Hello! Hopefully I'm not straying too far from the purpose of this forum. In a round about way, it does involve my softner.
We have had what I had considered what might be signs of clear water iron in our new house. Water that sat for a while seemed to turn brown. For example, the water in my brine tank is brownish once the water comes in sight if I let the salt get too low. I was using solar salt. And where the water dispenser on the fridge (unsoftened) drips a bit after each glass, we have a brown deposit. On a tub we hadn't used for six months, the water came out brownish when we turned the tap on. And the toilet tanks had a brownish residue on the sides of them up to water level.
I know that the items above are a mix of softened and unsoftened water, but the prior owner was a bit of a putzer who tended to screw with things. We have one of the softners where you dial in hardness and number of people and I had no idea if his settings were right. So, I figured I'd get a water sample to confirm my softner settings and test for iron at the same time.
While I was waiting i thought I would try Iron Out and see what happened. Followed the instructions for toilet tank cleaning (pour 1/2 cup in overnight and let sit), they came out white and near spotless. Did a cleaning on my water softner per the instructions, I can tell you that the water went clear in the brine tank after adding it.
Then my test results came back. 326 mg/l hardness, which I think is roughly 22 grains if I did the calc right. No iron. Assuming this test is valid (I followed procedures and the lab is private/state certified) then I appear to be barking up the wrong tree.
I am running a 50 micron big blue filter after the pressure tank, but that would be it for water filtering. When I change it, there is a very thin layer of reddish stuff which easily comes off. I can rub it between my fingers and it has no granularity or anything, just smooth.
Any thoughts? Should I retest? I'm no professional, but would assume an iron test would be hard to screw up. Will Iron Out put other substances back in solution (ie my water going clear and the toilet tank cleaning)? My only other wild guess is I have a bit of clay in my water, but it's only a wild guess and I would assume would need to be confirmed by a professional.
Thanks for any thoughts!
We have had what I had considered what might be signs of clear water iron in our new house. Water that sat for a while seemed to turn brown. For example, the water in my brine tank is brownish once the water comes in sight if I let the salt get too low. I was using solar salt. And where the water dispenser on the fridge (unsoftened) drips a bit after each glass, we have a brown deposit. On a tub we hadn't used for six months, the water came out brownish when we turned the tap on. And the toilet tanks had a brownish residue on the sides of them up to water level.
I know that the items above are a mix of softened and unsoftened water, but the prior owner was a bit of a putzer who tended to screw with things. We have one of the softners where you dial in hardness and number of people and I had no idea if his settings were right. So, I figured I'd get a water sample to confirm my softner settings and test for iron at the same time.
While I was waiting i thought I would try Iron Out and see what happened. Followed the instructions for toilet tank cleaning (pour 1/2 cup in overnight and let sit), they came out white and near spotless. Did a cleaning on my water softner per the instructions, I can tell you that the water went clear in the brine tank after adding it.
Then my test results came back. 326 mg/l hardness, which I think is roughly 22 grains if I did the calc right. No iron. Assuming this test is valid (I followed procedures and the lab is private/state certified) then I appear to be barking up the wrong tree.
I am running a 50 micron big blue filter after the pressure tank, but that would be it for water filtering. When I change it, there is a very thin layer of reddish stuff which easily comes off. I can rub it between my fingers and it has no granularity or anything, just smooth.
Any thoughts? Should I retest? I'm no professional, but would assume an iron test would be hard to screw up. Will Iron Out put other substances back in solution (ie my water going clear and the toilet tank cleaning)? My only other wild guess is I have a bit of clay in my water, but it's only a wild guess and I would assume would need to be confirmed by a professional.
Thanks for any thoughts!
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