I'm not an expert by any means but you might want to consider this company also.
http://www.qualitywaterforless.com/category_s/1.htm

Just bought a Water Softner and Carbon Unit off of them, easy to deal with and talk to. Will answer all your questions.

merlin 2552, for more on Terminox systems, check this thread:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/build/msg0909380131364.html

particularily member 'mydreamhome's' posts

One question to start us off: Does your water have color coming out of the tap, or does it start clear and then darken over a period of time?

I am just checking for an update. What system was chosen and how is it working out? My new home's water has low ph, high iron, and high manganese, and I am working on a solution as well. Thanks.

Bought Terminox and Chem Feeder from Budget Water. After 5 months of use, the Chem Feeder broke. Called Budget Water and they tell me I added too much bleach resulting in the chemical feeder to break. Complete B.S. Budget water tells me it is not covered under warranty because I broke it. Anyone looking to buy any type of water system look elsewhere. No reputable company would leave their customers hanging like that. Not worth the trouble. Before you spend thousands, look at a company that will stand behind their products!

What is the specific problem with the Chem Feeder? Can you provide a link to the equipment to which you are referring, or post a picture?

What brand is the pump? A few things to look at:

• Those little chemical feed pumps are really easy to work on. If you remove the head you can usually see the problem pretty quickly. Often the problem with a diaphragm pump used for bleach is that a small leak can bind up the action.

• Diaphragms also fail quickly with chlorine feed and should, consequently, be inspected every six months.

• Additionally, the injector fitting should be checked religiously and often. They need to be cleaned/changed frequently. Once they clog, your pump gets overworked and quits functioning.

• Bleach also off-gases, which can cause the pump to lose prime.

Thank you for your help. I will take it off and see if I can locate the problem. The pump is made by Chem tech (pulsafeeder).

Here's a link to the series 100/150 manual. Hope it helps.

ChemTech Pulsafeeder series 100/150 manual

I don't blame Budget Water for the failure of the pump, I blame Pulsafeeder. I refuse to sell their product after having a hard time getting them to fix a system under warranty. Very poor customer service. I have used LMI for years and found it be very reliable and will last. Even the diaphram using chlorine will hold up.

• You need to stand behind the products you sell and you shouldn't blame your customers. How can you blame your customer if you haven't even seen the defective pump? If the product is not good, why are you selling it? This Chem feeder was recommended by budget water. Things will happen when it comes to running a business. It is how you handle the problem and how you take care of your customers that separates you from other competitors. Honestly, I don't even care about the cost to repair or replace the pump. I was upset at budget water for saying I broke the pump from using too much chlorine. Really! Have you even taken the pump apart to see what is broken? Instead of claiming that I broke the pump from misuse, next time you should at least ask for the pump to be shipped back and see what is broken first. I fell for the "satisfaction guarantee" on their website. But I guarantee you I won't fall for it again.

Absolutely. Budget Water sells them because they are cheap enough that residential customers will buy them. They ought to be helping you deal with Pulsafeeder - and Pulsafeeder should improve their quality.

Completely agree with biermech re LMI - great little pumps.

I agree castle. I am mad at Pulsafeedeer with the way I was treated which would have put my customer without quality water for over a month if I hadn't installed an LMI in it's place while waiting for a repair. I've never dealt with Budget Water so I can not say anything about how they operate, but you now know first hand their business practices. Sorry for your troubles.

We bought a complete water filtration system for our well water from Budgetwater. They are the absolute worst. I do not know when their 100 percent satisfaction guarantee will ever work. After about a week of installing, talking with their tech support... Pouring more money and hours in.... Replumbing... We still had no water pressure as they had promised when we bought the system. We said we wanted to return it and they went into their phone recurds and said we installed it wrong. We had done everything their technician told us to do. They refused to return it. I called them liars and they blocked my email and phone calls. I did not cuss or scream. They just found it convenient to use the true term of liar to block me. We went to our credit card company to set up a dispute. They found in our favor for two months. Budget water then contacted visa and said since it was a home installation and water had run though.... It was not returnable. So they got their money and we kept the system. We were told that we would have great water pressure. The water just trickled out. In the end, we had to dig 100 ft of trench line to a tank in order to store our water. We then pull the water with a secondary above ground pump. The budget water system has now started clogging with the filtration rocks. We have to go out every other morning to un clog our valve. We are blocked from customer service so, we need to call others for help. Currently trying to find other companies that sell and use the Autotroll 763. Budget Water is a terrible company.

