I added the big blue because I had a lot of sediment in my water. I had been using a water softer but after going through 4 softeners in 15 years I decided to add a pre filter. I use a 5 micron filter and change it every two weeks. I noticed no drop in water pressure and I am very happy with the big blue “clear”.WorksWe have a whole house carbon filter. The first housing split after 12 years of service (luckily our daughter was home at the time and heard something) and partially flooded our garage. Up until that time I was oblivious to the fact that it is recommended that the non-clear housings be replaced every 10 years.I wrote the date the second housing was installed and noted that it should be replaced after 8 years just to be safe. Well, the second housing just split after 6 years of service! Luckily we were home again and we were able to shut the water off after just a few minutes of spraying into the garage.Don't think I have many other options so I just installed my 3rd 20" Big Blue housing and noted that I need to replace it after 5 years of service (which is the recommended life for the clear housings). Hopefully that works out. Additional: We live in Tucson. In both instances the housings split in June when our insulated attached garage can get into the low 90s, but that is still within the max operating temp of 100F? Not sure what caused a 50% decrease in life for the second housing (more water pressure fluctuations, manufacturing defect, hotter garage etc) but be forewarned to make sure you write a replacement date on the housing you feel comfortable with.I bought this as a pre-filter to my Aquasana EQ-1000 whole house filter. I also bought the Pentek 150237 10" Big Blue Filter Housing as a post filter to the entire system (I am using the same review for both since I had the same experience with both). I also bought the brackets for the Big Blue filters found here on Amazon. I live in an area that on a good day might get 50 psi of water pressure so I wanted to keep as much of the pressure as possible. Seeing as I was lucky enough to have a 1" service line on my house, I kept the plumbing 1" up until I got to my utility room. So the filter system would have to be before the utility room on the one inch line.Installation: to connect the housings to the supply lines, I used brass compression fittings. This would allow me to completely remove the individual housings should I even need to perform maintenance. These fittings were tricky to find as I had to go to a plumbing supply store to find them. So they thread into the housing and then compress onto the 1" supply lines. Whatever you use, make sure and use plumbing tape on the threads but not pipe dope. For some reason I was told not to use that. As for the brackets, if you do not get the screws needed to attach the housings to the brackets (and you do need the brackets), they are 5/16 1¼" long lag screws. The housings are not threaded to accept screws which is why you use lag screws. Once the bracket was in place, I set a 5/16" washer on the lag bolt and then used a socket wrench to slowly start tightening the bolt in place. Just be careful and go slow and it will go in straight. Repeat for the other three. To attach the bracket to the wall, you can 3/8" bolts whatever kind suits your method of attaching it to the wall. These have to be attached to the wall with preferably something sturdy either to the studs or a board attached across the studs.Use: once everything was connected, I washed my hands thoroughly and took the O-ring and silicone lubricant that came with the housing. I spread a thin layer of the silicone lubricant in the channel using about half of what came with it. I then seated the O-ring in the channel and pressed down all around. Then I used the rest of the lube on the top of the O-ring. In the future when changing the filters, I plan on reapplying the lubricant. You can find it in your local hardware store for under a buck. I dropped in my filter and screwed in the blue bottom of the housing to the top. Once it was hand tight, I used the filter wrench to give it a little tighten. It didn't turn very much with the wrench but it seated it firmly. Open any shutoff valves to the housing and check for leaks. If there are any, immediately shut off water to the housing and tighten up areas with leaks. Once you are leak-free, be careful with the red pressure relief button on the top! It doesn't take much relieve the pressure and water will start shooting out.With my entire system in place, I did not notice any loss in pressure so this worked exactly as expected!I purchased a home with an undersized (2 7/8) whole home water filter. My well water is pretty good, but it has sediment, iron flakes, and has a slight sulfur dioxide smell. I was using 2um carbon filter from WM or HD for about $5 each, but they would clog up in ~2.5 - 4 weeks. I decided to