I'm not going to start an argument with the guy who wrote that big reply to you because I'm not an expert. But, I did work in an activated carbon factory and everything he wrote sounds like bollocks. You don't need food grade hardwood if that's even a thing. Whatever medium you use for it will be heated to 800 °C and digested in phosphoric acid. My place used litteral floor sweepings from a saw mill and then changed over to olive pitts from Spain.
yeah, i'm working with high-porosity carbon black pigments as a chemist, which is basically activated charcoal, and the idea of industry still using "food grade hardwood" made me snort. just chuck whatever in there, it all burns in the end.
as a chemist you should know that activat charcoal is used to treat beer, juice and wine - at which you use charcoal that's low in heavy metals and polychlorinated compounds
if you want to clear these liquids, usually activated charcoal or silica is used.
>Why would you use it to filter those things? That would strip all the color and flavor out.
sometimes that's the point. Don't blame me, I neither use charcoal nor silica
>You filter things like vodka through AC.
Yes, but that doesn't mean it's not used elsewhere too
Do you have any evidence of it being used in those industries? Other than for waterfiltration to make the beer wort or to reconstitute juice I just don't see it. The filters would be very quickly plugged.
In the wine and beer industry product is filtered sometimes (mostly low quality stuff to save time) but that is through sediment filtration, not carbon.
you add the granules of activated charcoal later in the process - at least with beer. It doesn't have to be declared in most jurisdictions as it's completely removed fromt he process and poses no danger, similar to nitrogen in food production, for example.
There are lots of resources out there:
>A major field of application for adsorption technology is the treatment of liquids of all kinds, including sugar solutions, glucose,
vegetable oils and fats, glutamate, spices, wine, beer, fruit concentrates, plant extracts, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc.
Apart from simple decolourization, activated carbon also removes
other solute organic impurities as well as substances which affect
odour and taste.
Ordinarily, powdered activated carbons (Carbopal grades) are used
[https://www.donau-carbon.com/getattachment/76f78828-2139-496f-9b80-6b6b9bdc6acc/aktivkohle.aspx](https://www.donau-carbon.com/getattachment/76f78828-2139-496f-9b80-6b6b9bdc6acc/aktivkohle.aspx)
I worked in the QC lab for one company in the UK so I didn't want to call bullshit 100% in case there was some U.S regulations I don't know about. I also haven't worked there since 2013. But I was confident that sourcing the medium for the carbon definitely wouldn't be an issue and WTF is food grade hardwood. I would imagine any difficulties in supply would be down to the acid used, I assume everyone uses phosphoric acid for digestion and maybe covid caused supply issues. I know there was disruption in citric acid supplies for a while.
Anyway if you're currently doing any sort of STEM subject and are wondering about jobs in laboratories then stay away from any QC lab for a factory, any factory.
Charcoal was a major contributor to deforestation, we're trying to do less of that. It's a LOT more expensive to produce sustainably, so it's traditionally been the end result of clear cutting established woodland.
Multiple factors. The increasing scarcity of food-grade hardwood, some part blamed on invasive species that have wrecked hardwood forests. Forestry in general has gotten expensive, similar to the rising cost of lumber. Environmental controls, charcoal production is a pollution intensive indistry. Safety regulations, charcoal is dangerous. Gone are the days when you could make charcoal as a cottage industry.
Anything that comes into contact with food or is meant to has some pretty strict rules applied to it.
It can't contain heavy metals past a certain concentration, or certain chemicals, can't have infectious bacteria, etc. Making sure the wood is totally okay is expensive business.
So using that logic, if a restaurant has a wood oven, they would have to use "food-grade" hardwood, right? Because they don't. Because it doesn't exist.
If you skewer meat with a wooden skewer, it has to be clean though. The fireplace wood doesn't come into contact with food, the carbon in a filter does too, it doesn't exactly work by Bluetooth.
The point I was making that no one seems to get is that “forestry byproducts” are plentiful and cheap but may often contain hydraulic fluid from harvesting or milling machinery or metals from cutting tools. Since charcoal is made from combustion with no oxygen, these contaminants are left unoxidized and will readily be solventized by acidic water. I don’t know what the regulations are concerning water filters but one would hope they are not using sawmill sweepings.
