Treating Iron in Well Water

[MikeFromVA]

Hello everyone,

I did read the post from about 2 weeks ago about well water treatment, but thought it would be better to start a new one to ask my questions...

I just moved into a new home with a new well a month ago. My well is 165' and draws 50 GPM. The foreman from the builder told us not not buy a water softener and that the water would improve with use (it was rust colored and smelled like rust).

I installed my own sediment filter after the first week but the rust stains on the fixtures are still pretty bad (though better than they were). I had my water tested by a water treatment company yesterday. My pH is 6.2, iron is 4 ppm, and hardness is 6. They are pushing their water softener for $2500 plus $500 installation. It includes a lifetime warranty.

I found a filter on eBay that seems pretty good and it treats just iron (not hardness). It sells for about $650 inc shipping.

I'm not thrilled w/ the idea of a softener - do I need one?

 

[cmhyland]

Mike,
I hate to say it but the short answer is yes.

Watch out for specing this out yourself. I would go with the unit engineered by a reputable dealer on this.

I have the same issue at home and I have a treatment system. Our water looks like Iced Tea untreated... It's like bottled water afterwards. The system works well and even though It requires salt and twice annual service, it's worth the money.

If the problem is not resolved there will be no living with your wife, I can assure you....

spend the money, get nice clean soft water and make the wife happy....

After all, as my friend always says: A man is only a guest in his wife's house...

Out in the barn the tables are turned....

Regards,
Chris

 

[slowrev]

Chris has a good point about keeping the wife happy, they really seem to hate yellow water for some reason ?

 

[MikeFromVA]

Best way to keep my wife happy is to save money and spend wisely...

Do I need to soften my 6 grains of hardness and raise my pH?

Let's assume that the iron filter on eBay does what it says it does and removes the iron... Is the rest necessary?

 

[MikeFromVA]

Do I really need to buy from a local vendor, or is an online purchase a good way to save in the long run?

 

[mahlers]

There's a company that has some really good systems - I've been looking at a whole house RO system for my place because we often pump straight out of the creek and the RO systems get rid of *everything* imaginable. For your application, they have an Iron Eater system that a friend of mine got, and it works great. Here's a link to it:

Iron Eater Water System

 

[pekabu]

When I bought my house Copper was high and the water was a bit acidic. My father was a plumber at the time, so I took the results to the engineer at the local plumbing supply house and he spec'd out a system. It ended up fairly close to $1000 for the system installed. (Labor was free).

 

[alco141]

i had similar specs on my well, i bought a couple of iron filters, and softeners, i went to lowes when tha last one quit, and got a waterboss, it keeps the water pretty clean, just an ocasional smell, uses less salt than i did before, the units seem to last about 5 years here, i replaced it last week, i also use iron out in the brine tank to help keep the resin clean. this is my spin on the whole deal, the waterboss cost me about 450 or so. the first time, the second time they had a model with some parts missing so i got them down to 375 as i could take the parts off the old one so i got a better deal. good luck with what ever you decide on.

alex

 

[DiskDoctr]

Mike,

This is a company I used Ohio Pure Water Co

I looked at their page, picked what I wanted, then called and asked for their advice. Their recommendation was a little different than what I picked, and once I installed it, I have never had to touch it again /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

My advice is to call and ask these guys, at least as a comparison. I save BIG $$$

-JC