StillSmart

Hello.
Just refilled the carbon filter in the Assencia. It was quite easy and not at all messy. The ceramic filter however is a different matter. I have just seen one on ebay at £25. Can these be re-cleaned or can another product replace it?? thought someone may have come across a cheat. Please advise.
Best Regards All.

I tried every trick in my book to do something with the ceramic filter but the only thing I found any good to extend it's working life was to give the outer surface a good scrubbing with a stiff brush to keep it clean and fresh. Don't forget the lower filter cleans every drop that passes through the upper filter so it may not be the big problem many think once the Carbon in the lower filter is changed frequently.

The cost of the Ceramic filter is the Achilles Heel of this filter but the system is exceedingly good at what it does and the Ceramic cartridge does last a very long time even by the manufacturers standards.

I'm pretty sure they say the carbon ones good for 45litres at 40% and the ceramic one will last 10 times that, I've re-filled my carbon one a couple of times now but never replaced the ceramic one, just cleaned it like Aidan suggests.

It's worth noting the ceramic one is responsible for the speed liquid through the filter, you can soak it upside down in water as recommended by Essencia to purge it of any air, mines got slower recently but I plan to soak it upside down in spirit as I don't want any water in it.

What does the ceramic filter do? I'd expect that it just filtered out larger particles. That might be a concern for regular water filtering, but seems not useful for what we are filtering.

Sorry Swine,no known cheat for the ceramic filter.
That is interesting Chuck,I assumed the opposite;that the ceramic filter dealt with smaller particles.
And as such was the filter that dealt with (tap) water impurities.
But the Carbon filter comes next....
WTF do I know?
Other than it works,and the Carbon filter can be re-charged and the ceramic one lasts a while.
Mine has "airlocked" again,due to lack of use,so I plan to recharge the carbon,and resoak.
Loving Anavarins suggestion of doing it with spirit.
That had not occurred to me.
Just loving the suggestions here.

Robert.

Based on what little I know of back country water filtering, I as assuming the ceramic cartridge would be doing what this does: http://www.mec.ca/product/5001-248/msr- ... &q=ceramic

The carbon removes other substances by adsorption.

Yeah the ceramic one removes the smell and colour, I've put rum aged in oak though mine and it's come out crystal clear.

Ive been reading a bit on carbon filtering and it seems the best way is to pump the liquid up though a filter filled with carbon in order to prevent channeling, I'm working on a system with a bit of tri-clamp pipe filled with carbon and with a filter disk at each end, it'll be attached to the side of stainless container with a pump taking liquid out the bottom, pumping it up through the pipe and back into the container, it could be left running continuously, until I'm happy with the taste.

Just been sorting the cuts from my latest batch of neutral, just as I added the last 2 litres of water to the batch, to proof it down to 40% and it all went a little cloudy :-(

I've heard of this happening sometimes, but it's never happened to me before, I know you can add some more alcohol to bring it back over 50%, and this can make it clear again, but I didn't have any more, so into the Essencia it went, fingers crossed it will come through clear, sure enough, it is :-) Happy Days

Maybe too much tails went in or maybe it was the fact that I boiled all my water last night, I'm in Lancashire and we have some beasties in our water at the moment and are being advised to boil everything until some time next week.

I boiled all my water last night, I'm in Lancashire and we have some beasties in our water at the moment and are being advised to boil everything until some time next week.

I should chuck some barley in it. Make it just a bit smoother ☺

A slight modification to the Essencia with an 8lt Kilner Jar

It's not very stable but it's got potential

Modified stabilisers should do it.
Nice thinking outside of the box there Anavrin.

Robert.