No water after filter changes

[Roffensian]

Hi all, sorry to be the guy who registers just because I have a problem, but... I have a problem!

Living on an island in the Caribbean where our water comes from a rain catchment cistern. Pump keeps a pressure tank between a given range and water leaves the pressure tank to go through a three filter system - two cartridge and one UV. There are no pressure valves on the filter housings. There are shut off valves immediately before the intake to the filters and immediately after the outlet.

Today I changed the two cartridge filters by shutting off the two valves and then unscrewing the housings. First time I've had to do it here, although changed cartridge in a single filter system at a previous house many times. I also unscrewed the third housing (the UV one) because I wasn't thinking. Changed the filters, screwed the cartridges back, including the UV, opened the outlet valve, opened the inlet valve and heard the water surge from the pressure tank into the system.

But...

I now have no water from any faucet / toilet. It's like there's an airlock in the filter housings. I've tried removing and reattaching, I've turned the water back on with all faucets in the house open - nothing. Can anyone point me at what the problem might be?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Roffensian]

OK, figured it out - sort of. The second (charcoal) filter doesn't appear to be a filter. It wasn't allowing any water through at all. Everything here is low quality Chinese so likely a faulty production. As soon as I removed that filter everything worked fine.

 

[wpns]

OK, figured it out - sort of. The second (charcoal) filter doesn't appear to be a filter. It wasn't allowing any water through at all. Everything here is low quality Chinese so likely a faulty production. As soon as I removed that filter everything worked fine.

It doesn’t have a plastic wrapper on it to prevent carbon dust from escaping before it’s put into use, does it?

 

[Roffensian]

It doesn’t have a plastic wrapper on it to prevent carbon dust from escaping before it’s put into use, does it?

No, I did think of that. It looks externally identical to the carbon filters I used in Canada previously. I'll have to take it apart / cut through it to see what's going on inside.

 

[wpns]

Just cut the first outer layer and see if a clear plastic shrinkwrap has been applied.

 

[ChimpWithTheWrench]

OK, figured it out - sort of. The second (charcoal) filter doesn't appear to be a filter. It wasn't allowing any water through at all. Everything here is low quality Chinese so likely a faulty production. As soon as I removed that filter everything worked fine.

That's bizarre. The water was literally blocked and couldn't get through?