Water Test Results - Recommendations?

[DIno799]

Good day!

1990 house, built on a bit of a hill. Took possession early this year. Currently has a water softener and a tannin unit.

Main issue is the iron - taste, and staining. I'll occasionally get a nasty smell/taste from the water as well, but it doesn't last.

Thoughts and options are greatly appreciated!

 

[Reach4]

30 mg/l (30 ppm) of iron is much too much for a softener to handle by itself. You need an iron filter of some sort before the softener.

There are various methods of getting iron out.

You will also need to clean the softener resin to be rid of that iron to let the softener soften again.

 

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[DIno799]

That's what I figured. Surprisingly, the softener appears to be removing a lot of the iron and is still able to soften the water...

But from all the iron filters I've seen they max out at around 15 ppm. What kind of system gets rid of this much iron?

 

[Reach4]

That's what I figured. Surprisingly, the softener appears to be removing a lot of the iron and is still able to soften the water...

But from all the iron filters I've seen they max out at around 15 ppm. What kind of system gets rid of this much iron?

How many gpm do you have available for backwashing an iron filter?

Other ways to remove iron are to inject chlorine or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), let the preciptate settle, and remove any excess H2O2/chlorine.

What size is your softener tank-- 52x12?

You could make improvements by treating the resin. Do you have the Iron Out crystals available?

That tends to give good iron removal at a moderate cost.

 

[oldVermonter]

I assume this is well water? That turbidity level is incredible. No way would I drink that water, iron level aside. There is way too much opportunity for E coli to attach itself to the microscopic particles that are the cause.

 

[Reach4]

I assume this is well water? That turbidity level is incredible. No way would I drink that water, iron level aside. There is way too much opportunity for E coli to attach itself to the microscopic particles that are the cause.

It is a well. City water cannot have that kind of iron at the customer end of the pipe.

E. coli does not come from deep wells. If the water test had shown E. coli, that would have been very likely from contamination taking the sample. However this test showed zero E. coli. I think the R.L. column shows the resolution/sensitivity of the test, and the actual results are in the right column.

 

[oldVermonter]

R.L means "recommended limit", your water is almost 3,000 times more turbid than it should be. At that level, it must be quite cloudy looking.

Turbidity is not in itself harmful, but can shield disease-causing organisms from both testing and treatment. Any public agency in the U.S. (pretty sure your standards are similar) would be shut down quickly if they piped such murky water to their customers.

And yes, deep wells can contain E. coli, it is incorrect to assume otherwise. Note that E. coli is not (normally) a direct cause of disease, but is used to indicate the presence of fecal contamination.

 

[DIno799]

Yeah, it's a well.

How many gpm do you have available for backwashing an iron filter?

Just tested using a bucket. Looks like about 8 or 9 gpm.

What size is your softener tank-- 52x12?

Yup, 52x12.

I've tried Iron Out, haven't noticed a difference.

Guess I'll go the chlorine injection route...