.
We've had quotes of around £3.5 - £4k for the supply only of filters etc. I don't know, but i'm thinking this is a bit excessive and am possibly being quoted Southern general public prices. Anyone with any experience to pass on?
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Iron & Manganese are the usual problems with borehole water. Probably also recommend UV filter to kill any nasties

Dales Water at Ripon will be familier with the problem & solutions. They do work in your area

Ours is sized at 20 cu m day Think the filtration cost was about £3000 6 years ago Also included water softener, ( which uses about 2 pallets salt a year

Cost will vary according to your daily useage

filters.jpg
 

mo!

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
York
We had similar quotes, though not for potable water. The same size and spec filter units were available on ebay for less than half the price. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

e3120

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Iron & Manganese are the usual problems with borehole water. Probably also recommend UV filter to kill any nasties

Dales Water at Ripon will be familier with the problem & solutions. They do work in your area

Ours is sized at 20 cu m day Think the filtration cost was about £3000 6 years ago Also included water softener, ( which uses about 2 pallets salt a year

Cost will vary according to your daily useage

View attachment 1011941
Is there power requirement? I'm going to have to do something for iron and if I site it tacticly I would only have to filter 10% of the pump output. But no power there. Maybe the cost wouldn't be much smaller than for the whole volume.

It's amazing that we all seem to be bang on 20 cube a day ;)
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Is there power requirement? I'm going to have to do something for iron and if I site it tacticly I would only have to filter 10% of the pump output. But no power there. Maybe the cost wouldn't be much smaller than for the whole volume.

It's amazing that we all seem to be bang on 20 cube a day ;)
In my pic above the black units on the top of the cylinders need power. They back flush the cylinders every 24 hours which keeps them maintainace free. Or have done for 6 years so far .
there will probably be options for smaller volumes ?
 

Elliot

Member
Mixed Farmer
have you ever heard about reverse osmosis? water migrates through the semi-permeable membrane away from the dissolved solids. It is this process that is used in reverse osmosis to separate dissolved salts and minerals from your feed water. It’s more effective than using inline filter cartridges (which usually use carbon as filter media) and results in up to 98% rejection of dissolved contaminants.
 

AdamN

Member
Location
West Yorkshire
cost will depend on water requirement and flow rate needed. Filtration costs can vary from <£1000 to > £10k. What you have been quoted doesn't sound excessive but would be worth getting different companies in to quote as different companies do things in different ways using different methods/different products etc. There are a few different companies who cover your area. We can help but we are booked up until the end of Feb
any company who quotes should be asking for the full water analysis as (without going into too much depth) various things can affect the way you have to treat the water. eg pH level can affect how you remove iron/mang.
 

LKSF

Member
Mixed Farmer
cost will depend on water requirement and flow rate needed. Filtration costs can vary from <£1000 to > £10k. What you have been quoted doesn't sound excessive but would be worth getting different companies in to quote as different companies do things in different ways using different methods/different products etc. There are a few different companies who cover your area. We can help but we are booked up until the end of Feb
any company who quotes should be asking for the full water analysis as (without going into too much depth) various things can affect the way you have to treat the water. eg pH level can affect how you remove iron/mang.
Do you think those prices are fair for supply only? We do have a recent water test report, that's how we know we're only filtering 3 things.
It's a 4 bed house, normally with 2 people living in it, one tap passes 18 Lpm.

It does seem a bit of a minefield, someone has just quoted and suggested fitting a 2cum tank, I have no idea why yet and no-one else has suggested this. So his suggested system needs 3 pumps.
They all also add on UV to the quotes at circa £600, even when we've specifically said we don't need it.

Quote us if you're interested, you're only 45 mins an 19 miles away.
 
Last edited:

AdamN

Member
Location
West Yorkshire
Do you think those prices are fair for supply only? We do have a recent water test report, that's how we know we're only filtering 3 things.
It's a 4 bed house, normally with 2 people living in it, one tap passes 18 Lpm.

