Septic Protector Filtrol 160TM

Septic Protector Filtrol 160TMI thought this was going to be great, but turns out to be a nightmare. The cover is hard to put on, the o-ring gets pinched, and the filter has to be cleaned every 3 wash cycles. That wouldn''t be bad if the filter was easy to clean, but it is a mukky mess. It clogs up and overflows, and if the o-ring is pinched it could flood your basement. The only way I can clean the filter is by scrapping the muck off with my fingernails, and then I have to do that every couple wash cycles. I wish I had just stuck with the women''s nylon sock in the sink.

Includes lid, basin, mounting bracket, ~5ft of rubber tubing, two hose clamps, two hose-barb-to-thread adapters to fit the inlet/outlet of the device, and two filters. Does NOT include mounting screws and washers, required for complete installation.

Instructions are practically non-existent, and fairly unhelpful (pretty much consisting of "screw the holder to a stud" and "clean the filter every 8-15 washes"). Lid and body do not couple tightly (the _bracket_ is actually what couples them, which the instructions do not state), and the lid will readily slide off and go flying if you try to open/close the unit while holding it without the mounting bracket. Snapped off the diffuser and chipped the edge of the groove for the metal latches on the mounting bracket while trying to figure out how the lid/body latched together. Device should neither be this fragile, nor this unintuitive (or, if it must be unintuitive, it should have some _real_ instructions).

Assembled all the inlets/outlets, cut the exit hose to length, attached the hoses/hose clamps, got it situated appropriately. Unit didn''t drain properly -it filled and overflowed. Changed orientations, height, and some other variables; futzed with it for an hour or so and about six drain cycles before identifying the culprit: the toe of the filter was long enough to dip into the outlet, and the toe is a thick, fibrous seam. Popping a small, disposable, emptied and capped water bottle into the basin alleviated the draining issue by keeping the toe away from the outlet; as the basin fills, the bottle floats, lifting the filter up and out of the way. Not that this does _not_ have to do with the filtration action, as the majority of the water trying to get out is already outside the filtering medium just trying to drain down the pipe. Currently, the bottle is not big enough to keep the toe comfortably away from the drain; I can just barely make it through a load without having to pause the machine during draining.

This is certainly _not_ the level of product polish I was expecting for $150; I probably could''ve done it myself with a bleach/milk/other large jug, a handful of plumbing hardware, and some pre-stretched nylon pantihose (the filter medium looks like essentially non-stretchy nylon mesh).

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We have had this unit for over two years. It has worked very well. It was a little tought with the installation and I was afraid it would leak or the top would pop off but we have never had any problems. It is mounted one foot above the washer and drain pipe. Water has never gone back into the washer. I am not sure why this happened with the other reviewer.

The filter catches quite a bit of debris and prevents it from entering the drain. I am now looking for replacement filters since ours have aged beyond use and it is time to replace them.

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I purchased and installed our Filtrol 160 unit approximately a year ago now (late May 2011) as part of a major septic system cleaning and upgrade I did on our 37 year-old septic system.

The filter bag length on the filter bags I have must have been corrected to address the problem raised by another reviewer with regard to the bottom of the bag plugging the drain at the bottom of the unit. My bags all have about an inch clearance between the bottom of the bag and the drain hole.

Until we replaced the washer last month, after it''s transmission leaked a bunch of lubricant on my wife''s load of whites, we did have to clean the bags much more frequently than I expected. It wasn''t the quantity of lint it caught but the off-white slimy coating which developed on the inside of the bag which necessitated frequent cleaning. If you didn''t keep the bag clean, the wash water bypassed the bag through the built-in, self-contained, overflow. Since installing the new washer exactly a month ago, I''ve not had to clean out the bag, even once. I now believe that the off-white slimy coating was, in fact, emulsified transmission lubricant which regularly leaked out during the warm water wash cycle. We just didn''t recognize it for what it was. Not good stuff to be putting in the septic system! My point in relating this finding is that the Filtrol 160 unit can also provide an early warning that the transmission is leaking in your washer. Way before you ruin a load of clothes. We were getting the slimy coating in the bags from the time of installation, way before we ever had so much lubricant leak into the washer that it was visible on the clothes. Just a great side benefit to having this unit installed on your washer discharge line!

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I have two washers that do 50 plus loads a month. I was having a huge problem with lint, hair and similar items clogging up my pump tank pump and the sprinklers on my aerobic system. I stumbled across Filtrol and decided to purchase it.

Instillation is pretty basic, and I can see where it can be a problem depending on your washer and drain on where it has to mount to reach the unit to take out the filter. I also have found it depends on what is being washed, and if there are pets involved on how often the filter needs to be cleaned. That being said, I don''t have the problems that other reviews have had. I clean the filters as needed, I take them outside, turn them inside out and use a garden hose to flush them out. I also have to "rub down" the filters to remove the stubborn lint, as it can look clean but won''t filter the water. The "o" ring fits tight, as it should, and you have to take a little care to put the lid on the prevent it from pinching. Just as any "o" ring fitting does. Hint...hint....use some petroleum jelly on the "o" ring, you will be amazed at how well it slides on then. I have never had the water back up into the washer, nor have I had the problem of the bag being too long to block the drain. I have had the bag inflated because it has trapped so much lint and hair that it won''t drain, but that is a good thing as it kept it out of the drain. The bags I have are fitted with slots around the top of the bag to prevent an overflow. Replacement bags are available, use a search engine.

The results? My lint and hair problem in the aerobic system is GONE!!! Instead of having to pull the pump and clean it off and then clean all the strainers in the sprinklers a couple to three times a month, I do it on a six month interval, not because of a clog, but just as a general maintenance thing. I would rather empty the two Filtron''s I have every day or so rather than pull the pump and clean 16 sprinkler heads, it is a no brainer!

I wish I would have bought them sooner!

1 comments:

Elizabeth J. Neal said...

That wouldn''t be bad if the filter was easy to clean, but it is a mukky mess. It clogs up and overflows, and if the o-ring is pinched it could flood your basement. water filter

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