Seeking advice on which UV water purifier to buy

Instead of chlorinating my well, I'm thinking of a UV purifier. I don't want any piece of junk where I can't get parts in a few years.

Any recommendations on a good manufacturer and your experience with it?

I would install it myself.

Been using Master water conditioning products for20+ years including their UV systems.Master is out of Pottsville.








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stoker-man wrote:Instead of chlorinating my well, I'm thinking of a UV purifier. I don't want any piece of junk where I can't get parts in a few years.

Any recommendations on a good manufacturer and your experience with it?

I would install it myself.

UV will have serious problems with the presence of iron in your water even at low levels. At higher levels it will be useless. UV relies on a very clear water to generate an ozone reaction. Ozone gas injected into the water would be a much more potent sanitizer than UV and can react with high levels of iron. It will react much better than chlorine or anything else on the planet except fluorine, which I would not recommend injecting into your water.

Ozone gas is very fast, thousands of times more powerful then chlorine and kills by lysing, basically dismantling the microbes structure. But with UV, you need to be able to generate a reaction to use it. At the plant I have an O3 generator capable of producing 60#s of ozone gas at concentrations of 24+% per day. Since it's install, I have yet to detect a chlorinated hydrocarbon compound in the discharge.

I have a Trojan UV max. It's been a good solid stainless steel unit & easy to install & easy to replace the bulb. They even mail a reminder each year so you don't forget to replace the $70 bulb.

Hmmmm.... maybe I should sell you mine, except if I did I'd probably lave problems again. Five or six yrs ago we had an issue that the usual clorinating wouldn't take care of. The UV worked very well. But, I kept testing and after a year & a half it cleared up. The problem? The wife planted flowers around the well casing. Bugs got in, fell down, died, caused bacteria. Once I figured that out I put on a bug proof cap. Eventually the bacteria stopped and I haven't needed the UV since then. I still test it once a year just to make sure.

I think our problem started when I pulled the pump and laid 250' of pipe on the mowed grass and then tried to wash off the grass as I put it back down. Plus, all the times the well pit got flooded and the creeping things got into the well pipe. This was my second Penn State test in 33 years and it said the coliform is 15. I asked what 15 means and I always got a vague answer. Since coliform is mostly harmless, and I've probably been drinking it for years, I've been dragging my feet as to chlorinating the well and then chlorinating it over again at the next mishap in the pit.

Then I got this idea about UV. I've done some reading about it, but never a mention about UV generating ozone.

The iron is .20 ppm, hardness 166 ppm, and total dissolved solids are 287. My research says that I'd have to clean the UV sleeve with acid a few times a year with my hard water.

That's why I'm trying to get some technical information before I go this route.

stoker-man wrote:I think our problem started when I pulled the pump and laid 250' of pipe on the mowed grass and then tried to wash off the grass as I put it back down.

Save your money then and whack it with chlorine and retest in two weeks. The UV thing is a nightmare you don't need.

I think it will be a continuing problem and there are two houses on the well. Proper shocking of the well requires non-use of water for 24 hrs, plus removing the well cap, supporting the pipe and pump, flushing all lines in both houses, recirculating with a hose for several hours in the well pipe itself and then purging after 24 hours for another few hours. Plus testing costs $75 at Penn State. It's all stuff that made me think I don't want to keep doing it.

I'm still drinking the water and thinking about what to do.

coaledsweat, what are the problems with UV that you know about?

$75 for testing? A full test is $50 around here, but you only need to do that once. To test just to see if it's safe to drink was $15 last time Ihad it done, but I think it's $20 now.

I never had any problem using the UV light.

I got a list of the testing labs for the whole state and there is one about 10 miles away and I think it was $35 for just the bacteria test. I needed the other information and it was $75 for that test and they want everyone to "next day air" it. I shipped it regular UPS ground and it was there at 10am the next day.