Help with well water treatment in illinois

[Jrhenry24]

Hi. I'm new to this site and water treatment. Thanks in advance for your help.

I recently sent my well water to be tested at karlabs. I have a capital water softener set up with a fleck 5600 meter. It is approximately 13 years old. In the spring I would like to install a new pump, water tank, and any other filters that are necessary as well as do any repairs necessary to my softener and copper pipes. I am looking for suggestions on what I need to have good drinking water and regular water in my home. Here are the results of the test.

All results are mg/L unless stated otherwise. It was the basic test. Anything not listed was not found in the well water.

Barium. 0.18
Calcium 86.8
Iron. 0.11
Magnesium. 45.8
Manganese. 0.176
Potassium. 4.2
Sodium. 7.0
Strontium. 0.4
Sulfur. 15.5

Alkalinity. 328
Bicarbonate. 327
Carbonate. 0.61
Chloride. 20.9
Conductivity. 751 micromhos/cm
Corrosivity langeller. 0.3 su
Corrosivity ryzar. 6.8 su
Fluoride. 0.15
Hardness. 405
Hardness. 23.6 gpg
Nitrogen nitrate. 0.5
Ph. 7.3 su
Salinity. 0.377
Silica. 11.5
Sodium ads ratio. 0.19
Sodium adsorption ratio. 0.15
Sulfate. 46
Turbidity. 1.88
Total dissolved solids. 500

 

[Reach4]

Water looks good. Your copper is safe.

Unless you have a sulfur smell, you may just need your softener if it is working. If you are one of those who does not mind a little iron, you could just drink the water as is. Your water is hard. Some iron and manganese. A softener could deal with such levels.

How is the softener doing now? It may be that your softener needs some care... maybe cleaning with Super Iron Out, or maybe new resin. Are you using the iron-treating version salt pellets?

I would sanitize the system (well and plumbing)... maybe now. For sure after the well work.
The first line of https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ has a link to a nice sanitizing article, but then I go into my possibly-overkill extension.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

Agreed, your water looks fine for POE use. For drinking water I would recommend a high quality RO system, not an ebay special.

Considering your 5600 is 13 years old, a valve rebuild and new resin/riser assembly would be a good idea. Once that is complete you should be good for another 13 years...

 

[Jrhenry24]

There is no sulfur smell. I have a very old galvanized air over water tank that is getting rusty. I plan on replacing it and all the rusting galvanized piping attached to it. If i switch to a diaphram style tank will that cause the water to smell?

The softener settings were adjusted recently and it seems to be helping. The water was leaving scale everywhere and brown rust on the bathtub. I had used iron out pellets in the past but in the last two years i had gotten away from them due to them not always being available where i shopped. I can start buying them again. They seemed to help in the past

In the spring I will sanitize the system, currently we are only drinking bottled water. Is the reverse osmosis worth it for our water and which ro system would you suggest? I will do the valve rebuild and resin/riser assembly in the spring. Should i also replace the resin then?

 

[Reach4]

There is no sulfur smell. I have a very old galvanized air over water tank that is getting rusty. I plan on replacing it and all the rusting galvanized piping attached to it. If i switch to a diaphram style tank will that cause the water to smell?

Maybe not. Maybe.

Sanitizing with a flooding volume could help.

 

[ditttohead]

Definitely a good time to refurbish the system, it will basically be new.

The RO is a good treatment method as it will reduce the majority of all contaminants including the sodium that the softener adds.

As to the sulfur smell, an air over water tank tends to lessen the smell if it exists. A bladder tank does not have the air pocket or the air purge which can help reduce the smell. Unknown as to wether the new tank will change that.

I would also recommend using a simple acid drip system in the brine tank. Much simpler and very effective for low iron applications.