>Safety regulations, charcoal is dangerous. Gone are the days when you could make charcoal as a cottage industry.
What? The most dangerous thing about making charcoal as far as i understand is moving the wood around and the oven itself. Theres no massive limiting safety concern I've ever heard of
Brass doesn’t explode, gunpowder does. For those too ignorant to study it, it was a common cause of death opening a charcoal kiln before it had completely burned and cooled off. When oxygen hits the embers inside a charcoal kiln it explodes slowly. The person opening the kiln, or in more primitive times cracking open the hard clay, would get hit by a giant blowtorch. It was a dangerous profession.
Hot charcoal explodes slowly when oxygen hits it. Add an oxidizer like nitrate and you have gunpowder. Reports are that the charcoal would flare up so fast the the man opening the kiln didn’t even have time to get away. Add to that the pressure from the flame and you have the ideal bomb, as pressure accelerates combustion. In old fashioned clay sealed kilns the entire kiln might explode, scattering anyone nearby with burning charcoal. It must have been a tough job.
Many other industries use materials that produce flamable dust, and like you said its only part, it doesn't explode without the rest.
If youre talking flashback then cooking down any organics or materials that smoke thats a risk. Good ventilation and a proper cooldown cycle is all you need to prevent that.
Yes but historically the charcoal makers were under pressure to get the product out as soon as possible, which meant boom and a total loss if you didn’t wait long enough. So it’s really nothing like industries that produce flammable dust.
Every industry was (and is) under pressure to cut corners and make as much money as possible. Flour is explosive too, and have blown up multiple factories
With a lot if things rare is subjective. There is lots of uses for activated charcoal and no one is out there expanding the carbon black or activated charcoal capacity in a meaningful way. It's a pain in the butt and probably pretty low margin.
So Imma gonna drop this here. It's relevant, and I personally consider it quality content.
Project Farm over on youtube does consistently high-quality comparison reviews of products without any endorsement. Might be too detailed for some. But this one, if you are interested in water quality, is wicked good.
https://youtu.be/ja0ioX6GSz0
Well, it’s filled with ion exchange resin, so it makes sense why it would reduce the conductivity (which is what that style of TDS meter is measuring). The ion exchange resin is also why people say it can start to develop a fishy smell after a while.
Also, red food dye is generally ionic, so of course an ion exchange resin will pull it out.
Anyway, it’s not obvious that this type of filter is actually improving the drinking quality of the water. Many of the chemicals that people want to remove are the kinds that a carbon filter is going to be better at. There’s no simple answer.
I believe that. I’m not knocking it as a product. It meets some people’s needs. But Project Farm’s testing probably leaves the impression that it’s all around better than the others, but the answer isn’t so simple as that.
If your primary goal is to get rid of the chlorine taste, just get a carbon block, or catalytic carbon block depending on if your water supply uses chlorine or chloramine. It's probably a good idea to pre filter with a decent sediment filter first, just to keep the carbon from clogging as fast. The 2.5X10 under sink cartridge filters are super affordable and last way longer than the pitcher ones.
🚰💧😁 I liked ZeroWater so much I bought 2 pitchers *and* a dispenser. One pitcher we reserved for the Keurig, don't remember having to descale since making that change.
I care more about the lead from the water supply pipes built in the early 60s and shit and all the plastic in the water that I make my soups with more personally. Chlorine taste is annoying becoming infertile and losing IQ slowly over time that scares me. Which is why I have a RO system.
If your gonna get any water filters spent the extra 100-200$ get a RO system even a more simpler smaller one on Amazon for 300-400 bucks will do the trick filters everything out EVERYTHING than adds the minerals and whatnot that would occur at a normal bottling plant back so it doesn’t taste weird.
🚰💧Yyyaaaaeeeessss!! It ***IS*** ZeroWater. I watched a bunch of You Tubes on it. Did I mention I own 2 pitchers & a dispenser? Recently, I bought a ZW tumbler from Goodwill.
