MaintainlyWater systems
How often should you replace your whole-house sediment filter?
Replace whole-house sediment filter every 3 months. The commonly recommended range is every 3-6 months. A clogged sediment filter drops water pressure and lets grit through.
A sediment filter sits where the supply enters the house and catches sand, silt, rust and scale before they reach anything else. It is the cheapest possible insurance for every valve, cartridge and appliance downstream of it, and it is the one filter people forget exists because it lives in a basement or a garage.
Why does replacing your whole-house sediment filter matter?
A clogged sediment filter drops water pressure and lets grit through.
What happens if you skip replacing your whole-house sediment filter?
A blocked cartridge chokes flow to the whole house, so pressure drops everywhere at once and people start suspecting the mains. Left long enough the pressure differential can collapse the cartridge, at which point everything it was holding back releases downstream in one go.
How do you do it?
- Shut off the supply. Close the inlet valve before the housing, and the outlet valve after it if fitted.
- Release the pressure. Open a cold tap downstream, or press the red pressure relief button on top of the housing.
- Unscrew the housing. Use the plastic spanner supplied with the unit. Have a bucket underneath, as it holds a litre or more.
- Note the cartridge orientation and micron rating. Typically 5 or 20 micron. Finer filters catch more but block sooner.
- Clean the housing and check the O-ring. Wipe the sealing groove, inspect the O-ring for nicks, and smear it with silicone grease. A dry O-ring is the usual cause of a weeping housing.
- Fit the new cartridge and hand-tighten. Do not over-tighten with the spanner, which distorts the seal.
- Reopen slowly and check for leaks. Open the inlet valve gradually to avoid a pressure surge, then watch the seal for a minute.
What does it take?
How do you know replacing your whole-house sediment filter is overdue?
- Pressure dropping across the whole house rather than at one fixture
- The cartridge visibly brown or orange through a clear housing
- Sediment appearing in tap aerators or showerheads downstream
- A pressure gauge before and after the filter showing a widening gap
What do people get wrong?
- Reusing a dry, damaged O-ring, which then weeps for months
- Over-tightening the housing, which distorts the seal rather than improving it
- Fitting too fine a micron rating for the supply, so it blocks every few weeks
- Forgetting to depressurise, which sprays the room when the housing comes loose
What changes how often you need to do it?
- Well water with high sediment can need monthly changes
- Mains work or a burst nearby stirs the supply and will load a cartridge in days
- A clear housing lets you change by sight rather than by calendar, which is genuinely better
When should you stop and call someone?
If pressure is still poor with a fresh cartridge, the restriction is elsewhere: a partly closed valve, a failing pressure reducing valve, or scaled pipework. That needs a plumber rather than another filter.
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Get the free appDoes this differ in the US, UK, Australia or Canada?
United States
Standard on private wells, and increasingly fitted on municipal supplies in areas with older iron mains. Ten-inch and twenty-inch housings are the common sizes, and cartridges are stocked by every hardware chain.
United Kingdom
Whole-house sediment filtration is unusual on mains supply, since water companies deliver to a high standard and most homes have nothing fitted. Where filters exist they are typically on private boreholes in rural areas, or scale reducers fitted to protect a combi boiler in hard water regions.
Australia
Extremely common on rainwater tanks and bore supplies, which is a large share of rural and semi-rural properties. A typical setup runs a 20 micron sediment cartridge followed by a carbon block, and tank supplies also need first-flush diverters and gutter mesh maintained upstream. After bushfire ash fall, cartridges block very quickly and should be checked rather than scheduled.
Canada
Standard on rural well systems, frequently paired with an iron or manganese filter and a softener. Filter housings in unheated basements or crawl spaces need protection from freezing.
Common questions
Why does replacing your whole-house sediment filter matter?
A clogged sediment filter drops water pressure and lets grit through.
What happens if you skip replacing your whole-house sediment filter?
A clogged sediment filter drops water pressure and lets grit through. Skipping it does not usually fail immediately, which is exactly why it gets forgotten: the consequence arrives months later as a repair bill rather than as an obvious fault.
Does replacing your whole-house sediment filter differ by country?
Common on well water (rural US/CA). UK mostly mains water, lower surfacing.
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