Yet another question about plumbing water flow

[Oldchinahand]

We all know that the first culprit to check as water flow in sink/shower/toilet diminishes is the cartridge in the whole house water filter.

Changed ours the other day and took the opportunity to sanitize the plumbing system. After draining superchlorinated water from the FW tank, chose to flush the plumbing system with city water before installing the new filter cartridge. Great water flow in the coach! Installed the new cartridge. Coach water flow diminished to good. Normal.

Looking at the old cartridge I noticed that there is a 5/32" hole in either end for water flow.

Finally, here is the question. I'm thinking that if you drilled those holes out to 1/4" or so, you would get a commensurate increase in flow. Toilet should work better, shower too. It doesn't seem as though it would affect the operation of the filter media itself.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts pro or con on making this mod? Given the price of these cartridges, am hesitant to start experimenting.

[Oldchinahand]

OK. Update.

Got a lot of views, but no responses. So decided to step out there.

New filter cartridge. Set supply water pressure regulator to 50lbs. Observed toilet as flushed several times. Put a gallon container in galley sink. Timed fill. Moved container to shower. We are using Oxygenics. Timed fill.

Turned off city water and repeated above steps using on board pump.

Drilled the 5/32 holes in each end of the filter cartridge to 1/4.

Repeated above steps. Amazing! Increasing orifice diameter by 3/32 almost doubled flow rate using either city water or on board pump. Toilet and shower much improved.

CAVEAT. We boondock a lot. Going to use the large orifice cartridge when we have city water, change to unmodified cartridge when boondocking. Don't want to run through our water twice as fast.

Can't imagine how, but if this mod damages our system, will come back with update.

[Stu and Sue]

Thanks China for that informative follow-up.