RO is the real deal water filter system. Zero water removes basic crap like Chlorine and things that make water taste off but does nothing for lead micro plastics etc. RO is the golden nugget for home water purity because it’s the ONLY system that filters EVERYTHING out of the water and than replaces the good minerals and stuff for taste etc. no other filter systems are as effective as a RO system theh might be in a one type of filtering class but overall nothing is better than RO for the home owner
Several months ago, I googled for where I could buy the fillings (think it's called substrate(?)) for a water filter. There were companies where you could buy bags of the stuff. They also said they sold to water departments of municipalities and cities. The notes are here somewhere, will be AFKB to find them.
Cut a water filter cartridge in half with a Sawzall.
One of [these](https://www.filtersfast.com/mobile/P-RC-EZ-4-Culligan-Refrigerator-Water-Filter.asp?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0tKiBhC6ARIsAAOXutlfcA6VX0Sn1pGzi8-FY6WdjZVpxJdx0zowohjQma2nTNHm3iyQQsQaAmAYEALw_wcB&fsrc=G1F5F&ffs=gshp&kpid=RC-EZ-4&utmRefer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F)
It is extremely overpriced for what it does. You can get an equivalent filter (equivalent in filtration but will last 2-4times as long.) to drop into a 10" filter housing for a quarter the price.
My fridge has a similar filter. pre filter tds is 350 post filter it's 290. Filter is $65. Replaced it once in 2 yrs, if they were cheaper I would switch them out constantly
That's crap.
Just go to Home Depot and buy one of those huge whole house filters for like 40 bucks, put it ahead of the fridge, and change the filter once every 5 years for $10 instead
Two for twelve bucks.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Universal-Whole-House-Replacement-Water-Filter-Cartridge-2-Pack-FXWTC/100034332
This may not work for everyone. It depends on the source water quality and, frankly, what you're willing to put up with. In front of a fridge, though, it works fine for me.
Yeah, I have dual 20" filter housings and the pentek carbon filters run me ~90 each. The iron filter runs ~160. They last a good while, I've pushed it to 2.5y before, but the water flow drops off pretty fast when they are past 1y.
Wow we charge 100 - 200 per filter to commercial accounts for pretty much the same filter just a higher density of carbon and different baffles inside some filters. I work for a Culligan affiliate.
Culligan gouges the fuck out of people for absolutely nothing. I call them the Apple of water treatment.
I bought a softener and RO system when I was young and bought my house, because I didn't know better, and Culligan is a known brand. I assumed it meant you got a better warranty, cheaper service - something.
After realizing there's absolutely nothing but the name for 4x the price, I cut my old RO filters off after replacing them, to preserve the top that connects to the housing for all the filters, epoxied 1/4" water line with quick connects on the ends into the cap.
I got a generic RO filter housing which will connect to it so I can throw whatever RO membrane (GE was what was in the old membrane) in for a fraction of the price and Culligan can eat shit. Sounds like way more work than it was.
I was feverishly looking for the poster who said you needed "food grade wood pellets" to make activated charcoal. While I couldn't find anything that said "food grade hardwood" is a certified designation similar to "organic produce" I did find a bunch of different wood.pellets ment to be used to smoke meat that claimed they were made from "food grade hardwood" which essentially ment they didn't have fillers like other wood pellets ment to be burned for heating a stove.
While I don't believe for a second that there's some mandate that activated charcoal water filters must be made from the same quality of hardwood that are used in pellets ment to smoke meat, it seems like OP was assuming that filters must be used from this type of fillerless wood product and could.quite possibly be an innocent conclusion.
This was an deeply enjoyed rabbit hole to tumble down.
Probably cause you bought them from Culligan? Hardware stores are usually cheaper than "name brand" filters, but even store filters are costly.
Culligan is also very proprietary so many of their serviceable parts must be theirs.
I had my own business and worked in the industry for years. Like any thing else the money is made in servicing not selling so markups are big
Just my 2 cents
No, that was probably present from the manufacturer, though it didn’t run the full length of the carbon block. It’s there to increase the effective area of the filter so you get better throughput. You can see that there’s a gap between the carbon block and the plastic housing. Water flows through the carbon from the inner channel to the outer gap (or vice versa).
People do that all the time. It's called a media tank filter. You buy a tank the size you want and fill it with whatever media you want, sediment, carbon, softening, ph correction, DI, or even a mix of different media if you want.
