6 gallon per minute Sawyer backflush

If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!

Could that blow out the membrane Daryl?

And how long does it take you to light the barbecue charcoal briquettes?

Sawyer sells a faucet adapter for backflushing, and the garden hose water pressure wouldn't be any greater than a faucet, so I would guess that Daryl's method wouldn't pose a risk of rupturing the filter.

"If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!"

It did occur to me that this looks like an episode from "Tool Time" where I'm demonstrating the Binford 2000 backflusher.

There's no problem with this method. In the normal flow direction, dirty water passes from the outside of the membrane tubes to the inside, filtered by the tiny perforations. In the backflush direction, water flows from the inside of the membrane tubes to the outside, water pressure slightly inflating the tubes and dislodging trapped sediment and bacteria, etc. They won't burst at normal residential water pressure. Try running clean water through your filter backwards, but set up the same way you normally filter dirty water. You'll see that it flows through much faster because there is so much less resistance in the backflush direction.

I made a similar backflush for my inline Sawyer with the quick connects. It attaches to a hosebib and has a little bit of tubing with a quick connect on the other end. Works great.

Note that this is much more pressure that you can get from the faucet adapter the Sawyer sells. That adapter is made from a very pliable rubber and is held on to a faucet with your hands — not threaded on. When using that adapter, the rubber piece balloons up and will burst or squirt water if there is more than (guessing) 10 – 20 psi.

Even thought the hose adapter can generate a much greater pressure, I think I remember reading somewhere on the Sawyer site that they test them at 70psi.

Terry,

Would it be possible to post a photo?

I and possibly others would like to see how to do it and what parts to use where.

I'm still getting wet with my best hook-up.

Daryl

Sure thing. Here you go.

Aside fronm the tube and quick connect, there are three pieces here I picked up from the hardware store.

A barbed fitting with 3/4" threads on one side
A 3/4" female PVC fitting
A fitting that has hosebib threads on one sode and smooth PVC on the other.

The last two are glued together.

This works really great. Slightly less versatile than the faucet adapter from sawyer, but more efficient and effective.

[photos not showing up. Will try again later]

Terry,

Thanks for the info.

Gives me some ideas, even though it looks like we have different filter fittings. Mine has the screw-on cap threads for the clean end.

Again, works great. Could be adapted to use with the squeeze too as well as the mini.<

Terry,

Thanks for the photos. That really makes it clear.