The Cougar Package

A complete treatment line for a problem well, in the order the equipment needs: a sediment filter, then an iron and sulfur filter, then a water softener, then UV disinfection.

• A lab test shows grit, iron or sulfur, and hardness, all at once.
• You want a UV barrier against germs, on a well that tests free of coliform and E. coli today.
• If a test has found coliform or E. coli, the source is found and fixed first. This UV is not certified to NSF/ANSI 55 Class A, the grade for water with harmful germs in it (see the Serval).

• Remove arsenic, nitrate or PFAS — add the Jaguar for arsenic, or an under-sink RO for drinking water.
• Make water that has tested positive for coliform or E. coli safe to drink. The source is found and fixed first; the UV is a barrier for water that tests safe.

1. Sediment filter

One of three, all from Charger, chosen for your well and written on your estimate:

• a Friesian whole-house cartridge housing, up to 30 gpm, for graded melt-blown cartridges (25 to 1, 25 to 5 or 50 to 5 microns) or pleated 1–50 micron ones;
• a HYDRA self-cleaning screen (90 microns, 28 gpm) that rinses itself when you open its drain valve;
• or a backwashing media filter: 5–9 gpm of steady flow by tank size, draining 5.3–9 gpm while it backwashes.

2. Iron and sulfur filter

Chosen from your lab test. Charger’s standard is the Iron Breaker, an air-draw filter: it keeps a pocket of air in the tank that turns dissolved iron and hydrogen sulfide into particles the media traps, then backwashes them out and draws in fresh air, briefly emptying the tank of water to do it. No chemicals (Charger). Media options include Filter-Ag, NextSand, Katalox Light and catalytic carbon. An ozone generator can be added to sanitize the tank at each cleaning (Charger). The model and media are on your written estimate.

Charger Iron Breaker sizes

Tank	Media	Steady flow	Backwash (spec sheet)	Drain flow in Charger’s settings
10″ × 54″	1 cu ft	5 gpm	6.5 gpm	4–5.3 gpm
12″ × 52″	1.5 cu ft	7 gpm	7.5 gpm	6.5–9 gpm (listed for 12″ × 48″)
13″ × 54″	2 cu ft	7 gpm	9 gpm	8–13 gpm

Sizes, steady flow and backwash: Charger’s Iron Breaker spec sheet. Drain flow: Charger’s programming table, where the lower figure is for catalytic carbon and the higher for Filter-Ag, NextSand or Katalox Light. Your well has to keep up with it.

3. Water softener

A Charger CWWS1 softener sized to your water — sizes on the Bobcat page.

4. UV disinfection

A Charger Water CWUV4 unit sized to your flow — details on the Serval page.

Why this order

Charger’s UV needs hardness under 7 grains and iron under 0.3 ppm, so the UV goes last; iron fouls softener resin, so the iron filter goes before the softener.

• No system listing found for any stage as a system. The Clack valves are certified to NSF/ANSI 44, 61 and 372 (valve only). The UV makes no NSF/ANSI 55 claim.

• Each stage is sized from your lab test and your well’s flow, as on its own page.

• The smallest stage sets the flow — usually the iron filter at 5–7 gpm steady (Charger).
• For scale: a shower head uses up to 2.5 gallons a minute (gpm) and a kitchen faucet up to 2.2 gpm (federal limits, EPA).

• Each stage has its own limits, on its own sheet: the sediment filter, the iron filter, the softener and the UV disinfection.

• Salt: the softener — about 8–10 fifty-pound bags a year for 2 people on a 20-grain well (our arithmetic); the Bobcat sheet gives other households.
• Water, sediment filter: if the backwashing type is chosen, 5.3–9 gpm to the drain while it cleans (Charger).
• Water, iron filter: Charger’s iron-filter settings run a 10-minute backwash and an 8-minute rinse every 2 days, at the drain flows in the table above: about 70–235 gallons each time, roughly 13,000–43,000 gallons a year (our arithmetic), plus the tank of water the air draw empties. The media and tank size set where in that range yours falls.
• Water, softener: about 41–96 gallons each time it regenerates, by size — about 1,980–2,470 gallons a year for 2 people on a 20-grain well with a 48K (our arithmetic; see the Bobcat).
• Electricity: two valves (three if the sediment filter backwashes) plus the UV at 30–62 watts all day.

• A wall and floor run long enough for four stages and a salt tank, near your pressure tank or loop, indoors: the Iron Breaker’s plug-in transformer is for dry locations only, and no part of the system may sit where the temperature could drop below 34°F (Charger’s manual).
• A drain that can take the backwash flow; outlets that are always on, for the valves (two, or three if the sediment filter backwashes) and the UV.
• At least 10 feet of pipe from where treated water leaves the system to the water heater’s cold-water inlet (Charger’s manual). If yours is closer, the extra pipe is quoted before any work.
• Septic: the backwash and regeneration water goes to the septic system.

• Softening adds about 8 mg of sodium per liter for every grain of hardness it removes (University of Nebraska).
• On Prescott city water (4.3–7.6 grains per gallon) that is about 34–61 mg per liter. On a 20-grain well it is about 160 mg per liter. (Our arithmetic.)
• EPA advises no more than 20 mg per liter for people on a very-low-sodium diet (500 mg a day), and says older people may be more sensitive to sodium.
• Lower-sodium choices: leave the kitchen cold tap unsoftened (extra plumbing, quoted flat); add an under-sink reverse osmosis system, which removes sodium (CDC) — the Kitten; or use potassium chloride instead of salt, which Charger allows. Ask your doctor about potassium first if you have kidney or heart disease, diabetes or high blood pressure, or take medicines that affect potassium (Virginia Tech Extension).