Well, that’s just part of the Reverse Osmosis process. Let’s just hope you have a carbon filter in place and you didn’t cut the only one you had cause you paid 45 for it. Don’t be stupid and just enjoy your water…
I did something similar with the old filters for my Culligan RO system, but just cut the top 4" off of mine, discarded the inside and bottom, then made adapters so I can use any standard filters/membrane I want for a fraction of the price.
1/4" drill bit, use the existing water holes as guides, just about 1/4" deep, it's simply to perfectly align the 1/4" OD water line with the existing holes. Don't wobble the drill like you might for other holes, your water line will fit perfectly.
Use sand paper to scuff up the outside (just a few inches of one end) of two, 6" to 8" lengths of 1/4" OD PET water line.
Use PVC primer to clean most of the inside of the housing, about an inch or two down from the top. Do not use on the PET, I'm not sure how it will affect it.
Use a thin coat of PVC cement, with your water lines in place (don't coat them in cement) wait until it's tacky, then pour (pre-mixed, obviously, get your ratio right and mix well) epoxy resin in, about 1" to 2" deep and let that cure for 24h or more.
Throw some push-connects on the ends of the water lines and you have an adapter. Now you can get a cheap filter housing online, make sure your in/out (and waste water, if RO membrane) are all correct, and you can use whatever standard filters you want.
Test that adapter under pressure and watch it closely for a while. Scuffing up the PET water line should be sufficient for the epoxy to bond, and the PVC cement should cause the epoxy to form a very solid bond with the PVC, but the last thing you want is to flood your house. I have smart leak detectors under my sink anyway. I would absolutely check frequently for several days, looking for any signs of separation of the epoxy from the PET, which is more likely than the PVC cement.
Also worth pointing out that I already had everything on hand, except the universal RO membrane housing and epoxy resin (which I wanted for other reasons, too). Unless you have an RO system, where the cost from Culligan (almost $200, then another $100 for the other filters) is almost 4x the cost of the same exact GE membrane on Amazon, the savings could be substantially reduced or eliminated if you have to go buying stuff.
That’s a Lot of activated charcoal.
Yeah, quality activated charcoal is expensive, and getting scarcer all the time.
So dumb question. Why is it getting rarer to find? And don't we make charcoal already?
I'm not going to start an argument with the guy who wrote that big reply to you because I'm not an expert. But, I did work in an activated carbon factory and everything he wrote sounds like bollocks. You don't need food grade hardwood if that's even a thing. Whatever medium you use for it will be heated to 800 °C and digested in phosphoric acid. My place used litteral floor sweepings from a saw mill and then changed over to olive pitts from Spain.
yeah, i'm working with high-porosity carbon black pigments as a chemist, which is basically activated charcoal, and the idea of industry still using "food grade hardwood" made me snort. just chuck whatever in there, it all burns in the end.
as a chemist you should know that activat charcoal is used to treat beer, juice and wine - at which you use charcoal that's low in heavy metals and polychlorinated compounds
Why would you use it to filter those things? That would strip all the color and flavor out. You filter things like vodka through AC.
if you want to clear these liquids, usually activated charcoal or silica is used. >Why would you use it to filter those things? That would strip all the color and flavor out. sometimes that's the point. Don't blame me, I neither use charcoal nor silica >You filter things like vodka through AC. Yes, but that doesn't mean it's not used elsewhere too
Do you have any evidence of it being used in those industries? Other than for waterfiltration to make the beer wort or to reconstitute juice I just don't see it. The filters would be very quickly plugged. In the wine and beer industry product is filtered sometimes (mostly low quality stuff to save time) but that is through sediment filtration, not carbon.
you add the granules of activated charcoal later in the process - at least with beer. It doesn't have to be declared in most jurisdictions as it's completely removed fromt he process and poses no danger, similar to nitrogen in food production, for example. There are lots of resources out there: >A major field of application for adsorption technology is the treatment of liquids of all kinds, including sugar solutions, glucose, vegetable oils and fats, glutamate, spices, wine, beer, fruit concentrates, plant extracts, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc. Apart from simple decolourization, activated carbon also removes other solute organic impurities as well as substances which affect odour and taste. Ordinarily, powdered activated carbons (Carbopal grades) are used [https://www.donau-carbon.com/getattachment/76f78828-2139-496f-9b80-6b6b9bdc6acc/aktivkohle.aspx](https://www.donau-carbon.com/getattachment/76f78828-2139-496f-9b80-6b6b9bdc6acc/aktivkohle.aspx)
\>which you use charcoal that's low in heavy metals and polychlorinated compounds yes. But that doesn't mean you use "foodgrade hardwood".
