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Maintaining your UV Water Filter System

Gary Monks • Oct 12, 2020

Your UV purification system is an effective and powerful water treatment method using UV-C radiation to destroy harmful bacteria and other unsafe organisms such as cysts as well as pathogens like giardia ad salmonella.

As with all water treatment systems, your UV water filter system requires annual maintenance to ensure it continues to operate effectively and to also protect the system’s performance so it can continue to protect you from disease and bacteria.

When to Change Your UV Lamp

Your UV lamps have a lifespan of about 9,000 hours and should be replaced once every 12 months. Your lamp will last about 375 days before it would need to be replaced, giving you a little bit of leeway if you forget to replace it at the 12-month mark.

It is recommended that you keep an extra lamp on hand or that you find a way to set a reminder for yourself to order a new lamp the month before your current one expires. Once the 9,000 hours are up, your system will no longer disinfect your water, and you will not be protected from bacteria and disease that could be present.

Keep in mind that when you replace your UV lamp, take the time to also replace the system’s O-rings. The O-rings work to ensure that your system has a leak-free seal. Over time, the rings will degrade and weaken, so by installing new rings; you can ensure that there is a watertight seal in the chamber, preventing damage to the system’s electrical components.

Why Do I Need to Replace my UV Lamp?

The UV lamp is given its germicidal properties by using mercury. Your glass UV lamp contains beads of mercury that create electrical arcs used to disinfect the water. When there is heat applied to the lamp, the mercury releases UV-C light, which in turn produces wavelengths that neutralize bacteria. UV-C light renders the bacteria unable to reproduce.
Over the 9,000 active hours of the UV lamp, the mercury slowly depletes as heat is continuously applied to it. Once the 9,000 hours have completed, the mercury us not longer effective at emitting the UV-C needed to irradiate the microorganisms.

Keep in mind, mercury is used at a very small amount in UV lamps, and at no point is your water directly exposed to the mercury, so this method of purification poses no health risk.