Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Whole House Water Filter for Removing Grit

Hello Virginia,

Thank you for contacting us through our website.  You wrote:


“There is grit in my tap water. The town water dept says they have done no flushing or work that would cause this. We noticed it three days ago and it is not getting better. The grit is visible in the bottom of our white sink and settles in drinking glass”

There are many sediment types that could be the cause of your gritty water. These sediments can tell you what kind of problem you're really having at the core of your water system. Knowing what problem you have can help you determine which water treatment system would be best. 

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Help! I have very hard well water

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.  You wrote:  


“i have a 1 bathroom home, and live on a lake with a well and my water is very hard (35 grains per gallon) what is best system.  Will a no-salt water softener work for me?  We also have a trace amount of iron, about 0.3 PPM”
For water this hard, we recommend a 48K grain softener, not a salt-free water conditioner. We recommend a water softener, not a scale-stopper conditioner because the level of hardness of your water can be better handled by a water softener system. The 48k grain softener is the best treatment system for your water right now. 

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Low pH and Iron in Irrigation Water

I have a well for irrigation only that has as far as I can tell, iron bacteria.  The water overspray stains the driveway, house, etc.  I also get a sulfur odor at times.  The pump is connected directly to the irrigation system (no pressure tank).  It is a 4" well with submersible pump.  I have tried shock chlorination several times to no avail.  I probably use 1800 gal/day, 3 days/week during the warm season – say 8 months out of the year. The pipe size at the well is 1.25”, although all of the sprinkler piping is 1”.  The line pressure at the well is 55 psig @ 12 gpm flowrate.
I don’t care about the odor – just wanted to mention it since that is indicative of the source of the water quality problem. 

The pH is low at between 5 and 6.  Will this present a problem for this filter?

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Coliform, E coli and Hardness

We have coliform and e coli, water is very hard, 3 properties attached to well.
-Mr. Stone

Hardness is easy to handle- we would recommend an efficient salt-based water softener.  High total dissolved solids are handled by reverse osmosis treatment, which is easy to handle for just drinking water, but relatively elaborate (expensive) for whole-house treatment.  Finally, the bacteria issue is usually only of concern if you’re looking to drink the water.  If not, you might not need to do anything.  If you do wish to drink the water, the water should ideally be chlorinated and given a lot of contact time, but there are a few other ways to approach it as well.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Bacterial Iron Problem

Q: "I have a bacterial iron problem. pressure tank located in garage about 75 ft away, I have pretty good water pressure. I have a Culligan water softner in the the house. There are 4 people in the household. My thought is to inject chlorine, carbon filter then pressure tank. If this correct what would a solution cost? I'm in central Florida”



A: Chlorination with a carbon filter can work fairly well, because it does target bacteria and provide oxidation of iron.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

How Much Chlorine Bleach Should I add to a 8000 Gallon Storage Tank?

Q: I have discovered I have coliform bacteria in my holding  tank.  How much bleach should I add to an 8000 gallon tank if it is a 8.25% solution vs a 5% solution (clorox)?


A: For complete disinfection of water systems, it is recommended you apply 50 PPM of chlorine, and let it sit for 24 hours.  Measure the chlorine residuals after the 24 hours, and if there is less than 10 PPM, repeat the procedure.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Can I use Peroxide to Treat Rotten Egg Odor and Iron?

Dear sir,

Our country cabin uses well water and has a very strong rotten egg odor, as well as a high level of iron in it.  I have tried adding chlorine to the well, and it does help, but the water still has a bad taste to it.   A friend at work suggested we use hydrogen peroxide.  

Can you send me information on this?  How does it work?   We also have hard water, but we have a softener already.   How does the cost of peroxide compare to chlorine?

Ralph  M.
Little Rock, Arkansas


Dear Ralph,

Thanks for emailing.  Peroxide can be an excellent way to eliminate the sulfur odors and treat iron, when it is combined with an auto-backwash filter that will remove the rust and sediment.  After the water has been injected with peroxide, the odor will be gone, but a lot of rust and sediment will be present. 

