Clear well water, yellow coming into house

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Kristin Carman

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We have a salt and brine system. About 2 1/2 weeks ago we had a leak fixed in our well line. The water was coming out very orange after. We had the well company come back out and he said the iron in the water was oxidizing as it was filling up to the correct levels. Now the water coming directly from the well is clear and the water still has a tint in it. He came back out this week and did a hard backwash. The water looked like mud. He had us set the system to regen every other day. The water has been clear a little bit but right back to yellow sometimes orange. Could our resin be bad and need replacing?

Kristin
 

Reach4

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The softener resin may be gunked up. When you use a softener for iron removal, you are signing up for extra cleaning. The valve may need cleaning too.

Consider cleaning stuff with Iron Out. Get 152 ounce bottle of crystals.
IO10N.jpg
Iron Out® Rust Stain Remover at Menards® Citric acid also works, and smells better.
 
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WorthFlorida

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After doing a regen with iron out, at the bath tub run the cold water only and may take 20 minutes to flush out all the iron. Once the water runs clear, then run the hot water to flush out the water heater. Then do another regen with the brine. After the regen run the water to be sure it is still clear and then let the water slowly run with all hot water so the water heater water is replaced with soften water. You'll be amazed that the softener will perform like a new unit. When I did mine a week later I did another regen with iron out but at a much lower dose and the water still came out a little dirty after the regen. I just ran the cold water a few minutes to get clear water again.

If you are using salt blocks or granular you should use iron out about twice a year. Salt pellets will usually have a iron removal agent in the pellets so each regen a little iron is removed each time.
 

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Where would I put this at in the filter?
The thing that takes salt is usually called a softener. The place where you put the salt is the brine tank, and the tank with the resin is called a media tank, among other terms.

============prototype procedure attempt================
A way to use Iron Out crystals to treat your resin periodically to deal with iron. This is not an authoritative procedure, but it should be pretty good.

A softener is not the best way to deal with significant iron, but it can be economical or cash-flow positive.

1.Dissolve 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Iron Out crystals into maybe 1 or 2 gallons of warm water.(X1: option -- maybe up the dose) Pour this into the brine tank, possibly down the brine tube. Agitate if you can.

2. Let this sit for 2 hours to 2 weeks. (X2 option: move the salt aside if the salt is shallow to expose liquid, and pour the IO into the liquid.

3. Start a regeneration. Usually after backwash, the brine draw cycle starts. Get to brine draw however it happens. Let the brine get drawn until the the brine tank is almost drawn. (X2) Alternatively monitor the drain line with a TDS meter, and look for a big increase in TDS. At that point, stop the flow of water with the bypass valve. That will let the solution sit in contact with the resin.

4. Let the solution sit in the resin for a time. That time (X3) might be an hour or might be 4 hours.

5a alternative: With an electronic timer, the cycling will continue while the water is off. However since the water is blocked, the solution says in contact with the resin. Then do a full regeneration to get the solution all cleaned out.

5b alternative: If you have an electromechanical valve, you can unplug the softener, and the softener will hold in the midst of the BD cycle. After you turn the water on, brine draw will continue, and you can slowly let the brine+IO interact with the resin for maybe 30 minutes. Turn the power back on, and the regen will continue and complete. That will get more efficiency out of the solution.

Note: various old posts have tried to describe a procedure, and I have tried to assimilate those. Go ahead and criticize this procedure. Different views can be helpful in tweaking a procedure. Or better yet, point to a writeup of the procedure that you like better.

There is not just one right way.
The X1, X2, etc are reference places to assist comment on times etc.
 

Kristin Carman

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in the brine well. it's the white tube with the small white cap.
Okay I will see about doing this method! The system was here when we bought the house last year. The man who installed the filter just so happened to be who I called and he said at the time he installed the system the water had no ferric iron in it. Sometime between this May and last May a leak came about and now there is ferric iron.
 

Kristin Carman

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The thing that takes salt is usually called a softener. The place where you put the salt is the brine tank, and the tank with the resin is called a media tank, among other terms.

============prototype procedure attempt================
A way to use Iron Out crystals to treat your resin periodically to deal with iron. This is not an authoritative procedure, but it should be pretty good.

A softener is not the best way to deal with significant iron, but it can be economical or cash-flow positive.

1.Dissolve 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Iron Out crystals into maybe 1 or 2 gallons of warm water.(X1: option -- maybe up the dose) Pour this into the brine tank, possibly down the brine tube. Agitate if you can.

2. Let this sit for 2 hours to 2 weeks. (X2 option: move the salt aside if the salt is shallow to expose liquid, and pour the IO into the liquid.

3. Start a regeneration. Usually after backwash, the brine draw cycle starts. Get to brine draw however it happens. Let the brine get drawn until the the brine tank is almost drawn. (X2) Alternatively monitor the drain line with a TDS meter, and look for a big increase in TDS. At that point, stop the flow of water with the bypass valve. That will let the solution sit in contact with the resin.

4. Let the solution sit in the resin for a time. That time (X3) might be an hour or might be 4 hours.

5a alternative: With an electronic timer, the cycling will continue while the water is off. However since the water is blocked, the solution says in contact with the resin. Then do a full regeneration to get the solution all cleaned out.

5b alternative: If you have an electromechanical valve, you can unplug the softener, and the softener will hold in the midst of the BD cycle. After you turn the water on, brine draw will continue, and you can slowly let the brine+IO interact with the resin for maybe 30 minutes. Turn the power back on, and the regen will continue and complete. That will get more efficiency out of the solution.

Note: various old posts have tried to describe a procedure, and I have tried to assimilate those. Go ahead and criticize this procedure. Different views can be helpful in tweaking a procedure. Or better yet, point to a writeup of the procedure that you like better.

There is not just one right way.
The X1, X2, etc are reference places to assist comment on times etc.
Okay I will try to figure out something with all of this!! Thank you!
 
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