What Does a Sediment Filter Remove from Water?
Written by: Gene Fitzgerald // Last Updated: Aug 28, 2023
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If you own a sediment filter, you might be interested in learning about the type of contaminants it removes.
This article will discuss all you need to know!
So, what does a sediment water filter remove?
Contents
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Key Takeaways
- Sediment water filters remove undissolved particles like dirt, rust, sand, and silt from water. They can also remove microorganisms and other biological contaminants.
- All other types of water contaminants like chemicals are not removed by sediment filters.
What Is a Sediment Filter?
A sediment filter acts as a barrier that traps solid particles in water.
They’re physical filters that remove contaminants based on their size.
Sediments can ruin your plumbing, destroy your water’s quality, and reduce the lifespan of water-using appliances like dishwashers, coffee makers, and water heaters. Sediment filters help to remove these sediments preventing damage.
What Does a Sediment Filter Remove?
Sediment filters only remove undissolved contaminants from water. Aside from sediment, these undissolved contaminants include microorganisms, dust, silt, sand, asbestos, rust chips, and overall dirt.
All sediment filters do not remove the same kind of contaminants, though. For example, some sediment filters remove only large particles, while others can remove the tiniest ones.
The particle sizes a sediment filter can remove depends on the filter’s micron rating. In essence, micron ratings define the sediment filter’s pore size. A low micron rating means the filter has tiny pores and can remove smaller contaminants, while a high micron rating means a filter has large pores and can only remove larger contaminants.
For instance, a filter with a micron rating of 1 can remove extremely fine particles, including bacterial cells. While a filter with a micron rating of 100 can only remove rust and sand.
So, what your sediment filter can remove ultimately depends on its micron rating.
What Does a Sediment Filter Not Remove?
Sediment filters only trap floating particles, so they cannot remove chemicals, heavy metals, radiological elements, salts, minerals, and other dissolved impurities from water.
Further Reading:
How Do the Different Types of Sediment Filters Work?
There are different sediment filter types, and some are more effective than others. We’ve made a list of them here:
Surface Filters
Surface filters are made from thin sheets of filter material like polyester or polypropylene. They are also known as pleated filters due to their accordion-shaped structure.
Surface filters have a greater surface area than other sediment filters, and as a result, they trap more particles and provide better filtration. They also have the benefit of being washable and reusable.
Depth Filters
Depth filters remove sediments and dirt from water by forcing them through a thick wall of filter material. The material can be made of cellulose, polypropylene, cotton, ceramic, or polyester.
Depth filters are unique because of their graded-density structure. As water passes through a depth filter, the filter grows tighter and catches large particles first before grabbing the smaller ones. A depth filter’s design delays clogging considerably, extending the filter’s lifespan.
Absorptive Filters
Absorptive filters are made from a combination of depth and pleated design filter designs. This means that they have a very impressive filtering capacity.
Absorptive filters also use electrokinetic absorption to draw in and trap negatively charged microorganisms. They also capture extremely minute particles that usually bypass traditional filters. Absorptive filters are designed to trap contaminants as small as 2 microns, but they can also trap some colloidal particles much smaller than that.
If you have any thoughts about the question, what does a sediment filter remove, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!
About the Author Gene Fitzgerald
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