Pentair Pentek BBFS-222 Big Blue Three-Housing Filtration System, 1" NPT #20 High Capacity Water Filter Housing, Holds 20" x 4.5" Filter Cartridges

After about 3 years fighting with my iSpring filter, I have now replaced it with the Pentair Pentek BBFS-222, and I am much happier. There were no huge issues with this iSpring, but there are a lot of little things that the Pentek does better.1. The inlet and outlet threads on the iSpring are oversized, and they leaked until I put about 20 wraps of teflon tape on the fittings. The threads on the Pentek are slightly oversized, but not as bad. My fittings bottomed out instead of sealing at the threads, but there has been no leaking with only 4-5 wraps of teflon tape.2. The iSpring housings leak unless they are tightened down with a wrench, but then they are almost impossible to remove again. This is actually what prompted me to replace it; I broke my filter wrench trying to change filters. The o-ring setup is completely different, and the Pentek housings only need to be hand tight with no leaking.3. There is nothing in the iSpring housings to keep the filter cartridges centered when installing. The Pentek housings have little fingers that keep the cartridges centered.4. The mounting bracket on the iSpring puts the housings too close to the wall, which makes it difficult to use a filter wrench without pulling the housing away from the wall. The mounting bracket on the Pentek holds the housing far enough from the wall that using a filter wrench is no problem. It required a little re-work of the existing plumbing to make the change, but totally worth it.

I considered using the 10" filters because they would be lighter when changing. These 20" beasts are HEAVY when full of water. But, these 20 inchers flow well and don't require changing as often. Just be ready to put some muscle in to it when you unscrew that final thread! I installed my system 9 months ago in a two person home and just changed the filters out of curiosity. My gauge showed there still wasn't any significant pressure drop... And, the filters looked like they could go longer, corroborating the gauge findings. This is Trinity aquifer well water in Kerrville, Texas. I used a 200u spin down, a 50u pleated, and a 5u wound string filter. Works fabulous ahead of the water softener. And I use the rust remover softener salt along with. The spin down was nearly pristine so I'm changing it out for a 100u screen, see what happens.UPDATE 12-28-22: At 20 months post install no problems. No failures, leaks etc. 11 months since the last filter change and no pressure drop yet, I changed the filters anyway… This time I’m cleaning the pleated filter rather than trashing it. And I have two so I can just swap out. I have a video showing the system install on my yt channel, mguerramd.

This is a great choice for a whole house water filtration system at an affordable price. The three filters address my problems with sediment, chlorine and scale.Pros:Reasonable priceWell established companyInterchangeable filtersCons:Needs spaceVery heavy, especially when filled with water.Changing filters can be difficultNo wrench included.Filters can be expensiveIncluded bracket mounts to wall with only two bolts. It’s not strong enough.

Great for whole house water filtering. Wished they were offered in Stainless Steel instead of plastic.

Listen, I live in South Texas out in the sandy area where iron and iron bacteria, hard water ate the plumbing out of a small house we leased. I installed these with a iSpring WSP-50 Spin down sediment filter, and a iSpring UVF55. Let me tell you, after flushing the system, and then tasting the water, I wept it was so fresh and amazing. I loaded these with a Pentek RFC-20 Carbon Filter 20", Pentek 155358, DGD-5005-20 Dual Gradient, and a Pentek 155263, RFFE20-BB Radial Flow Iron filter.I ran that output through the UV light and WOW .. the water is ... amazing. I am going to do another hard water test and see if putting a water softener will get me closer to pure soapy bliss in the shower, and I am going to add a reverse osmosis for under the sink to drive drinking water and ice maker , but for a whole house filter .. YOU cant beat this!!!

Easy to install. Feels very solid. Water quality greatly improved.

Wow, not sure if I overtightened the filter housing or what. I basically just went hand tight and then just snugged it down a little bit extra with the filter wrench, so if that's all it takes just a warning for all of you out there to be extra careful tightening these down. And this happened the first time I put water through it. And no, I don't have 200psi water pressure or anything strange, but I do run it 50/70, but that should be well within spec.However, thinking back on it, this was a warehouse deal and I remember the mounting bracket was also bent on the corner slightly. Didn't think anything of it at the time as just I straightened it out, but maybe it was dropped in shipping, and it cracked the housing without me noticing.Anyway, luckily I was right there and it didn't cause any damage, just a mess. Did scare me half to death though when it blew.

Used these on a few different clients house as a pre-filter before their water softener system. Works really well to filter sediment from well water. Quality’s really good.