Protector Iron / Sulfur Breaker System
Reduce rusty stains and sulfur odors with air-injection filtration for your home or irrigation system—without salt or a chemical feeder.
No Prepay Penalty
$0 Down
No Prepay Penalty
$0 Down
✓ Treats dissolved and oxidized iron
✓ Targets hydrogen sulfide—the source of sulfur odor
✓ Automatic air recharge and backwashing
✓ Locally sized, installed and serviced
Less Rust Staining
Help protect fixtures, surfaces and laundry from iron deposits.
Less Sulfur Odor
Treat hydrogen sulfide in suitable well-water applications.
No Salt Refills
No brine tank or routine chemical-feeder replenishment.
Home & Irrigation
Choose a system sized for the water you actually use.
Lifetime
Parts Warranty*
Peace of mind with the best warranty in the industry
What is the Iron / Sulfur Breaker?
The Protector Iron / Sulfur Breaker uses oxidation and filtration to address iron and hydrogen sulfide in well water. It helps reduce rust-colored deposits, sulfur odors and iron-related fouling of plumbing and downstream equipment.
It can treat water entering your home, serve a dedicated irrigation supply, or provide iron pretreatment ahead of a water softener. The right configuration starts with your water conditions and required flow.
An Iron / Sulfur Breaker is targeted treatment. It does not replace a water softener for hardness or establish that water is safe to drink. Other concerns may require separate testing or treatment.
Rust stains, cloudy water or a rotten-egg smell?
These symptoms can point to different water conditions. Testing helps determine what needs treatment.
Clear-water iron
Dissolved ferrous iron may look clear at the tap, then form orange or brown deposits after exposure to air.
Red-water iron
Oxidized ferric iron can appear as rusty particles, reddish water or sediment that settles in fixtures.
Sulfur odor
Hydrogen sulfide can cause a rotten-egg smell. Identifying where the odor occurs helps guide the treatment recommendation.
Before You Buy Iron / Sulfur Breaker Videos
Frequently Asked Questions
( click question to see video answer )
Does the Iron / Sulfur Breaker use a chemical feeder for irrigation?
Read Video Transcript / Summary
Folks, it’s Chris here, East Coast Water Quality. You’re checking this video out because you want to know, do we use the chem feeders for irrigation systems? And if we do or don’t, why? And that’s really what I want to do is give you a quick little rundown. Also, some installation questions that we typically get with these iron sulfur breakers for the irrigation applications, what sizing, that type of thing.
Not going to be real complicated. I’ll start real quick with no, we do not use chem feeders. Why don’t we use the chem feeders, which is the Rid O’ Rust type of system that you see? We don’t like using chemicals.
They’re a pain in the end of maintenance. If you don’t continually put that chemical in there, that pump, which barely lasts a year for us, which is why we stopped selling them several years ago, they’re going to burn up if you don’t keep that chemical fed in there.
And they just flat out do not work as good as our iron sulfur breakers. These we can guarantee they’re going to work. The other ones, they work great 70 to 80% of the time. So that in a nutshell, we need you happy to refer customers for us.
Moving on to installation of the iron sulfur breakers. There’s no application, just so you know, that we can’t treat with these irrigation systems. Some people, we’ve treated homes with 15 acres. A gentleman basically had like a mini golf course and had the craziest iron sulfur you could imagine.
Didn’t want to smell the sulfur, didn’t want the iron. You say, “How’s he smell the sulfur?” Well, he actually had a 50-foot-tall fountain that would spray up in the middle of a huge pond in his yard. And the wind would constantly blow, and that actually caused staining on the house too because of that mist.
So that was 2-inch plumbing, 60 zones. Just a ginormous application. In your case, if you’re watching this, most likely you’re just in a regular neighborhood yard under an acre. That’s never going to be a problem just for our regular iron sulfur breaker. So the application is not going to be extreme.
Where can you install them? Of course, inside garages is always preferable if that’s where your irrigation pump is. However, if we have to use an external location, let’s say you have a pump outside, we can dig these things down about 24 inches.
Keep in mind, they’re not using a brine tank, so you don’t have the extra maintenance. All they’re doing is draining. They’re not using salt, so it’s not like you’re going to have to take the shelter off of it back and forth.
As far as winterizing it though, you could bleed the water out of it. If it’s in a pump where you’re already having to heat up those couple days, if you’re in our Virginia, North Carolina locations, you get those two, three days every once in a while that will freeze. You can put a little lamp in there, put a little heat source in there to keep it from freezing, but other than that, there’s not a ton to it.
Of course, we do have to plug the computer in to set the days for cycle. Any other questions that you have, feel free to reach out to us, but yeah, not real complicated. They definitely work and we feel great about them.
Thanks.
