How to Clean a Carbon Water Filter — A Complete Walkthrough

Your water filter does a lot of heavy lifting, trapping contaminants and keeping harmful stuff out of your drinking water. But over time, all that buildup takes a toll. That’s why knowing how to clean a carbon water filter properly can save you money and keep your water tasting great.

There are plenty of water purifiers out there, and they all eventually need attention. No matter the size or price, every filter accumulates particles and residue that reduce its effectiveness.

Now, you could just buy a new filter every time. But if you’d rather save a few bucks and get more life out of your current one, cleaning is the way to go. You can also build your own DIY charcoal water filter for emergencies. Here are 10 straightforward steps to get your carbon water filter clean and working like new again.

What Is a Carbon Water Filter?

A carbon water filter is a type of filter that uses activated carbon to remove small, organic compounds and make water suitable for drinking or industrial use.

What Is Activated Carbon?

Activated carbon is a processed form of carbon which has a greater surface area, enabling it to have more space to hold pollutants. Generally, you can find activated carbon from carbon-containing sources like wood, bamboo, coconut shell, coals, and many others. You can purchase bulk activated charcoal for larger filter systems.

Studies show that one gram of activated carbon has more than 3,000 square feet of space capacity. That means a lot of parking spaces to house all these harmful toxins after the filter traps them successfully.

For a normal carbon to become an activated carbon, it has to go through thermal or chemical processes to expand its full adsorption abilities. Activated carbon is a widely used substance in so many fields including, but not limited to, medical, industrial, agricultural, water and air filtration, cosmetics, and environmental applications.

How Does a Carbon Filter Work?

The use of carbon filters dates back to prehistoric times. Over many generations, experts have explored configurations to maximize its application.

Carbon filters work by way of adsorption. While absorption works by absorbing the particles as a sponge does, adsorption on the other hand attracts the particles, making them attached to the filter.

When activated, the carbon expands opening its pores and the water filter then starts adsorbing. However, the adsorption process is dependent on some factors.

These factors include the pore size and surface area of the filter, the chemical components of both the carbon source and the pollutant, water temperature, and the contact time, or simply put, the amount of time the water runs through the carbon filter.

With a vast surface area, carbon filters can effectively screen the pollutants letting them stick to its surface as long as there’s still space in it. The activated carbon layer inside filters out a wide range of contaminants and impurities from drinking water. You can also explore inline carbon water filters for specific applications.

Apart from this, carbon filters are very efficient in reducing the water’s taste and odor.

Carbon filters are very effective in removing chlorine byproducts and volatile organic compounds, commonly known as VOCs, in order to produce purified water. The activated carbon filter helps to dechlorinate the water, but in the long run, it will slowly decline and deteriorate.

So far, there’s no known filter that’s capable of removing all contaminants from water. Even carbon can’t filter all these larger impurities, some of which are dissolved minerals, salts, and heavy metals like lead, arsenic, or iron among others.

These ones will just easily pass through the filter and go directly to your water supply.

With this inability, experts usually add some other components to increase the filter’s reduction capabilities. A multi-stage water filter combines carbon with other media for more full contaminant removal.

Do I Have To Clean the Filter or Just Buy a New One?

In some scenarios where you barely even have time to clean your room let alone all the filters you’ve in your household, the process becomes tedious and time-consuming. You may prefer to just buy new ones than take your time thoroughly cleaning the existing ones and reuse them after.

Try to think of it just like your toothbrush. You’ve to replace it every three months so it can perform better.

This goes the same with a water filter. It works better when it’s clean and your water is much safer to drink.

Eventually, the organics in water as well as the toxins will fill up all the spaces and will block the pores of the carbon. So either replacing or cleaning them is fundamental. Learn about the dangers of not changing your water filter to understand the risks.

While filters may not really be that expensive as it’s indeed a low-cost option, cleaning them remains a better alternative instead of simply throwing them out. There are also others that are a bit skeptical about this whole cleaning procedure as it doesn’t completely convince them that it’s as effective as installing a new one.

Or that the filter may somehow lose its capabilities to block contaminants from getting into the water after so many times of cleaning it. For some, if you’re just keen at frequently cleaning it, this can save you some bucks and more.

So, for those who like to understand and learn the process, we hope that the following steps below are helpful enough to make you more comfortable in cleaning your water filter.

Cleaning a Carbon Water Filter (10-Step Guide)

Allow us to walk you through the 10 steps on how to clean a carbon water filter.

Step 1: Safety First

Just like all procedures involving sanitation and health, you must observe proper caution. This process involves the use of chemicals, so safety should be taken very seriously.

Since you’ll be dealing with an acid and water mixture, wear protective gear including acid-resistant gloves, a face mask, and goggles or eye protection. You may also consider wearing protective clothing that covers all exposed skin areas.

Step 2: Prepare the Tools

In order to prepare the cleaning mixture you need the following items:

• Two plastic pails or buckets (one for the mixture, one for later)
• A small bottle of muriatic acid
• Glass measuring cup
• Plastic stirrer

These are common household items that you can easily gather, nothing really special. If you don’t have them you can actually improvise, except the muriatic acid as it’s the most critical item in the list and is key to getting the job done.