Let me start by asking a few questions. When you put the media in the tank, did you use under bedding (gravel) first? Did you tape off the distributor to insure no media got inside the distributor? As you stand in front of the unit, the inlet is attached to the left correct? When you put the unit on bypass is the pressure fully restored? What type of media )what are you trying to remove)? What size media tank do you have. Sorry for all the questions.

You seem to know a lot about these products. I'm thinking of buying the Terminox system for our iron well water issues. Most of the reviews are good, except for the lack of customer support. I sent Budget Water USA an email asking how to find out our water flow rate, I have not received an email back and am thinking I may not after all the reviews I've been reading. I read that the filox system does not work well for iron. Have you heard of the Iron Dagger? The company that sells it is close to home, Water Doctors. I guess I was just hoping to get your thoughts and recommendations. Hope you can help, I see this discussion is from months ago.

Customer service is very important. I would recommend anyone looking for water filtration products look for a company that has great customer service and great reviews from customers. A company that does not stand behind their products is a company I would stay away from.

Here is the bottom line.

If you are a DIYer go budget water - I did my entire system myself (chem feed, terminox ISM, and a water softener). ($1K-$2K)

If you are not a DIYer you need to go with something that offers warranty and service and pay for it ($3K-$5K)

There are quite a few options for iron removal. As with any water treatment, you absolutely MUST start with water analysis to ensure the appropriate treatment for your water. Once you do that, then decide on a vendor. Contrary to krus' statement, there are many online vendors to choose from. They all suffer from one major drawback, which is lack of meaningful customer service. If you choose to DIY, do your homework thoroughly first. To that end, a little light reading about iron removal options:

Softener:
A softener with specialty resin is capable of removing dissolved
iron, up to 7 ppm (mg/L) but asking a softener to remove iron at
those upper limits is really pushing it so I do not recommend this
method. In addition, a softener will become fouled with particulate
iron. A softener will not remove sulfur compounds.

Oxidation/Filtration:
An oxidizer such as ozone, air, or chlorine may be used to react with
the iron and force it to become particulate iron that can then be
removed via filtration. This will also remove most sulfur
compounds. A typical setup would involve the oxidizing unit, a
holding tank, then a media filter. This type of system works quite
well, but takes some expertise in sizing - you would want a water
treatment pro that you trust to help you with this option.

Oxidizing
filtration media: This type of treatment consists of a sealed tank
filled with one of several media. Water passes through and is
oxidized and filtered by the media. Most will remove sulfur compounds
as well as iron. These are relatively easy to operate and what I
would recommend for the average homeowner. There are several
different media that can be used:

• Manganese
  greensand: water runs through for treatment. The media must be
  regenerated with potassium permanganate. Care must be taken with
  dealing with potassium permanganate as it readily dies organic
  material, such as your skin, a purple-brown color. Some people are
  quite comfortable dealing with the chemical; others are not.
• Synthetic
  greensand: This is essentially the same as option (1) but consists of
  a coating of greensand on a silica sand core so does not require as
  much backwash flow. Service flow rate is 2 - 5 gpm/sqft. Backwash
  flow rate is 12 gpm/sqft.
• Birm:
  This media acts as a catalyst to force oxidation of iron. While it
  does not need to be regenerated, it does need fairly high dissolved
  oxygen in the water. If your water does not have adequate dissolved
  oxygen (and it probably doesn't since it is well water), air
  injection would be necessary prior to the birm. Additionally, birm
  requires a minimum pH of 6.8. Service flow rate is 3.5 - 5.0 gpm per
  sqft. Backwash flow rate is 11 - 20 gpm, depending upon water
  temperatures and desired bed expansion.
• Pyrolox:
  an ore that oxidizes then filters the iron out. It does not need
  regeneration, but needs to be backwashed (to rinse out the iron) at a
  high rate. pH range is 6.5 - 9.0. This type of filter works very
  well, but backwash is critical. Service flow rate is 5 gpm/sqft.
  Backwash is 25-30 gpm/sqft. Backwash daily.
• Terminox:
  Similar to Pyrolox, but a proprietary formula . It does not require
  as much backwash flow rate and is more resistance to a low pH. The
  particulars are only available from the company that sells it - this
  means you have to rely entirely on the vendor for proper sizing.
  Backwash daily.
• Filox:
  Also similar to Pyrolox. pH range 5.0 - 9.0. Backwash flow 12-15
  gpm/sqft. Service flow 6 gpm/sqft. It must be backwashed daily.
• Pro-OX:
  Essentially the same as the previous three. Requires 12-15 gpm/sqft
  backwash. As with Terminox, specs are lacking information so you'll
  have no way of knowing if the unit you get is sized appropriately.
• Katalox-light:
  Similar in action to the previous four, but is comprised of zeolite,
  manganese

