“What is the Difference between Filters like the Pro-ox or Genesis and Yours?”
Homeowner: I’m looking into options for treating our well water. We have manganese, H2S bacteria, and coliform bacteria in our water and need to treat it. pH is 7.5, TDS is negligible, and hardness is minimal, with some calcium only. We have no significant iron in the water. I had a few questions for you:
– We have a 2000sf house with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Do we need the WT-1 or WT-4 system, and what is the difference between the two?
– Do you sell backwashing filters to add to your system?
I’ve researched a few other companies that offer ozone/filter combination systems, such as Pro-ox or Genesis that are less expensive and seem to have a smaller setup. What is the difference between those systems and yours?
John’s Response:
The primary difference between our system and something like the Pro-Ox or Genesis is amount of ozone we use and the ability to remove bacteria and coliform. The focus of our company is applying ozone for a wide range of different applications. Many of our systems are used for sanitation purposes. Because we often get calls from home owners with well water problems and frustration with eventual failure of systems like the Pro-Ox and Genesis systems we have applied our ozone expertise to provide a solution. Adding a small amount of ozone to the headspace of a backwash filter does solve the problem of iron bacteria colonizing there and clogging things up. It is not enough ozone to ensure removal of bacteria from the water.
Our FIOX backwashable filter is similar to the Pro-Ox or Genesis units. If the primary need is to remove some iron, manganese, or odor then this in itself is sufficient. These filters use a the brine cycle of the filter valve to pull in some ozone through a small ozone generator to sanitize the air pocket in the head space of the filter. After a few hours, the ozone degrades to oxygen and will help with oxidizing iron and manganese, but it is no longer effective to kill bacteria.
To control bacteria it is necessary to have a high enough ozone dose in the water. https://www.oxidationtech.com/blog/how-much-ozone-do-i-need-to-destroy-bacteria-and-viruses/. The WT series uses a pump and venturi to pull ozone into water under pressure just like all our other water injection skids. This is the only way we can get enough ozone into the water to thoroughly treat it for bacteria. In addition to killing bacteria, drawing this ozone in the water also brings in extra oxygen which will serve to oxidize anything else in the water. Once iron or manganese is oxidized, it can be filtered out. Unlike the Pro-Ox, Genesis, or our FIOX, the WT system continues to dissolve ozone in the water as long as water is being used. The system controller monitors how much water is used and will dose ozone accordingly.
The FIOX filter is the backwash filter we will use. If the FIOX is used with a WT-1 or WT-4, we don’t need the little ozone generator to pull in ozone during the brine cycle. The filter is simply in a filter and backwash mode and relies on the ozone dissolved in the water to keep it free of iron bacteria.
If the water is free of anything that will oxidize and only has bacteria in it, then we can use a formula to calculate how much ozone is needed to disinfect the water. Total coliform requires a CT (concentration and time) value of 0.19. This means we would need 0.19 ppm ozone in the water for one minute. https://www.oxidationtech.com/ozone/ct-value.html To get 0.19 ppm ozone into water flowing at 8 gallons per minute, I would need 0.345 grams per hour of ozone (345 mg/hour). https://www.oxidationtech.com/ozone/ozone-calculations/o2-dosage-calculator.html If we have a 15 gallon contact tank, then we extend the contact time to 2 minutes, so we could use half as much ozone.
The WT-1 system has the HTU-500 ozone generator https://www.oxidationtech.com/htu500.html that is rated to produce 1 gram/hour of ozone using oxygen at 1 liter per minute of flow. It produces about half that amount using dry air. Our WT systems use dry air as a feedgas, so we expect about 0.4 grams/hour of ozone dosage rate. So at a continuous flow of 8 gallons per minute the WT-1 with a 15 gallon contact tank would be able to provide at CT value of 0.38.
Manganese and other materials in the water that can oxidize will consume ozone and therefore demand more ozone to maintain a level sufficient for disinfection. Oxygen being pulled in with the ozone will help to oxidize these things, but since ozone reacts very quickly, the ozone tends to get used up first. We need to have water test results to help determine how much ozone is needed for any given situation. A peak water flow rate for the home is also important for calculating the ozone demand.
The WT-4 is able to dose the water with 4 grams/hour of ozone using the VMUS-4 ozone generator https://www.oxidationtech.com/vmus4.html and the VMD-8 air dryer https://www.oxidationtech.com/vmd-8.html. This is enough ozone to deal with nearly any household water issue requiring oxidation.
We use ozone generators that are made in North America and are fully repairable. There are hundreds of small cheaper ozone generators on the market that claim to make as much ozone, but our experience has not been good with them. Most don’t make the ozone they claim, and when they fail after months of operation, they are often not repairable. Our goal is provide a solid treatment system that is based on straight forward science, reliable for many years, and serviceable. They are not mass produced and require some understanding and attention on the part of the homeowner to ensure the system is operating properly.
