You don’t describe the condition of the water going into the filter. In any case, when using expensive filters, I always prefilter the water.
What kind of prefilter depends upon the condition of the water to begin with. If filtering pond water, for example, I always filter the water through a pillow case into a 5 gallon bucket. This removes debris that can quickly clog the more expensive filters. I have pe filtered with homemade sand and charcoal filters …also involving 5 gallon buckets.
Water entering our house through the county district, I prefilter using an inline filter on the kitchen faucet.