What You’ll Learn in This Video
- Why ECWQ doesn’t use chemical feeders for irrigation systems
- How the Iron Sulfur Breaker treats iron and sulfur without salt
- How the system can handle small yards and large irrigation applications
- Where an Iron Sulfur Breaker can be installed indoors or outdoors
- What to know about drainage and installation
- How to protect the system from freezing during cold weather
Does it soften water or need salt?
It does not use salt or a brine tank. Its purpose is iron and sulfur treatment, rather than hardness removal. If your water also has hardness concerns, a whole-home conditioner / softener may be recommended alongside it.
Can it be installed outside?
Yes, in a properly protected location selected for your property. The control needs an electrical connection, and the system needs a suitable backwash drain and access for servicing. Outdoor equipment must be protected from freezing; the valve’s weather rating is not freeze protection.
How much water can it treat?
The finished system’s treatment flow depends on its media, tank size, water chemistry and backwash requirements. The control valve’s 27 GPM hydraulic rating is not a promise that every Iron / Sulfur Breaker treats water at 27 GPM. We size the system for your home or irrigation zones.
What maintenance does it need?
The system backwashes and recharges its air supply automatically. There are no routine salt or chemical-feeder refills, but the control, drain, air-injection components and treatment media still need inspection and service as appropriate for your water and usage.
Whole-home and irrigation applications
Inside your home
Reduce iron staining in sinks, tubs, toilets and laundry. Where appropriate, install ahead of a softener to reduce the iron load reaching downstream equipment.
Outside your home
Treat an irrigation supply to help reduce iron deposits on surfaces reached by sprinkler water. Sizing depends on pump output, water chemistry and the flow required by each operating zone.
Small residential yards and larger irrigation applications need individual sizing. Acreage alone does not determine the equipment required.
What we check before installation
- Water conditions and treatment goals
- Household demand or irrigation-zone flow
- Well pump pressure and available backwash flow
- Plumbing access and a suitable drain
- Electrical supply and service clearance
- Weather protection and freeze prevention
Outdoor installations need appropriate protection. Ask our team for a site-specific winterization plan.
Air, filtration and an automatic cleaning cycle
Use air to prepare the water
An air charge supports oxidation of dissolved iron and hydrogen sulfide so the system can address them through the treatment media.
Capture
particles
Water passes through the media bed, which captures oxidized iron and helps treat sulfur odor before water reaches the connected plumbing.
Clean
and recharge
The automatic control runs the programmed backwash and air-recharge sequence. Backwash water carries accumulated material to a suitable drain.
Professional Installation
& Annual Maintenance
Our licensed technicians install your system the right way and test it for performance. We then service the filters annually for optimal water quality. The installation is for new customers included free with purchase.
Iron / Sulfur Breaker System Specifications
| System Type | Air Injection Oxidation (AIO) filtration for whole-home or irrigation applications |
| Primary treatment | Oxidation and filtration of iron and hydrogen sulfide (sulfur odor) |
| Salt / chemical feeder / brine tank | Not required |
| External air compressor | Not required |
| Cleaning cycle | Automatic air recharge and backwash; programmed to suit the installation |
| Service flow direction | Downflow |
| Treatment flow & capacity | Sized to your water chemistry, filter media, tank size and household or irrigation demand |
| Installation | Indoors or in a properly protected outdoor location; drain and electrical connection required |
| Routine care | No salt or chemical refills; periodic inspection and media service as needed |
| Warranty | Lifetime Parts |
Control Valve Specifications
| Valve size / construction | 1-inch valve; fiber-reinforced composite |
| Service hydraulic rating¹ | 27 GPM at 15 PSI pressure drop, including meter, bypass and 1¼-inch fitting kit |
| Backwash hydraulic rating¹ | 27 GPM at 25 PSI pressure drop, including bypass |
| Valve operating pressure² | 20–125 PSI |
| Valve operating temperature² | 40–110°F |
| Control & programming | Solid-state microprocessor; up to 6 cycles; time-clock programming |
| Drain connection | ¾-inch NPT; 1-inch NPT option |
| Valve weather rating | IP54; IP55 with optional weather cover. Neither rating means freeze-proof or submersible. |
| Valve tank compatibility | Backwash filtration tanks up to 21 inches in diameter; not the supplied system’s dimensions |
¹ Hydraulic capacity of the valve under the stated test conditions—not the complete system’s treatment flow or required backwash rate. ² Component limits; the installed system must stay within the limits of every component and the requirements of the selected treatment media.
What Our Customers Say
Serving Virginia & North Carolina
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Virginia:
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Hampton Roads VA / Northeast NC
3400 Airline Boulevard, Portsmouth VA 23701
757-966-7600
Jacksonville NC / Morehead City NC
2582 NC-24, Newport NC 28570
252-777-5151
Wilmington NC / Leland NC
1026 Appleton Way NE #130, Leland, NC 28541
910-807-2300
Raleigh-Durham NC / Garner NC
313F Highway 70 East, Garner, NC 27529
919-238-9900