Wow, is the attack of the zombie message board! All of these discussions that are coming back alive after being dead for a year or four!

Hope this helps at least one person. Save yourself BIG $$$$.

There is no warranty. The time frame to ship back is 5 days from when THEY ship the item. That can take 5 to 7 working days with UPS or FedEx.

Bought a Terminox Iron
filter system from Budget Water USA., and a chem Pump system. From day one, the filter did not filter anything. Iron came in the house, as you could smell it out the
faucet, and it would linger on your skin for an hour. They told me to use 2
cups of Clorox in the chem feeder. It pumped all the Clorox into the house,
worse than any swimming pool. It burned our eyes. I had to drain the water
heater to get rid of the smell of bleach. The Terminox was supposed to take out
iron, odors, and chlorine.

They said it would backwash a huge 85 gallons of water each night. My old Pyrolox worked great for 7 years, and only backwashed every 3 days, and only 40 gallons of water day/400 gallons a month. This Terminox pumped at least 5 gal. a minute for 29 minutes. That is 145 gallons a day. Multiply that by 30 days a month....4350 gallons. Now I have a swamp in my yard. Huge problem of
where to put all that water. And I do NOT have any drinking water, after 2
months of their promised Tech Support.

They have a no questions asked money back guarantee. When you ask for money back, they refer you to the terms of service on page two in fine print. It seems if you ran water through it, there is NO
WARRANTY, AND THEY WILL NOT GIVE YOU YOUR MONEY BACK. THAT IS WRITTEN IN THE WELL HIDDEN TERMS OF SERVICE. FIRST THEY SAY YOU RUINED IT. THEN THEY SAY YOU RAN WATER THROUGH IT, AND THEY CANNOT TAKE IT BACK.

I Reported to Attorney General. They always say customer did not follow instructions, and did not install properly. My plumber checked the whole system, and that was not the case.

I have since, ordered another Pyrolox filter from local plumber. No chemical mixtures. Simply plug it in, and it works great. It backwashes every 3 days, and only uses 40
gallons of water. A no brainer for me.

Hi Si Mill,

Let me suggest you edit your post to the things that you can prove.

Thank you Jake The Wonderdog.

Chem-Feeder stopped working after 23 months. Talked to "Steve" (he is a BS artist) said would talk to manufacture about warranty. When I called him back he said would cost more to fix than a new pump that is $354. This was on a Monday. Asked if ordered when would ship he said in 1.5 hours on Monday afternoon. Two days later requested UPS tracking number. It shipped late Tuesday afternoon and is stuck in Atlanta due to tropical storm Michael. When I placed order I could till he was lying to me...UPS tracking confirmed what I thought. The Terminox Iron filter worked GREAT the first year. Now I'm getting Iron after water softener. Do your home work and look for another water treatment company.

My terminox media based iron/Mn filter system stopped working some time ( I think it might have worked for a year or so) after installation. BudgetWater did try to help me but they were not able to suggest any methods to troubleshoot the root cause as to why it stopped working. According to them "it should work". So, I am looking for ways to fix the situation. I am hoping that installing an air injection system before the terminox filter will help it filter iron/Mn. I am also trying to run backwash a few times manually in addition to automated ones in the hope that it will clean it up. If anybody has any suggestions, please do let me know.

Thanks.

AJ