My Well

[crokett™]

a while back I asked about filters as the sediment filter on my well seemed to need changing with increasing frequency.  When we moved in, it was 10-12 weeks depending on how much we used.  Now it's down to 3-4 weeks.  After some research I had a company come in to scope the well.  It's expensive but I wanted to see what I was dealing with just in case it was a split casing.  The process is they pull my well pump, put their own larger one in and draw the water down, then run the camera down it.  The good news is they didn't find any problems with the casing.I have 3 hours of riveting video.   Relining it would be expensive.  They did find that a well that is/was rated at 7 GPM when it was drilled is now about 18 GPM.  This is based on their pump taking so long to draw the water down.  Their pump is rated 20-22.  We are thinking the increasing silt is related to whatever opened up in the ground.    After all of the pumping yesterday and me flushing the chlorine out today the water is running clear at the well.  It hasn't done that in a very long time.  I don't know if that will change.    

Their suggestion was an aerator type treatment for the iron in the water.  I don't have the height in my crawlspace for one.  I am limited to about 40" below the joists and maybe 48 to the subfloor.  I am wondering about a water softener, or just get a flushable pre-filter.  or both.  the water softener would be tied in after both of the filters.

[fredhargis]

Water softeners can solve the iron problem but I still wish I could do away with mine. Around us the water is so hard it clinks on your teeth when you drink it, so every house I've seen has a softener. But that makes the water you cook with and/or drink salty, something I detest. So most houses around here also have a raw water tap installed somewhere to draw drinking water (and cooking water if you want). But the newer softeners are fairly easy to live with. the old one we had with a mechanical timer recharged every 6 days, whether you need it or not, the new ones that measure water flow and recharge after so many gallons use a lot less salt, meaning my 77 year old body doesn't carry as many bags down to the basement and dump into the brine tank. I guess i wonder: is changing the sediment filter every 3-4 weeks that bad a thing? 2 houses back I had a charcoal filter for odor, a sediment filter, and a softener. I was changing the sediment filter every 2 months or so, but the charcoal filter had to be changed maybe once a month.

[blackhat]

There is an immutable law in water treatment. If you don’t know what’s there, you can’t remove it. (RO systems have changed that a bit). Get the raw water tested. After that you can choose an equipment set up. Maybe a larger disposable particulate filter, maybe sand or carbon, maybe a softener. You won’t know what’s right until it’s tested.

[sleepy hollow]

FWIW, here's my story.  I have a 315' well and have lived here 30+years.  The water was always a bit off with a slight iron taste, but we lived with it as well as the brown toilet tanks and stained bowls for about 20 years.   Then I finally got my water evaluated as part of a free testing call by a well water company.  To my surprise and pleasure, the owner told me, "Look, I could sell you a very expensive system but you really don't need it.  You have a slight iron content but otherwise your water is perfect.  Just install a whole house sediment filter."  He recommended a single 10" blue style filter.  Well, as a DIY'er I of course went overboard and bought a 3-stage 20" blue filtering system from US Water.  It cost me like $400 ( not a lot more than a single stage 20" setup) and included three filters - 20 micron sediment, 5 micron sediment, and an axial carbon filter.  I put a pressure gauge before and after the setup so I could figure out when to change the filters based on pressure differential. 

Has been working way beyond expectations.  Iron taste gone.  Toilets all clean and clear.  What's more, I now have more than 4 years on the most recent set of filters.  There never has been any pressure difference.   I originally figured I had to change at least every 12 months and did that even though the gauges showed no difference.  The 20 micron filter was dirty, but hardly restricted.    The 5 micron filter, also dirty but less so.  The charcoal filter looked the same as when installed, but I did not expect to see much obvious change with that one.  

Eventually I decided to let the filter change interval extend. As it turns out, I replaced all three filters most recently in late 2020. I regularly check the gauges as well as the toilets and the water itself of course.  It's still perfect.  I plan to change anyway in April when the weather warms a bit.  Best $400 I ever spent.  Not hard to install although 1" copper is a bit more difficult to work with than the usual smaller stuff.  Does not take up a lot of space, but needs several valves to allow bypass as well as access to read the gauges.  

My neighbors have a softener system, but our level of hard/soft is about perfect as far as showers and clothes washing go.  Plenty of lather.  Soap rinses immediately with no residue.  That was true before the filtering.    

I also used to have to clean the filters on the washer as it would collect tiny grains of iron at the strainer inlet and become restricted.  No longer have to do that.

[crokett™]

I am looking at one of these.
https://www.rusco.com/products/1-sediment-trapper

A couple of those inline with different micron size filters would be cheaper than the 400.00 for a single unit and they would do the same thing.

I think I want to plumb it in before the pressure tank (and the existing filter) but that means extending a lot of lines to have it in a convenient spot for backwashing, unless I put it out at the well and then I have to worry about it freezing.