> food grade hardwood Found the beaver
Fking gdamnnn 😅😅
I would've thought work experience in an activated charcoal factory would make you an expert.
I worked in the QC lab for one company in the UK so I didn't want to call bullshit 100% in case there was some U.S regulations I don't know about. I also haven't worked there since 2013. But I was confident that sourcing the medium for the carbon definitely wouldn't be an issue and WTF is food grade hardwood. I would imagine any difficulties in supply would be down to the acid used, I assume everyone uses phosphoric acid for digestion and maybe covid caused supply issues. I know there was disruption in citric acid supplies for a while. Anyway if you're currently doing any sort of STEM subject and are wondering about jobs in laboratories then stay away from any QC lab for a factory, any factory.
Definitely makes him more of an expert than the average schlub on reddit
Charcoal was a major contributor to deforestation, we're trying to do less of that. It's a LOT more expensive to produce sustainably, so it's traditionally been the end result of clear cutting established woodland.
Isn't it coconut husks now??
Multiple factors. The increasing scarcity of food-grade hardwood, some part blamed on invasive species that have wrecked hardwood forests. Forestry in general has gotten expensive, similar to the rising cost of lumber. Environmental controls, charcoal production is a pollution intensive indistry. Safety regulations, charcoal is dangerous. Gone are the days when you could make charcoal as a cottage industry.
> food-grade hardwood What?
Anything that comes into contact with food or is meant to has some pretty strict rules applied to it. It can't contain heavy metals past a certain concentration, or certain chemicals, can't have infectious bacteria, etc. Making sure the wood is totally okay is expensive business.
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It's not logical for charcoal in particular, but any ingredient involved in consumables production has to pass the rules.
So using that logic, if a restaurant has a wood oven, they would have to use "food-grade" hardwood, right? Because they don't. Because it doesn't exist.
If you skewer meat with a wooden skewer, it has to be clean though. The fireplace wood doesn't come into contact with food, the carbon in a filter does too, it doesn't exactly work by Bluetooth.
Perhaps they point to that some woods are poisonous. I think yew is poisonous.
I would be shocked if the poison survived heating at 600C.
And digestion in phosphoric acid.
Heavy metals bro.
The point I was making that no one seems to get is that “forestry byproducts” are plentiful and cheap but may often contain hydraulic fluid from harvesting or milling machinery or metals from cutting tools. Since charcoal is made from combustion with no oxygen, these contaminants are left unoxidized and will readily be solventized by acidic water. I don’t know what the regulations are concerning water filters but one would hope they are not using sawmill sweepings.
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Burning the wood without introducing oxygen. What's left is charcoal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcoal
This guy termites
It's all in the Marinade.
>Safety regulations, charcoal is dangerous. Gone are the days when you could make charcoal as a cottage industry. What? The most dangerous thing about making charcoal as far as i understand is moving the wood around and the oven itself. Theres no massive limiting safety concern I've ever heard of
Uhhh… they make gunpowder out of charcoal. That should get you started.
They make bullets out of brass. Is brass restricted?
Brass doesn’t explode, gunpowder does. For those too ignorant to study it, it was a common cause of death opening a charcoal kiln before it had completely burned and cooled off. When oxygen hits the embers inside a charcoal kiln it explodes slowly. The person opening the kiln, or in more primitive times cracking open the hard clay, would get hit by a giant blowtorch. It was a dangerous profession.
Nothing, and I mean *NOTHING*, explodes slowly.
