There is a lot of iron in our well water too. I have a whole house filter to catch the big chunks and need to change the filter element every month or so or the flow becomes restricted. Then the filtered water goes through a Sears conventional water softener, which uses a couple of hundred pounds of salt a year. All of the water used in the house goes through this process, except for the cold water in the kitchen sink, which is not softened.
Without the softener, I would have to clean the toilets every other day, or they would quickly get very brown from the iron. All our clothes would get rusty as would our dishes. With the softener working right, we don"t have any trouble using the water for colored clothes, and only have to add a small amount of Oxy-clean for white clothes. The dishwasher works fine and stays clean inside using good quality dishwasher detergent that we buy in Montana. We cannot buy decent dishwasher detergent in Washington any more. GRRR!
I have to be careful that the sprinklers do not wet the house, since the untreated outside water WILL leave rust stains fairly quickly.
The aquifer that we get our water from is through basalt, which apparently has lots of iron in it. When I first drilled the well, the water tasted great and did not seem to have either a rust or hardness problem. Unfortunately over the years, the water got harder and much rustier, possibly because of the water contacting oxygen in the air in the well casing. We have not drunk our well water for about 20 years, but buy bottled water, since it tastes a lot better.
One thing that helps deal with the rusty water is to inject about 5 pounds of dissolved citric acid right into the well and let it sit for a day or two. This causes a chemical reaction in the water, which turns the rust in the water black and makes it lots more soluble. After a day or two of letting the citric acid work, I run an outside hose for several hours to get rid of the black color, which initially looks like india ink, and then the water is fairly iron free for a while. It also makes the black water smell of sulfur. After I have treated the well with citric acid, I also add a gallon or two of liquid bleach, to try to sterilize the well.
I would recommend a water softener to reduce the amount of iron in your water. With softened water, you also will be able to use less detergent and soap to get things cleaner than you ever could with the hard, rusty water. Oxy-clean and Iron-out chemicals, available at most farm stores also really help deal with the rust in the water.
Good luck, rusty, hard water is a hassle, but most of the time the problems can be dealt with fairly easily and not too expensively. At least with our situation, treating the water is really worth the trouble and expense.
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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