[sleepy hollow]

I am looking at one of these. 
https://www.rusco.com/products/1-sediment-trapper

A couple of those inline with different micron size filters would be cheaper than  the 400.00 for a single unit and they would do the same thing.

I think I want to plumb it in before the pressure tank (and the existing filter) but that means extending a lot of lines to have it in a convenient spot for backwashing, unless I put it out at the well and then I have to worry about it freezing.

Here is the current version of what I installed:  https://uswatersystems.com/products/us-w...ter-system

I can understand wanting to plumb ahead of the pressure tank.  I did not consider that, frankly.  We have had one pressure tank replacement since living here and one well pump replacement as well.  So, not worth the trouble for me.  The house was built in 1985 and we bought it in 1993.  

I guess I am still unclear about what your problem actually is.  After getting your well evaluated, what recommendations did you receive?  I am no expert on water treatment, but I was not aware that a softener would deal with iron.  When I was researching my iron situation, I was always reading about filters vs. more active systems [not softeners that I recall], but water hardness was never my issue.  In fact, my iron issue was iron bacteria and iron precipitation from the water which caused the toilet stains and the clogged inlet to the washer, plus the slight after-taste.   I used a magnet to help clean the toilet tank after the filters were installed. Is your water hard and noticably unfriendly to soap? 

Did you get a water testing evaluation report?  How much iron? Did you get proposed solutions?  Did you get the details on what your sediment is composed of?  How deep is your well?  If sufficiently deep and no contamination/structural issues, then there should not be "soil" sediment, but rather something else in the well I would think, but I am no expert and it has been a few years since I was researching this.

[Snipe Hunter]

The question is.. how much iron and what kind of iron is in your water? Iron can be Ferrous, Organic, Ferric or Heme.  Water softeners do not remove very much iron (2 to 5 mg/L). Most people wouldn't worry much about 2 to 5 mg/L. Several types of systems available (Manganese/green-sand, chlorine injection, aerator/oxidization etc.) and to choose the right one, you need to know the state of the iron (Ferrous, Organic, Ferric or Heme) and you need to size it for your flow rate and expected usage. These iron removal systems will remove 10 to 15 mg/L. Do you want your hose bibs on the system or just the potable water? Most "Iron" filters remove the bacterial smell but not the iron. There's a lot more to iron removal than installing a filter or a water softener. 

What kinds of problems are you experiencing that you need to remove iron?

The downside of using a water softener to remove iron is the brine backwash function doesn't get the iron out of the media. So the iron just parks in the media filter tank and progressively becomes less efficient till it no longer filters minerals or iron.. It is intended to remove minerals like calcium and magnesium from the media so eventually the media (plastic beads) gets clogged with iron and the whole system fails and you have to empty and clean the tank and replace the media. Lather rinse and repeat. . If you water isn't very hard in the first place, it makes the problem worse as the iron bonds to the plastic beads instead of the minerals and don't get rinsed out of the tank during the brine backwash cycle. Water softeners work much better when the iron is removed before it makes it to the softener.

[sleepy hollow]

Thanks, Snipe, for the education.  We'd all like to know more about the particulars in our friend, crokett's situation.   

Your post reminded me that I was also told a filter would not work on the iron, but as I have detailed previously, my problem is solved with just filtering (as far as I am concerned anyway).  None of the "symptoms" we had for all those many years have returned since installing the system.  I guess 5 microns is pretty small so maybe it's doing something useful.  Or the well miraculously fixed itself or there was something about the old pressure tank, or maybe something else...

[Roly]

Thanks, Snipe, for the education.  We'd all like to know more about the particulars in our friend, crokett's situation.   

Your post reminded me that I was also told a filter would not work on the iron, but as I have detailed previously, my problem is solved with just filtering (as far as I am concerned anyway).  None of the "symptoms" we had for all those many years have returned since installing the system.  I guess 5 microns is pretty small so maybe it's doing something useful.  Or the well miraculously fixed itself or there was something about the old pressure tank, or maybe something else...

Follow Blackhats advice before you throw money away on something that is not the issue.   Does your state or county have a water testing lab ?  Probably at a lower cost. Roly

[crokett™]

As per the guy that did the well service last week, there's iron in the water, and iron bacteria.  or at least there was bacteria.  he shocked it.  I guess will see if it comes back. I expect it will.  I already know there's iron.  the pool store and my own testing related to my pool told me that.  I add a chelating agent to the pool as a maintenance item when it's open.  I doubt there's a well around here that doesn't have iron in it.  I don't know that he told me the PPM. His suggestion was an iron filter that uses air injection.  Something like this.  My crawlspace is not tall enough to fit one.  I'd have to figure out where else to put it.  https://www.amazon.com/DuraWater-Carbon-...118&sr=8-2

I am also looking at a sediment filter that can be backwashed to make it easier to clean and so I am not burning through so many filter cartridges. I hope the well service cleaned things up a bit, at least temporarily.