Lead Filter Cartridge

An older home. A lead service line on the city map. A water test that came back with lead on it. Lead has no taste, color or smell, so the only way to know is to test, and the way to act on a result is a stage built specifically for it.

This Lead Filter Cartridge is that stage. It combines three media that each attack dissolved lead a different way: catalytic granular activated carbon, Crystal Quest's Eagle Redox Alloy and cation-exchange resin. It drops into Crystal Quest countertop, under-sink and whole house housings in four sizes, with published capacities from 10,000 to 160,000 gallons.

At a glance

• Built for lead: a three-media blend designed to target dissolved lead
• Two ways to capture lead: ion exchange on the resin and redox reaction on the copper-zinc alloy
• Catalytic carbon in the blend: for chlorine and chloramine taste and odor, which also protects the resin
• Published capacity per size: 10,000 to 160,000 gallons at under 100 ppm hardness
• Four sizes, 0.5 to 6 GPM, for countertop, under-sink and whole house housings

What you are looking at

A drop-in cartridge holding a mixed granular bed of catalytic carbon, redox alloy granules and cation-exchange resin beads, sized by actual diameter and length: 2-7/8" x 9-3/4", 2-7/8" x 20", 4-5/8" x 9-3/4" and 4-5/8" x 20". Cartridge color can change between production runs. Each end cap has 1-micron pads behind its openings.

How a lead filter cartridge works

Where lead comes from

Lead rarely starts in the source water. It enters as water sits in contact with lead service lines, lead solder and older brass fixtures, especially when the water is soft or slightly acidic. Most of it travels as dissolved lead ions, and some as tiny particles shed from pipe walls.

Cation-exchange resin

Cation-exchange resin is a bed of polymer beads covered in negatively charged sites that hold positively charged ions. Dissolved lead is a positively charged ion that the resin holds on to strongly, so as water passes, lead is pulled onto the beads and a less objectionable ion is released in its place.

Eagle Redox Alloy

Eagle Redox Alloy is Crystal Quest's high purity copper-zinc granular media. It works by oxidation and reduction, a direct exchange of electrons with metals in the water: dissolved lead is converted at the alloy surface into a form that stays on the granules. The same reaction neutralizes free chlorine.

Catalytic carbon

Catalytic carbon reduces chlorine and chloramine taste and odor and adsorbs organic compounds. Removing chlorine early in the bed also helps protect the resin, which lasts longer in chlorine-free water.

Why hardness matters

Calcium and magnesium are positively charged ions too, and they compete with lead for space on the resin. That is why every capacity figure is published at under 100 ppm hardness. Harder water shortens the life of the cartridge; ask us about softening or pre-treatment if your hardness is high.

What it reduces

Primary target:

• Dissolved lead

Also reduced by the media, where present (a capability of the media, not a separate tested rating for this cartridge): some other dissolved heavy metals, through the same ion exchange and redox reactions, and chlorine and chloramine taste and odor, through the catalytic carbon.

Particulate lead: a granular bed is not a fine mechanical filter. In a multi-stage system, a 5-micron stage such as the Coconut Based 5-Micron Carbon Block Filter Cartridge catches fine particles ahead of the lead stage.

Not designed to treat: bacteria and viruses, fluoride, nitrate, arsenic, total dissolved solids, or hardness. For those, Crystal Quest offers the Ultrafiltration (UF) Water Filter Membrane, dedicated fluoride, nitrate and arsenic cartridges, and reverse osmosis.

Test, then treat

Because lead is invisible, test your water before you install this cartridge and again after it is in service, and keep testing on a schedule. A before-and-after result is the only way to know the stage is doing its job in your home. Our team will help you read the report.

Why Crystal Quest

• Three mechanisms, one cartridge. Ion exchange, redox and catalytic carbon each work on lead or on the conditions that affect it.
• Capacity you can plan around. Every size publishes a gallon estimate and the hardness condition it applies to.
• 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

• Specialty single systems: the lead cartridge on its own
• Specialty double systems: SMART Plus first, then the lead cartridge
• Specialty triple systems: carbon block, then SMART Plus, then the lead cartridge

A larger capacity does not make a different size fit your housing. Pick the size printed on your current cartridge or in your order history: 2-7/8" x 9-3/4" (CQE-RC-04148), 2-7/8" x 20" (CQE-RC-04149), 4-5/8" x 9-3/4" (CQE-RC-04150) or 4-5/8" x 20" (CQE-RC-04151).

Common questions