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

How to Stop Sulfur Odor, Remove Iron and Neutralize Acid Well Water

Hello Folks,

We have a water well that is 480 feet deep. Our water is usually clear, but at times when filling the bath tub it will have a yellowish tint. There is a slight sulphur smell and the toilets get a yellowish coloring if not cleaned every other day. My iron level was .8 and ph was 5.1 which are not at the ideal levels from what they tell me.

Mary


Mary,

An iron level of 0.8 is a little high.  The recommended maximum level in water is 0.3 PPM.  A pH of 5.1 can be very problematic and cause corrosion of copper pipes, valves, water heater and appliances.    Low pH causes copper corrosion which typically results in blue-green stains, though perhaps that’s sort of what you’re seeing there.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Will a Calcite Acid Neutralizer Remove Iron as Well As Neutralizing pH?

Hello Mr. Teoh,

Thank you for contacting us.  You wrote:


“I just installed a Flex 7000 1CF neutralizer. The water was tested before the neutralizer and was high with iron and manganese. Iron is 0.79 over the limit of 0.3 mg/l and manganese is 0.11 over 0.05 mg/l, the PH was 5.56. after installing the neutralizer, the PH level has gone up to nearly 7.0 using your text solution. My question is will the neutralizer help to lower iron and manganes? If not, what do I need economically to lower them to the limit set?”

Sunday, June 14, 2015

1500 Gallon Per Day Whole House Reverse Osmosis Systems – Too Big or Too Small for a Family?

You  had sent me information on a whole house RO system.  My only real concern is with the Commercial RO unit.  I think our capacity may perhaps reach 1500 gpd, but that may be well into the future.  There's only the two of us living here at the moment.  I think we could get by with a smaller unit of say 500 gpd?

Do you have a schematic of how all this equipment is to be connected?  Any thoughts?
Thanks
Kelly


Hello Kelly,

Unfortunately, the 1500 Gallon Per Day (GPD) designation is a little misleading, it means that it could produce 1500 gallons across a span of 24 hours of the system running in operation, but in reality that would take place over many days. 
So you wouldn’t actually see 1500 gallons of water treated water created in a single calendar day- for your water quality, it would be more like 500 to 700 gallons or so.

The actual rate of production for this system ends up being something like just 0.8 gallons per minute after the system has been in service for a month or so.  That means if it ran non-stop for 8 hours then you could yield nearly 400 gallons or so.  So that’s why this is our smallest whole-house reverse osmosis system available, and that’s also why it needs to be set up feeding a large enough storage tank such that you can’t run out of water.

Here’s a diagram showing everything installed.  
I hope this helps, please let us know if you have any other questions.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Are Upflow Neutralizers Better than Backwash Calcite Neutralizers?

What would the difference be with yours and the 10x54 non-backwashing acid neutralizer that I saw from another company?

thanks,
Brian


Hi Brian,

Those are non-backwashing units which we do not usually recommend for well water.  An upflow neutralizer does not backwash and the media can harden over time and cause pressure drop.    however in times where backwashing isn’t an option due to space, etc. you can use them.

Fixing Bad Well Water Problems with Reverse Osmosis

Mr Bulfin,

See attached water analysis.  Our water is high in iron, manganese, odors, and total dissolved solids.   Can you recommend a system to treat this type of well water?   Can my bad well water be fixed?

We had a water softener, but there was still a lot of staining. I don’t dare wash the cars in this water, as it eats away at the paint finish and leaves a white scale on it.    Our clothes get ruined over time, and now our copper piping has pinhole leaks.  My wife is threatening to move, without me.  Help!

Jason L
New Mexico

Jason,

Not a problem, we have hundreds of customers with this same type of water. It is easy to treat with a whole house reverse osmosis “RO” system.

Monday, June 8, 2015

How Copper Corrosion Causes Blue Staining and What to Do About It

Dear sir,

Our water permanently stained our sinks, tubs and fixtures a blueish green color.  The water also has a bitter taste  What causes this and how can we filter it out?  We have well water.   I have attached a copy of our water test.  We already have a water softener in place.

Edward S.


Dear Edward,

Your water test report shows your well water has a pH of 5.8.   This is called 'low pH' or 'acid well water'.   The water looks good otherwise.  The water is not very hard, nor does it have iron or manganese in it.    The acid water dissolves your copper piping.  Copper turns blue when its oxidized, and will also impart a very bitter taste to the water.