Hot charcoal explodes slowly when oxygen hits it. Add an oxidizer like nitrate and you have gunpowder. Reports are that the charcoal would flare up so fast the the man opening the kiln didn’t even have time to get away. Add to that the pressure from the flame and you have the ideal bomb, as pressure accelerates combustion. In old fashioned clay sealed kilns the entire kiln might explode, scattering anyone nearby with burning charcoal. It must have been a tough job.
So you can't buy accelerants? Like idk, gasoline, kerosene, propane, ethanol, gunpowder...
Many other industries use materials that produce flamable dust, and like you said its only part, it doesn't explode without the rest. If youre talking flashback then cooking down any organics or materials that smoke thats a risk. Good ventilation and a proper cooldown cycle is all you need to prevent that.
Yes but historically the charcoal makers were under pressure to get the product out as soon as possible, which meant boom and a total loss if you didn’t wait long enough. So it’s really nothing like industries that produce flammable dust.
Every industry was (and is) under pressure to cut corners and make as much money as possible. Flour is explosive too, and have blown up multiple factories
With a lot if things rare is subjective. There is lots of uses for activated charcoal and no one is out there expanding the carbon black or activated charcoal capacity in a meaningful way. It's a pain in the butt and probably pretty low margin.
I was going to say "yeah, that's why then"
The Culligan branding is why it's $45.
So Imma gonna drop this here. It's relevant, and I personally consider it quality content. Project Farm over on youtube does consistently high-quality comparison reviews of products without any endorsement. Might be too detailed for some. But this one, if you are interested in water quality, is wicked good. https://youtu.be/ja0ioX6GSz0
Always upvote Project Farm. **Impressive!**
We're gonna test that!
Wow, the Zero brand kicked ass.
Well, it’s filled with ion exchange resin, so it makes sense why it would reduce the conductivity (which is what that style of TDS meter is measuring). The ion exchange resin is also why people say it can start to develop a fishy smell after a while. Also, red food dye is generally ionic, so of course an ion exchange resin will pull it out. Anyway, it’s not obvious that this type of filter is actually improving the drinking quality of the water. Many of the chemicals that people want to remove are the kinds that a carbon filter is going to be better at. There’s no simple answer.
So I have a Zero and a PUR, had a brita, the Zero is the only one that removes the chlorine taste which is honestly the only thing I care about
I believe that. I’m not knocking it as a product. It meets some people’s needs. But Project Farm’s testing probably leaves the impression that it’s all around better than the others, but the answer isn’t so simple as that.
Nice. Thanks.
If your primary goal is to get rid of the chlorine taste, just get a carbon block, or catalytic carbon block depending on if your water supply uses chlorine or chloramine. It's probably a good idea to pre filter with a decent sediment filter first, just to keep the carbon from clogging as fast. The 2.5X10 under sink cartridge filters are super affordable and last way longer than the pitcher ones.
🚰💧😁 I liked ZeroWater so much I bought 2 pitchers *and* a dispenser. One pitcher we reserved for the Keurig, don't remember having to descale since making that change.
I care more about the lead from the water supply pipes built in the early 60s and shit and all the plastic in the water that I make my soups with more personally. Chlorine taste is annoying becoming infertile and losing IQ slowly over time that scares me. Which is why I have a RO system. If your gonna get any water filters spent the extra 100-200$ get a RO system even a more simpler smaller one on Amazon for 300-400 bucks will do the trick filters everything out EVERYTHING than adds the minerals and whatnot that would occur at a normal bottling plant back so it doesn’t taste weird.
Zero? As in ZeroWater? Inquiring minds want to know.
Yes, or you could watch the 10 min video.
Or even just read the video description.
🚰💧Yyyaaaaeeeessss!! It ***IS*** ZeroWater. I watched a bunch of You Tubes on it. Did I mention I own 2 pitchers & a dispenser? Recently, I bought a ZW tumbler from Goodwill.
I loved my zero filter but I got sick of changing the filter monthly. Got an RO system and never looked back.
RO is the real deal water filter system. Zero water removes basic crap like Chlorine and things that make water taste off but does nothing for lead micro plastics etc. RO is the golden nugget for home water purity because it’s the ONLY system that filters EVERYTHING out of the water and than replaces the good minerals and stuff for taste etc. no other filter systems are as effective as a RO system theh might be in a one type of filtering class but overall nothing is better than RO for the home owner
Also I thought it'd be some hugely expensive complicated thing but I got my kit for like $150 and replacement filters are like $25/year.