upgrade and install a Dual BB system with a sediment pre-filter and a carbon block main with pressure gauges in between to judge filter life. Based on the smaller filter's performance I think sediment is my larger problem, because it tended to clog prior to the carbon's ability to remove the SO2.I went with a the Pentek R30-20BB Pleated Polyester Filter, because it is supposed to be reusable with a quick rinse. I haven't had to rinse it yet so I can't say how well it works after rinsing. There were many complaints that the Pentek EP-20BB Carbon Block Filter reduced system pressure by ~5 PSI. My pressure tank runs between 50 psi to 32 psi and to be honest I don't notice the pressure drop at all. My well pump is rather quick and only takes ~30s to raise the pressure back to 50psi. I suspect that's masking the filter concerns others had.The installation was pretty straight forward. I'd recommend MAP over propane for soldering as I could finish a joint with ~15s of heat. I would also highly recommend a good heat shield. I had to solder some joints next to drywall and my heat shield was able to withstand all that heat without transferring any of it to the drywall. It wasn't even warm.My only complaint is that the filter housing doesn't include a wrench. I was able to hand tighten them, but I'm sure I'll need a wrench to unscrew them. I also had to order a third filter housing as one of the original ones had broken tabs which hold the filter. The return and refund process was easy and quick. No complaints there.Hardware List from Amazon:(2) Pentek 150467 20-BB 3/4" Big Blue Filter Housing with Pressure Relief(2) Watts Housing Bracket for Big blue 10" and 20" filter housings(1) Pentek R30-20BB Pleated Polyester Filter Cartridge, 20" x 4-1/2", 30...(1) Pentek EP-20BB Carbon Block Filter Cartridge, 20" x 4-5/8", 5 Microns(3) Simmons 100PSI PRESSURE GAUGE(2) Homewerks 119-4-34-34 No-Lead Full Port Ball Valve with Drain with 1/4-Turn...Hardware List from Local:3/4 pipe, flux, solder, heat shield, MAP torch, fittings, 5/16" x 1 1/2" lag bolts, washers, etc..3 month update:Everything is still working great. At 3 months I haven't noticed any pressure drops due to filter clog, but we've started to notice some SO2 smell in the water. I pulled the pre-filter and washed it off. The tank had sediment in it and it was clear the filter was doing it's job. I pulled the carbon filter and I was surprised by how clean the tank and filter are. I couldn't see any sediment in the tank or on the filter. I decided to rinse it just because it was out.My plan is to keep using the carbon block until the SO2 becomes too bad to bear. I think the pre-filter still has another 6 months in it before I have to rinse it again.This is a long term review as this was bought January 2018 and used daily for aprox 1.5 years.For almost a two year period I ran a saltwater aquarium and to that I plumbed up an RO unit in basement and used this filter canister as my first stage. I wanted something with BIG capacity so I sought out that feature and found it easily with the self-titled " Big Blue " by Pentek.Some general thoughts:In all the time I used this, the o-ring did not fail and not a single drop was let out by that sealHuge internal capacity = huge filtering capabilityI found the pressure release valve to be quite useful to purge air from my systemA housing tool was not needed as a good hand tightening was all that was needed for my purposeThe canister and top housing are both made of heavy, thick polypropyleneTo me I felt the robustness of this gave to me the feeling of engineered quality.It worked extremely well for me, I'm sure it will work for you as well.Overall rating: 5/5Easy to install: 5/5Value for money: 5/5Helpful, is how I hope you find my reviewWorks great when you finally get it installed. It is pretty heavy and probably oversized for most homes.Please note it doesn’t come with mounting bracket or adaptors for the 1” NPT.Pros: you don’t have to worry about losing water pressure for a regular family.Received a filter housing in a box labeled Pentek model 150233 (see photo). Unfortunately Pentek model 150233 dimensions should be: 23.22" long x 7.45" wide. What was shipped is 23.22" long x 5.3" wide. Pentek model 150233 has 1" NPT connections. The item shipped has 3/4 NPT connections. A real Pentek model 150233 can fit a 4.5" diameter filter cartridge. What was shipped could not take anything more than a 3.5" diam cartridge - if that’s even a real size. Item returned but not willing to buy another as I'm likely to get the same mislabeled product.I bought this one to replace the housing that broke in half when I dropped it full of water onto the concrete floor! The replacement housing fit perfectly onto the existing base so no plumbing required.Very nicely built, Solid. I didn't get a filter wrench with it, but tightening by hand seems to work in my case.