Can I Use a Water Softener to Remove Iron, Manganese and Hardness with One System?

I have very high iron, manganese levels, along with sulfur odors in my water. Is there any type of standalone water softener that could take care of these issues? The sulfur odor is weak, not that strong, but we do have hard water, with high iron and manganese. Thanks,

Joel               

Hi Joel,

We do not recommend a water softener alone to handle high levels of iron and manganese, particularly when odors are present.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Can I Use a Water Heater as a Chlorine Contact Tank?

Hello,

Do you see any issues with using a water heater as a chlorine contact tank?  I have a spare water heater not being used. We have an electric water heater that we replaced recently with an oil-fired on-demand heater.  If we did that, the heating function of the heater would not be used –  cold water in and cold water out.

I read some comments on the internet about drinking water from a hot water heater and the only possible issue I saw with this concept was about anodes  in the heater adding metals to the water – not sure if the heater even has an anode?

John O


Dear John,

We’ve heard of people using a water heater as a contact tank, sure.  That seems to work out pretty well depending on the construction of the tank and where the inlet/outlet are oriented.  Ideally, the water should enter through the bottom and exit out the top for best retention and mixing.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Do Salt-Free Water Softeners Work?

A neighbor got a new salt free water softener, and I am wondering if this type of softner will work for my water?  My water, I was told, has 12 grains of hardness in it.  We also have a strong chlorine smell in the water sometimes.   Right now we have nothing and we do get scale problems in the pipes and water heater, and the showerheads plug up after a year or two.  My wife does not like the salt type softners due to the fact she has high blood pressure.

Alex D.

Alex,

Thanks for emailing.  This question comes up a lot.  We do not call the no-salt systems “softeners”, as they do not soften the water.  Softening refers to the removal of calcium hardness minerals.  

Remember when looking at one of these is that they do not “soften” the water, but rather “condition”. 

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

New Hot Water Heater Filled With Grit From Old Well

25 year old well. Just replaced electric hot water heater.  It’s filled with grit.  High calcium in water.  Is well bad?  Will centrifugal sand separator help?  Should I replace well and add css? 

Mr. Dinardo


Hello Mr. Dinardo,

Thank you for contacting us in regard to treating your well water. Based upon this information the issue is more than likely a combination of sand/grit as well as the reported high hardness to the water. 

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Can Birm Iron Filter Media Make My Water Black?

I've had constant problems with the Birm media, it seems that the manganese coating is stripping off and ending up in my household water.  Sometimes the water has a rotten-egg odor, but not all time.  I have an air-injector type system that is supposed to fix the odor problem.   My water is often black after the iron filter, even though  the water going into the iron filter has no black in it.  I assume it is the manganese coating coming off the Birm.  

Sean

Sean,

This is a common problem with Birm.  Birm media works great under the right conditions but cannot take any hydrogen sulfide odor.  The hydrogen sulfide gas creates sulfuric acid in water, and will rapidly strip the thin manganese coating off the Birm media.  

Monday, June 1, 2015

How to Treat Well Water Containing 27 PPM of Iron

My well water contains 27 PPM of iron.  Is there a way to treat water containing such high levels of iron?  I have lived in a mobile home park for a long time.   Sometimes there is also a foul odor in the water, like rotten eggs.   A couple of times the water failed bacteria testing for coliform bacteria, and we had to boil the water.

We have a deep well that pumps into 5000 gal cistern that is treated with chlorine then pumped to the park.  3 year ago they redrilled the well and this resulted in an extreme amount of iron entering the water system.  I would like to treat solely the water coming into my house.  My plan is to treat it and store it in a cistern 1000 gal maybe larger then pump it into the house.

John T.

John,

Thanks for contacting us.

We believe the best way to remove heavy or extreme iron, manganese and iron bacteria is to use a chlorine injection pump, a contact tank to ensure the reaction takes place, followed by a Pro-OX media iron filtration system, then a Sediment Backwash Filter for turbidity and colloidal iron removal, followed by a carbon backwash filter to remove residual chlorine and iron.