Baleen FiltersTurbo Ion Exchange Pool and Spa Pre-Filter Model: AK-ION-PF

I love this!! I have well water and live in the south, so that means iron in the ground... lots of it. The soil is orange and well water, untreated is orange too... I've filled my hot tub twice and on both occasions used my 'connections' at the local fire department to truck out city water (thinking it was cleaner). Well, the first time this worked well, but the hassle of coordinating time and getting the truck here wasn't ideal. The second time, I forgot to 'flush' the fire engine storage tank and got dirty water (pain the neck to clean, took a week)...I decided to give this product a try... I hooked it to my garden hose and after flushing the unit a bit (highly suggest you do so as there will be discolored water from the carbon within) water began to flow crystal clear!!! I was totally surprised and I really didn't expect it to work so well...The device seems to be nearly identical (only bigger) to the water filtration systems hikers use to get potable water from nasty, stagnant lakes and ponds...My only criticism, is on my unit, despite the rubber seal being 'in place' it still leaked a bit of water out the side with the hose connection... not a big deal in my use, but if this was being used indoors for some purpose, that could leave a mess...

Worked great for our hot tub! I have already recommended to all my friends and family and will definitely purchase again!

I have well water and if you leave the water out in the sun for a few hours, it turns yellow. I bought this filter in an attempt to eliminate this problem. When I filled the spa, I had access to a mixed bed de-ionizer tank, so I ran the water through the DI tank and then through the filter at a fairly slow rate. (Took 6 hours to fill the spa of about 500 gallons.)The water was crystal clear and remained that way, however the hose fitting to the filter leaked through the entire fill process. I later determined that the threads for the hose fitting are actually pipe thread. I bought an adapter at the hardware store and that fixed the leak. (The filter and the advertisement claim this is hose thread.) I'm sure most people won't have access to a DI tank, and the DI tank alone should have removed most of the iron, but I have replaced about 1/4 of the water in the spa just through the filter with no signs of yellowing.The filter also says it removes the sulfur smell and taste (hydrogen sulfide). It may reduce it some, but the taste was still strong enough that someone not used to drinking well water would not want to drink it.I don't expect miracles from a $30 filter, and it seems to be serving the purpose that I bought it for, but I felt I had to drop a star because the incorrect threads. I don't know how many of these filters have this problem, but I did notice several complaint about leaking threads. If the user doesn't have something to stop the leak with, they either have to let the leak run onto the ground, or let it leak into whatever they are filling. If it's the latter, that might explain some of the complaints about the filter not removing the iron.

We used this filter to fill our pool, we have rusty water so it takes a lot of filters and cleaning of filters after filling the pool to get the rust out. This year I found this and thought it would help. It did not help! My water is brown just like any other time and I am having to clean out the pool filter multiple times a day to eliminate the rust in the water. This pre filter did not do what it said it would do!

I had an issue with calcium hardness go through the roof in my pool water and started developing deposits on my tile. I suspect the last batch of chlorine pucks were mislabeled and had calcium hypochlorite (which that seller won’t admit or look into) as that is the only new addition to my chemical arsenal. The tap water is much lower than the pool water and the pool water is always to spec. I changed the brand of the pucks and the recommended way was to drain some of the water and refill, which I did but didn’t help much (I know it’s not totally accurate but the test strips didn’t show any changes).I purchased a 550gph water pump and rigged this with some pvc fittings and hose to filter the existing water. When I did the strip test to see what was coming out after the filter, I was amazed at the difference (see the image). Now, I have a 15K gal pool/spa so I don’t expect one filter to solve my issue and will be ordering several more until I have my calcium issue under control.An expensive fix but it would cost just almost as much as draining more water and refilling. Besides, I’m in California and hesitant in wasting more water than I’ve already have.

Great product and easy to use.

Worked perfectly for filling my spa, water is crystal clear and there are no floating minerals in it as there were before. We have very hard water where I live. I had no issues storing it either.

This is my second one of these. First one worked pretty well. This one leaks like crazy out of the end you connect a hose to. Changing washers didn't help, cranking the hose down tighter didn't help. Guess I'll use the leaky version for a while and then go find a different brand.