| DIY Bead Filter
Garrett Klein, a friend of mine from CA. has been working on a design for a low pressure bead filter, that could be built from a 55 gal barrel. Most bead filters create quite a bit of back pressure, 15 PSI and more, more than a poly barrel wants to handle, and then even more when running the blower for back flushing. Garrett's design for lowering back pressure is based on two key elements. 4" well screen pipe for the inlet and outlet and a vent when running the blower. Opening the vent when back blushing with the blower allows better air flow with out creating any additional back pressure. The 4" well screen pipe is available from AES and has .040 inch slots in it. These slots are small enough to not pass the beads, but with roughly two feet of inlet pipe and 2 feet of outlet pipe will pass plenty of water with out creating a lot of back pressure.
A couple of people on other forums have built these bead filters from the 55 gal poly barrels and are running them with less than 2 PSI back pressure, and they are working great. They hardly restrict any flow and are working great at trapping dirt and fines. |