It does seem a bit of a minefield, someone has just quoted and suggested fitting a 2cum tank, I have no idea why yet and no-one else has suggested this. So his suggested system needs 3 pumps.
They all also add on UV to the quotes at circa £600, even when we've specifically said we don't need it.

Quote us if you're interested, you're only 45 mins an 19 miles away.
Supply only does seem on the high side but it could be they are quoting bells and whistles for you.

With ref to UV, it is always recommended to have it, natural water changes regularly and without that protection of a UV there is a chance of drinking contaminated water if the aquifer changes in someway. If we were to quote we would also quote UV - if you specifically said you didn't want UV treatment there would be a caveat in the quote should the council ever come and test your water and it fail.
We cant install anything until beg march onwards so if you're happy to wait a few weeks then we can quote. We would need more information about your water though to be able to quote. please send us your analysis and we can have a look for you.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Its the iron filter which puts the price up but what you have been quoted I am not surprised at. The 20 m3 thats been mentioned is not usage but an abstraction limit which if your above EA is likely to charge you for the water. I doubt whether you will actually us 1m3 per day in a domestic sutuation. Obviously different if you have livestock or a horticulture enterprise to provide water for.
 

LKSF

Member
Mixed Farmer
Its the iron filter which puts the price up but what you have been quoted I am not surprised at. The 20 m3 thats been mentioned is not usage but an abstraction limit which if your above EA is likely to charge you for the water. I doubt whether you will actually us 1m3 per day in a domestic sutuation. Obviously different if you have livestock or a horticulture enterprise to provide water for.
No, the filters for turbidity, iron and Manganese are similar in cost. Agreed, there is no way we would use that much, there is a known figure per person for average usage, calculations are based on that + some headroom.
What is EA?
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
The EA is the environment agewncy which supposedly monitors and licences abstraction. A licence is not needed for under 20,000 lites ( 20 Cubes ) a day.
If you are only filtering for drinking a Reverse osmosis filter is fine, but be aware many experts say drinking and cooking with such water can lead to mineral deficiencies. I would not give it to my children on a regular basis, but am not sure how bad it is.
if you are using the water for washing clothes and the iron content is high it may well stain them and consideration should be given to that but a filter capable of delivering sufficient for drinking and clothes washing again need not be too expensive. It is certainly not worth spending large sums to run the bath and flush the toilets, but the may end up looking pretty manky :ROFLMAO:
Just be careful how you plumb in the filters, they will remove al bacteria but you do not want unchlorinater water left in the system too long with out flushing as you may get issues and also be aware of the risks of Legionaires from running hot water systems on unchlorinated water
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
As mentioned above the system I have is rated at 20 cu m day (Though we only ever use 19 max ;) )

If you only have 1 house / 2 people then you will be using maybe 1 cu m day.

So a much more modest system.

Does your borehole pump provide the system pressure. ? Sounds like your man with the tank is going to use a pump on the surface to provide pressure. Overkill for what you need unless he thinks your pump down the bore is inadequate
 

gmgmgm

Member
Mixed Farmer
If it's just for filters, then £4k sounds a lot. Our borehole water has a PP filter (each one is about £20?) and a UV lamp (perhaps £40). The housings are not sophisticated.

Iron/manganese complicates things, but still shouldn't make the cost 10x. Google "well pump filters" for the US equivalent, to see many more images of their setups, and how simple they can be.
 

LKSF

Member
Mixed Farmer
As mentioned above the system I have is rated at 20 cu m day (Though we only ever use 19 max ;) )

If you only have 1 house / 2 people then you will be using maybe 1 cu m day.

So a much more modest system.

Does your borehole pump provide the system pressure. ? Sounds like your man with the tank is going to use a pump on the surface to provide pressure. Overkill for what you need unless he thinks your pump down the bore is inadequate

The pump in the borehole is just a lifter pump and wouldn't survive if used flat out to serve the house. It takes the water as far as a bladder tank which uses a compressor to pressurise it and send it to the house.
 

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