You can source or buy muriatic acid from any home improvement or pool supply store in your area. If you’d rather replace the filter entirely, check out sediment water filter options or a countertop water filter. It’s a very common cleaning item so you won’t have a hard time getting it, even in a supermarket’s cleaning supplies section.

For the pail or bucket, it can be any plastic container but it must be deep enough to accommodate half a gallon or almost two liters of water and is durable for an acid-water mixture. As for the glass measuring cup, find anything close and handy but it must be glass, else there’s a high chance that it will be susceptible to breaking.

The stirrer can be improvised from plastic materials. You can try cutting two long pieces from a used plastic bottle and combining them together tightly.

Step 3: Prepare the Mixture

In this step, you’ve to be extra cautious as not to spill the acid into your bare hands or skin. Muriatic acid is hazardous so you’ve to take the basic safety measures.

Getting in close contact or inhaling the acid can be dangerous to your health. At some point, too much vapor in the air can easily get to your system and may cause burning in your nose and throat, coughing, severe headache, vomiting, and other sicknesses.

You must wear a mask that’s very good at filtering out the mist so it prevents you from inhaling it.

To create the acid solution:

1. Take one bucket and fill it with half a gallon (about 1.8 liters) of clean water 2.

Make sure the water is at room temperature 3. Fill two cups (16 ounces total) of muriatic acid into the glass measuring cup 4.

Add the muriatic acid carefully into the bucket with clean water, not the other way around 5. Stir consistently and continuously for even distribution of the acid

Step 4: Rinse the Filter

Besides the fact that after some time excessive dirt and residue fill the water filter, if it’s unclean it eventually loses its reduction capabilities. This can cause the harmful toxins to just flow directly to your supply.

You can just imagine that a little filter can eventually amass so much dirt, building and rising over time. If you don’t pay attention to it, this may somehow make the water unsafe to drink, risking your health.

Using a hose, preferably with a high-pressure nozzle, wash your filter off thoroughly so you can take out as much of the debris and excess gunk as possible, even the rust and calcium buildup. If you’re thorough in the process, better rinse off all the sides to make sure you cover all the areas.

Step 5: Soak the Filter

Hosing off the filter can only get rid of the junk and excess dirt visible on its layers. However, soaking it into the solution is for sanitizing and thorough cleansing, which is what the filter really needs for it to properly function again.

Now, after rinsing, immerse the filter into the bucket with the water-acid mixture and allow it to sink to the bottom. You can take the bucket to a spot or any well-ventilated area and leave the filter to soak for about a week.

Worst case, you don’t wish to find your solution spilled over onto the ground or concrete. The muriatic cleaning solution will be spent and neutralized at some point due to chemical reaction.

Nevertheless, it’s still a mess and may still be a harmful one, adding to the fact that you need to start the process all over again.

Step 6: Monitor

You need to let the filter soak in the solution for about five days for effective and thorough cleansing. This is also to guarantee that you completely get rid of all the unpleasant debris and contaminants from it.

Allowing it to sink in a longer period takes much more of the buildup, and in a way it cleanses and refreshes the carbon which is inside the filter. You can consider this as the most important step in the whole process since it gets your filter back as sanitized and safe to use again.

During the five-day period, you’ve to constantly check on the solution making certain that it’s at room temperature. It’s possible that any variation in the temperature, an incline or decline, may somehow reduce the effectiveness of the mixture in cleansing off the filter.

Step 7: Prepare the Second Bucket

Now it’s time for the second bucket. Take it out and fill it with half a gallon of clean water, the same amount as the first time (about 1.8 liters).

This step prepares for the final rinsing when you take the water filter out of the acid solution.

Step 8: Take the Filter Out

After five days, you can finally take the water filter out from the water-acid solution. Though the mixture is likely neutralized at this point, consider using tongs to pick up the filter just to be safe.

Carefully place the filter into the second bucket with clean water. Let the filter stay there and soak for about five minutes.

This is just enough time to prepare the carbon water filter for the final rinse.

Step 9: Rinse the Filter

This is the final stage of cleaning the filter. Using a hose, that high-pressure one, do a final rinse of the filter on all sides and areas.

Hose it off thoroughly so you can be really certain that you wash off all traces of the acid solution from it. Take your time in doing so.

You don’t want to taste any acid mixture left on it when it goes back into your water system. You’re at this last step anyway and you’ve waited for five full days to complete the process.

To attend to this one remaining task with full care may not really do much, but then again, we aim to do all things better as much as we can.

Step 10: Reinstall

Once you’re sure the filter is completely clean and sanitized, you’re free to reinstall it. Your carbon water filter is now clean, safe, and ready to use again. If your filter gets stuck during removal, see our guide on how to get a water filter unstuck.

Repeat these same steps for all the filters you’ve in your household. If you have a whole house water filter, the cleaning process is similar but may require additional steps. Regular cleaning extends the life of your filters and keeps your water quality high.