Inline Sediment Filter Cartridge

Grit in the bottom of the glass. Ice that comes out cloudy. A refrigerator dispenser that slows to a trickle. Sand, silt and rust flakes ride along every water line, and on the way they clog the finer filter stages, valves and dispensers downstream. An inline sediment filter stops them first.

This inline sediment filter cartridge is plumbed directly into the water line. It captures extra-fine dirt, sand, silt, rust particles, scale particles and asbestos, with high flow and dirt-holding capacity, at a service flow of 0.5 GPM. Choose the JACO or Quick Connect fitting to match the cartridge you are replacing, and use it on refrigerator and ice maker lines, inline filter setups and point-of-use reverse osmosis systems.

At a glance

• Stops the grit first: captures dirt, sand, silt, rust and scale particles before they reach your carbon, UF or RO stage
• Protects what comes after: keeps fine particles off carbon and membrane surfaces so those stages keep doing their own jobs
• Two connection styles: JACO or Quick Connect, the same inline sediment cartridge with a 0.5 GPM service flow
• Built for the water line: rated for 20 to 60 psi and 40 to 90°F cold water
• Long service life: typically 12 to 24 months, about 18 months for most homes

What you are looking at

The photos show a sealed inline cartridge: the filter media is held inside polyolefin inner and outer wraps, closed with polypropylene end caps, and sealed with Buna-N gaskets at the end caps. There is no housing to open and no sump to clean. The whole cartridge is the replaceable part, connected to the line at each end with the fitting you choose.

How an inline sediment filter works

Mechanical filtration, not chemistry

A sediment filter works like a very fine strainer. Water flows through the media and particles that are too large to pass are held back, on the surface and through the depth of the media. Nothing is added to the water and nothing dissolved is taken out. The job is purely physical: keep suspended particles out of everything that follows.

Why sediment always goes first

Every finer stage in a water system is easier to foul than it is to replace. Silt that coats carbon granules hides the pore surface the carbon needs for adsorption. Fine particles that reach an ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis membrane settle on it and cut production. A sediment stage at the front takes that load so the carbon, UF and RO stages behind it can spend their capacity on the contaminants they were chosen to treat.

Dirt-holding capacity and flow

As the cartridge works, captured particles build up in the media. That is the cartridge doing its job, and it is also how it tells you when it is done: flow and pressure from the tap, dispenser or ice maker drop as the media fills. A heavy sediment load fills it sooner; clean city water lets it run longer.

Why fine particles matter on an appliance line

Refrigerator dispensers, ice makers and cooler valves have small passages and moving seals. Grit and rust flakes can lodge in them, wear them and leave cloudy water and ice. A sediment stage on the supply line keeps that material out of the appliance in the first place.

What it reduces

Primary targets (suspended particles):

• Extra-fine dirt, sand and silt
• Rust particles
• Loose scale particles
• Asbestos

Also reduced: cloudy water and cloudy ice when the cloudiness comes from suspended particles (turbidity).

Not designed to treat: anything dissolved in the water. That includes chlorine and chlorine taste and odor, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, nitrate, fluoride, lead and other dissolved metals, hardness, total dissolved solids, and bacteria or viruses. Dissolved iron that stains but has not yet formed rust particles also passes through. Pair this stage with the treatment your water needs, such as an Inline GAC Filter Cartridge for chlorine taste and odor and organic chemicals, or reverse osmosis for dissolved solids.

Why Crystal Quest

• The sediment stage our own systems use. This part number, CQE-RC-04037, is the inline sediment cartridge Crystal Quest specifies as the first stage in its floor-model water coolers, so you get the stage our engineers designed around.
• Two fittings, one cartridge. Order JACO or Quick Connect to match your line instead of adding adapters that create more joints to leak.
• Published operating limits. Pressure, temperature and flow are printed on this page, so you can check your line before you install.
• Over 1,000,000 people served since 1994. Crystal Quest builds under ISO 9001 quality management and has made water filtration in the USA for over 30 years.
• Lifetime support. Call, email or chat with our water filtration team whenever you have a question.

Where it fits

• Refrigerator and ice maker lines: on the cold water supply ahead of the appliance, usually ahead of an inline carbon stage
• Inline filter setups: the first cartridge in line, ahead of carbon, SMART or a specialty inline cartridge
• Point-of-use reverse osmosis: as a pre-filter that keeps particles off the membrane
• Well water and older plumbing: anywhere sand, silt or rust flakes show up in the water
• Crystal Quest floor-model water coolers: cartridge #1 (sediment) in coolers with ultrafiltration, including the TURBO, SHARP and Hybrid Ultrafiltration bottleless coolers (JACO fitting)

Common questions