$6,475 installed, flat, anywhere in Yavapai County. Arizona sales tax on the parts is already in that price (CreekWell’s invoice terms). What is not included is listed below.

Not bookable yet. This work costs more than $1,000, which puts it outside what CreekWell can take on until its Arizona contractor licenses are issued. The details here are accurate so you can plan and compare. Why not yet?

Included

• Installation of all four stages
• Programming the valves
• Testing before Neil leaves
• CreekWell’s two-year workmanship warranty

Not included

• Lab water testing (see Testing)
• Salt
• Replacement lamps, cartridges and media
• A drain if none is close enough — quoted first. New outlets are electrical work, arranged separately
• Extra pipe if there is less than 10 feet of pipe between the system and the water heater (Charger’s manual) — quoted first
• Loop plumbing beyond the package, quoted up front

Running costs

• Salt: about 8–10 fifty-pound bags a year for 2 people on a 20-grain well (our arithmetic; the Bobcat sheet gives other households).
• Water: roughly 13,000–43,000 gallons a year of iron-filter backwash, plus about 1,980–2,470 for the softener (2 people on a 20-grain well with a 48K; our arithmetic), and a backwashing sediment filter’s rinse, 5.3–9 gpm while it cleans, if that type is chosen (Charger).
• Power: two valves, plus the UV at 30–62 watts all day — about 260–540 kilowatt-hours a year (our arithmetic).
• Parts: a UV lamp every year, sediment cartridges or a screen, and in time media and resin.
• Neil has not published prices for this package’s replacement parts yet; your written estimate lists today’s prices before you approve anything.

Paying

• A 50% deposit sets the install date; the rest is due when it is in and tested.
• The written estimate is good for 30 days. If you cancel after the three business days the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives when you sign at home, what happens to the deposit (for example, parts already ordered for you) is written on the estimate before you sign.
• Zelle, cash or check: no fee. A card fee, if you pay by card, is shown as its own line on the estimate (payment terms).

• Charger’s is a limited warranty to the original buyer. For the softener and filter stages, Charger repairs or replaces a defective part without charging for its own factory work; you pay the shipping to send the part back.
• The 10 years are written for “any residential Pentair mineral tank”. The tank brand is on your written estimate.
• Charger does not cover: freezing, water above 120°F or pressure above 120 psi; a vacuum on the water line; damage from improper installation or maintenance, or any change from the original design; or damage from any circumstance beyond Charger’s control.
• The tank years apply only where the tanks were first installed, and the warranty does not cover consequential damages (other losses a failed part causes, beyond the part itself).
• Charger does not pay for the labor to take the old part out and fit the new one. Who pays that, in the first two years and after, is written on your estimate.
• To claim: call Neil, the installer, or Charger directly.
• Read the full warranty before you buy — it is linked under Documents.
• Charger Water’s UV sheet says to contact Charger Water for the complete UV warranty document; it is not linked here, so ask Neil for a copy before you buy.

• Before: a certified lab test (SimpleLab’s Level 1 + Bacteria, $185 at SimpleLab’s price, covers arsenic and bacteria). For iron and sulfur, Penn State says to know the iron and manganese level and form, the pH, the oxygen in the water and whether iron bacteria are present. SimpleLab’s Biofilm Bacteria test ($321 at its price) checks for iron and sulfur bacteria; it is optional, for when your report or Neil’s reading of it points to them.
• After: tested before Neil leaves — included. A bacteria retest after installation shows whether the UV is working; not included.

• Installed in order: sediment, iron, softener, UV.
• Drain lines run to code with air gaps.
• Charger’s softener manual: connect it to a supply line downstream of the outdoor spigots — past the point where the pipes to the outdoor taps branch off, so those taps are not fed softened water.
• The City of Prescott has adopted the 2024 International Plumbing Code; the county and other towns set their own.
• If a particular job turns out to need a permit, you are told before any work starts.

From the manufacturers

• Charger Friesian whole-house cartridge housing spec sheet
• HYDRA self-cleaning sediment filter brochure (on Charger’s site)
• Charger backwashing sediment filter spec sheet
• Charger Iron Breaker (air-draw iron and sulfur filter) spec sheet
• Charger Iron Breaker III brochure (how the air draw works)
• Charger programming settings for softeners and Iron Breakers
• Charger CWWS1 Hi-Flow softener brochure (2023)
• Charger Water CWUV4 ultraviolet systems spec sheet
• Charger limited warranty (the version linked from chargerwater.com)
• Charger Iron Breaker manual and warranty
• Charger softener installation manual and warranty

Independent guidance and listings

• Ohio Department of Health: UV disinfection fact sheet
• Penn State Extension: iron and manganese in private wells
• University of Nebraska: water softening (sodium, water per regeneration)
• EPA drinking-water advisory for sodium
• City of Prescott code: 2024 International Plumbing Code adopted
• EPA WaterSense: showerhead flow limits
• EPA WaterSense: kitchen faucets (federal limit 2.2 gpm at 60 psi)

These are the manufacturers’ and agencies’ own documents. Links go to their sites and can change without notice.