Waterco MultiCyclone 16 Centrifugal Pre-Filter

The Waterco MultiCyclone 16 is a centrifugal pre-filter that sits between the pump and your main filter and takes the heavy sediment out of the water before the filter ever sees it. There is no media inside and nothing moves. Sixteen hydrocyclones do the work, and Waterco rates it to intercept up to 80 percent of the incoming dirt load.

How it works

Water enters each hydrocyclone at a tangent and spins. Sediment is flung to the wall and spirals down into the clear collection chamber, while the cleaned water reverses in the center and exits through the top. Because nothing is trapped in a mesh or bed, the flow rate stays the same no matter how much sediment has collected. Only material heavier than water is separated; floating debris still goes on to the pump basket and filter.

Maintenance

Watch the sediment build in the clear chamber, then open the purge valve. About 4 gallons of water flushes it clean. Ahead of a sand filter, that can stretch the interval between backwashes to as little as once a year, which saves a great deal of water over a season.

Installation

Mount the unit vertically with flow from bottom to top, leave at least three pipe diameters of straight pipe on either side, and put it somewhere the purge valve is easy to get at. The box includes the complete MultiCyclone 16 assembly, two 2 in. PVC unions, the purge valve and a 9 in. backwash pipe with a 90 degree elbow.