iron in our new well ?

nightshade

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okay so we get the well at our new place and are greatly relived to have 20 gal a minute and not be down that far. We are 160ft which 140 of casing in gravel. We figured that it would be cloudy til the sand veins cleared out so at first weren't really concerned with the color. We ran it for a week 3-4 hours a day trying to clear it up before we got the okay to move in on Tuesday. It was still a little cloudy from time to time but did not look bad out of the hose so no worries.

Well we move in and discover that the crew setting up the house opened the lines to the whole place before they were ever flushed, big mess. SO this hid the issue on us for two days. Yesterday was the first we had even tried to use the water for anything besides try to run it clear. This is when we figured out that it has a lot of iron in it. Like turn the tub orange lot in it. Now it is not always that way.

Over the past two days we have watched it vary from barely cloudy but still has the irony taste my hubby remembers from the farm he grew up at as a kid and I remember from my Pappy's farm. To the turn the tub orange strength.

The well guys came out this morning and got a sample to test to see what exactly we are looking at and what we can do about it. IT was practically crystal clear when he was there. I told him " you should have been here at 5 this morning when I wanted to take a bath and it was orange, then you would have gotten a good sample" He just looked at me funny looked at the "clear" sample in his hand. And replied " well this will tell us if there "is" anything going on" Errr

Anyway does anyone have any suggestions on types of filters ect. that would work well with iron concentrations? I know that there is know way I can hook up a washer with water that one minute can be perfectly clear and the next bright iron oxide orange.

I would really appreciate any advice before Mr. fix it shows back up and tries to feed me a line of bull. :/
 

big brown horse

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We have a whole house filter system. The filter is supposed to be changed every month, but we change it about every 2-3 months. We also have lots of iron in the water, but with the filter I don't taste a thing and it doesn't turn our white clothes red or anything. The filter runs about $14 at lowes or even at the local hardware store.

I don't think it would take much to install it there is a shut off valve before and maybe after it, I believe, but that is about it. Very easy to change too.
 

patandchickens

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It depends what kind of iron in the water. A whole-house filter may help some in some cases (and is not a bad idea in general, even aside from iron issues IMHO) but in many cases it won't really do much at all.

Unfortunately, for some iron-in-the-water problems there is not a whole lot you can do short of rather expensive, wasteful and often-finicky systems. There are a lot of places in southern Ontario with pretty significant iron problems and quite a lot of people just use a laundromat, drink bottled water or get used to the iron-y taste (if the water tests within potable limits) and get used to having orange bathtubs and toilets.

I'm not trying to be depressing, and it may be that you can improve the situation substantially with a whole house filter or a filter plus water softener; but it depends what kind of iron is in the water, and how much.

Good luck,

Pat
 

dinesh

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big brown horse said:
We have a whole house filter system. The filter is supposed to be changed every month, but we change it about every 2-3 months. We also have lots of iron in the water, but with the filter I don't taste a thing and it doesn't turn our white clothes red or anything. The filter runs about $14 at lowes or even at the local hardware store.

I don't think it would take much to install it there is a shut off valve before and maybe after it, I believe, but that is about it. Very easy to change too.
There is lots of way to make water pure and deserve to drink with the help of traditional modes or with advance technical modes. But I give preference to advance technology. Because there is no complete gurantee to kill germs and reduce iron by means of traditional modes. Experts have suggested us to use advance Refrigerator Water Filters because system is tested before put into practice. This will certainly help us from possible health hazard.
 

valmom

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Our last house had a lot of iron in the water- red iron and "clear water" iron (that's what they called it- the water wasn't always red, but could turn red if you boiled it or washed laundry with it). When we moved in there was a whole house water softener. I didn't like the thought of all that salt running into the septic system, so shut it off. Big mistake- everything including laundry turned red. Put the softener back online and it was OK. Not great, but much, much better. We also had a whole house filter on the line that was really easy to change- like the kind Dinesh describes.
 
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