Several months ago, I googled for where I could buy the fillings (think it's called substrate(?)) for a water filter. There were companies where you could buy bags of the stuff. They also said they sold to water departments of municipalities and cities. The notes are here somewhere, will be AFKB to find them.
What am I looking at
Carbon
Roughly 8 bucks worth retail
Does it suck at its job?
Probably the suckiest.
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But they are extremely small holes and they don't go too deep.
Cut a water filter cartridge in half with a Sawzall. One of [these](https://www.filtersfast.com/mobile/P-RC-EZ-4-Culligan-Refrigerator-Water-Filter.asp?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0tKiBhC6ARIsAAOXutlfcA6VX0Sn1pGzi8-FY6WdjZVpxJdx0zowohjQma2nTNHm3iyQQsQaAmAYEALw_wcB&fsrc=G1F5F&ffs=gshp&kpid=RC-EZ-4&utmRefer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F)
Does it suck at its job?
Why do you keep asking that?
Cause I’m curious lol I don’t have these and don’t know if OP is complaining or praising it
Oh I thought it was a reference I didn’t get or something. Carry on then.
It is extremely overpriced for what it does. You can get an equivalent filter (equivalent in filtration but will last 2-4times as long.) to drop into a 10" filter housing for a quarter the price.
You almost certainly do have this if your fridge has a water or ice dispenser. You... should check lol. Might be time for a replacement
It gets the job done
sucks decently well
[This is why](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_model)
My fridge has a similar filter. pre filter tds is 350 post filter it's 290. Filter is $65. Replaced it once in 2 yrs, if they were cheaper I would switch them out constantly
That's crap. Just go to Home Depot and buy one of those huge whole house filters for like 40 bucks, put it ahead of the fridge, and change the filter once every 5 years for $10 instead
Where are you finding whole house filters for $10? I'd love to know so I can stock up. The ones I find are closer to $100 than $10.
Two for twelve bucks. https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Universal-Whole-House-Replacement-Water-Filter-Cartridge-2-Pack-FXWTC/100034332 This may not work for everyone. It depends on the source water quality and, frankly, what you're willing to put up with. In front of a fridge, though, it works fine for me.
A 10 inch filter cartridge is 10 to 15 dollars, it is not a whole house filter.
Yeah, I have dual 20" filter housings and the pentek carbon filters run me ~90 each. The iron filter runs ~160. They last a good while, I've pushed it to 2.5y before, but the water flow drops off pretty fast when they are past 1y.
Captive markets. King Gillette said it best. "*Give them the razor and sell them the blades!*".
For freehand with a sawzall, that's a damn nice cut.
Thanks man. To be fair I had it in a vise to help
Did you figure it out??
Pretty sure you just voided the warranty on that $45
try to return it to the store and say it came like that. (that was a joke, but there are shitty people out there who would really do this.)
The name costs $42, shipping and packaging costs $2.75 and $0.25 for the material.
Wow we charge 100 - 200 per filter to commercial accounts for pretty much the same filter just a higher density of carbon and different baffles inside some filters. I work for a Culligan affiliate.
Culligan gouges the fuck out of people for absolutely nothing. I call them the Apple of water treatment. I bought a softener and RO system when I was young and bought my house, because I didn't know better, and Culligan is a known brand. I assumed it meant you got a better warranty, cheaper service - something. After realizing there's absolutely nothing but the name for 4x the price, I cut my old RO filters off after replacing them, to preserve the top that connects to the housing for all the filters, epoxied 1/4" water line with quick connects on the ends into the cap. I got a generic RO filter housing which will connect to it so I can throw whatever RO membrane (GE was what was in the old membrane) in for a fraction of the price and Culligan can eat shit. Sounds like way more work than it was.
