Removal of Iron from water

Wingnut · Aug 26, 2002

Mike,
great job explaining the rust.
Scott .... I had version 3 of the rust ... the iron and severe iron bacteria problem in Alberta. Apparently all shallow wells in that area end up being "infected". The place I bought had a "something" permanganate removal system .... used the powder you mentioned to filter out the iron ... and, as you stated, was a waste of time and money.
I went to a chorination system that solved all the problems ... automatic chlorinator on the well and an activated carbon filter inside. No muss, no fuss, wonderfully clean and tasty water ... with no chance of any organics in it at all ...

pete (up in Alberta right now)

heehaw · Aug 27, 2002

i'm havin a little trouble with the sand filter i use, i have a chlorinator on the well, which goes into a sand filter, well the local tool rental stopped handling sandblast sand, so the only source i have is a lumber co.; and they only carry the finest grade, which stops up real often compared to the medium grade i was using. got up this morning with no water. it just takes a few minutes to get it back, but it could become a real problem.
heehaw

dummy · Aug 27, 2002

What about your local pool supply place? They should stock a coarser grain sand.

heehaw · Aug 27, 2002

good idea, a little pricey, $11.40 for 50 lbs of sand, but its not as fine as the sandblast sand i have been using..but of course i am getting 70 lbs of the sandblast sand for $3.80..did a little more calling around and found filter sand, from a pump company, for $4.00 per 100 lbs...so that's what i'm going to do..
heehaw

Wingnut · Aug 28, 2002

You think that's bad .... $11.40??? Heck. I wigged out when I recharged the whole filter media thing .... they charged $250 (Cdn) for sand, rocks, smaller rocks, smaller rocks and pebbles ... and a 10 # bag of activated carbon.
After I figured that one out, I quickly found a new source for 10# bags of activated carbon and hand washed the filter media!!
I much preferred the media mix to straight sand ... did a good job filtering out the chlorine-attached organics and was easy to backwash. Fill and forget for at least a year.

heehaw · Aug 28, 2002

i use all the same stuff you mentioned except the carbon, but with the amount of iron in my water, you don't forget it for a year; at best we get 3-4 months till the top of the sand is crusted over with the red stuff and the water won't soak thru, so no water. it cost a lot to have the pump co. do the work, so i have always done it myself: cleaning the entire filter is pretty labor intensive, but i have found a shop vac helps a lot.
heehaw

weedsportpete · Jan 10, 2006

Resurrecting old thread - I'm replacing my water softener and contemplating also bringing in an appliance to reduce or eliminate iron. After reading this thread I realize that I need to know what kind of iron I have; all I know now is that the iron is 2.5 ppm. And that various toilets in the house are slowly getting brown (in spite of vigorous cleaning!).

It has been suggested that I buy an "Iron Buster", for around $700, in addition to the water softer, for around $500. Looking in Lowes, I see a Whirlpool WHES 40 unit that also removes iron from water, up to 10ppm. The instructions for the Whirlpool unit state that there are generally speaking four types of iron, and the unit only handles one of them. I've called my plumber back and asked him what type of iron I have.

Does anyone have experience and/or comments about combination water softener and iron removal units like this? Is it likely to solve the problem of 'yellow' color appearing? Is 2.5 ppm a large number to be concerned about? Will iron removal reduce or eliminate the sulferous smell? Our hot water heater is run on propane and we chlorinate the well about four or five times a year because of the smell. We also have a whole house 20 micron filter, a 5 micron filter and a UV lamp in line before the water hits the softener.

link to Whirlpool instructions .

Would appreciate any advice.

Thank you

tawilson · Jan 10, 2006

I'm not qualified to answer your question, but I would like to refer you and everyone else to a site I use to keep my softener running. He's quick to reply to questions and much more reasonable than Sears. softenerparts
And I considered replacing my softener last year, and noticed that Lowes puts them on sale occasionally, and sometimes Whirlpool offered a $100 rebate on anything over $400.