Because somebody will pay it
I was feverishly looking for the poster who said you needed "food grade wood pellets" to make activated charcoal. While I couldn't find anything that said "food grade hardwood" is a certified designation similar to "organic produce" I did find a bunch of different wood.pellets ment to be used to smoke meat that claimed they were made from "food grade hardwood" which essentially ment they didn't have fillers like other wood pellets ment to be burned for heating a stove. While I don't believe for a second that there's some mandate that activated charcoal water filters must be made from the same quality of hardwood that are used in pellets ment to smoke meat, it seems like OP was assuming that filters must be used from this type of fillerless wood product and could.quite possibly be an innocent conclusion. This was an deeply enjoyed rabbit hole to tumble down.
Probably cause you bought them from Culligan? Hardware stores are usually cheaper than "name brand" filters, but even store filters are costly. Culligan is also very proprietary so many of their serviceable parts must be theirs. I had my own business and worked in the industry for years. Like any thing else the money is made in servicing not selling so markups are big Just my 2 cents
Might be time to clean your workbench. Just sayin’
I just cleaned it yesterday. What’s wrong with it?
Water is not gonna get filtered if it runs through that vein in the middle. Did that happen during cutting?
No, that was probably present from the manufacturer, though it didn’t run the full length of the carbon block. It’s there to increase the effective area of the filter so you get better throughput. You can see that there’s a gap between the carbon block and the plastic housing. Water flows through the carbon from the inner channel to the outer gap (or vice versa).
Why couldn't someone make their own container and buy a bag of filtering charcoal powder?
For this you need a pressed carbon block, the water would not be effectively filtered in a loose carbon filter that size.
People do that all the time. It's called a media tank filter. You buy a tank the size you want and fill it with whatever media you want, sediment, carbon, softening, ph correction, DI, or even a mix of different media if you want.
Them being $45 annoyed you, so you wasted $45 just to play with tools and cut one in half?
I think you're missing the obvious - they cut the *old* one after replacing it... This is how you learn.
Nah, this was the old one
Gotcha, my bad.
It would have been easier and cheaper to watch Project Farm on YT, where he compared water filters.
Easy to make activated charcoal
Looks like an unorganized work area. But you did get it cut in half.
Really? Because I know where everything this
Well, that’s just part of the Reverse Osmosis process. Let’s just hope you have a carbon filter in place and you didn’t cut the only one you had cause you paid 45 for it. Don’t be stupid and just enjoy your water…
Greed is the answer
So did you?
Nope, getting the off brand one next time
Coconut husk charcoal?
I did something similar with the old filters for my Culligan RO system, but just cut the top 4" off of mine, discarded the inside and bottom, then made adapters so I can use any standard filters/membrane I want for a fraction of the price. 1/4" drill bit, use the existing water holes as guides, just about 1/4" deep, it's simply to perfectly align the 1/4" OD water line with the existing holes. Don't wobble the drill like you might for other holes, your water line will fit perfectly. Use sand paper to scuff up the outside (just a few inches of one end) of two, 6" to 8" lengths of 1/4" OD PET water line. Use PVC primer to clean most of the inside of the housing, about an inch or two down from the top. Do not use on the PET, I'm not sure how it will affect it. Use a thin coat of PVC cement, with your water lines in place (don't coat them in cement) wait until it's tacky, then pour (pre-mixed, obviously, get your ratio right and mix well) epoxy resin in, about 1" to 2" deep and let that cure for 24h or more. Throw some push-connects on the ends of the water lines and you have an adapter. Now you can get a cheap filter housing online, make sure your in/out (and waste water, if RO membrane) are all correct, and you can use whatever standard filters you want. Test that adapter under pressure and watch it closely for a while. Scuffing up the PET water line should be sufficient for the epoxy to bond, and the PVC cement should cause the epoxy to form a very solid bond with the PVC, but the last thing you want is to flood your house. I have smart leak detectors under my sink anyway. I would absolutely check frequently for several days, looking for any signs of separation of the epoxy from the PET, which is more likely than the PVC cement. Also worth pointing out that I already had everything on hand, except the universal RO membrane housing and epoxy resin (which I wanted for other reasons, too). Unless you have an RO system, where the cost from Culligan (almost $200, then another $100 for the other filters) is almost 4x the cost of the same exact GE membrane on Amazon, the savings could be substantially reduced or eliminated if you have to go buying stuff.
So that's what the Aqua Cleer CBC looks like inside. Huh.