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The only thing that will work for a large amount of iron in well water is a dedicated iron filter. Water softeners and definitely any small point-of-use filters will be completely useless.
Like TWG1572 said, a good iron filter will run you $1K or more, but they are relatively maintenance-free - you just have to change the media about every 10 years or so.
Water softeners with the right salt (the type for iron in the water) aren't completely useless. They're maybe 75% effective. I know this because when I first lived here in my house with rusty well water, I stopped putting salt in the water softener, and the situation was much worse.
To the OP: try washing your hair with bottled water. The rust water doesn't bother my hair, because I'm a redhead, but a neighborhood friend with color treated blonde hair uses bottled water on hers.
We recently moved to a home with well water. There is a huge amount of iron in the water. So much so that my blonde highlighted hair is now orange! Eventually we would like to spend the couple thousand needed for a water treatment system, however right now every cent we can save needs to go towards a new septic system and then a new roof. The septic need is the most pressing, and we just don't have that much to spare right now.
We tried a $30 shower head filter that got excellent reviews on Amazon but didn't do squat. Does anyone know of any relatively affordable ($500 or less) solutions that can at least reduce the amount of iron in the shower (laundry would be good, too - drinking water we aren't worried about as we use a 5 gallon bottled water dispenser) until we can spring for professional treatments?
OP....your local County Extension office should be able to come out and test your water for free. They may even have some ideas of remediation.
I became familiar with USDA County Extension services after we had a major flood in my area, and i began working with recovery. A wealth of information.
Water softeners with the right salt (the type for iron in the water) aren't completely useless. They're maybe 75% effective. I know this because when I first lived here in my house with rusty well water, I stopped putting salt in the water softener, and the situation was much worse.
To the OP: try washing your hair with bottled water. The rust water doesn't bother my hair, because I'm a redhead, but a neighborhood friend with color treated blonde hair uses bottled water on hers.
I was thinking about that, in fact it’s my plan for later today.
OP....your local County Extension office should be able to come out and test your water for free. They may even have some ideas of remediation.
I became familiar with USDA County Extension services after we had a major flood in my area, and i began working with recovery. A wealth of information.
It doesn't come with a bracket, but if you were to get one, I would suggest a multi-filter bracket so you could expand it at a later date if it works out for you. Downside could be cost of filters depending on iron concentration.
Another option would be to check with a local water supply company (Culligan, etc.) to see about a rental unit.
I was looking at filters but the price range is so wide, I was wondering g if those less expensive ones would help. That ones pretty reasonable I’m trying to research the differences. I had t thought of a company like. Culligan, thanks!
Water softeners with the right salt (the type for iron in the water) aren't completely useless. They're maybe 75% effective. I know this because when I first lived here in my house with rusty well water, I stopped putting salt in the water softener, and the situation was much worse.
To the OP: try washing your hair with bottled water. The rust water doesn't bother my hair, because I'm a redhead, but a neighborhood friend with color treated blonde hair uses bottled water on hers.
A softener may not be completely useless, but they are not anywhere close to as effective as an iron filter. My in-laws have very hard water, and the local well-drilling/water treatment company put in a $7000 water softener system with multiple treatment tanks, and used "anti-rust" salt - and their water still is orange and stinky.
And even if a softener is effective, a decent water softener system is certainly going to cost as much or more than a good iron filter. And the iron filter will undoubtedly be way more effective for iron - which is the OP's problem.
The benefit of a water softener is that a small amount of iron will be removed, and hard water minerals will be removed, which helps with washing you hair and laundry, etc. But you will need to be buying bags of salt and lugging them around every few weeks for as long as you own the house. And you should have an osmosis filter to safely drink the water (or so they say).
The upside of an iron filter is that they are MUCH better at filtering iron, and they don't need to constantly have salt added. They are pretty much set-it-and-forget-it.
This is from a company that sells iron filters (so it may biased), but the message is accurate from what I understand:
A softener may not be completely useless, but they are not anywhere close to as effective as an iron filter. My in-laws have very hard water, and the local well-drilling/water treatment company put in a $7000 water softener system with multiple treatment tanks, and used "anti-rust" salt - and their water still is orange and stinky.
And even if a softener is effective, a decent water softener system is certainly going to cost as much or more than a good iron filter. And the iron filter will undoubtedly be way more effective for iron - which is the OP's problem.
The benefit of a water softener is that a small amount of iron will be removed, and hard water minerals will be removed, which helps with washing you hair and laundry, etc. But you will need to be buying bags of salt and lugging them around every few weeks for as long as you own the house. And you should have an osmosis filter to safely drink the water (or so they say).
The upside of an iron filter is that they are MUCH better at filtering iron, and they don't need to constantly have salt added. They are pretty much set-it-and-forget-it.
This is from a company that sells iron filters (so it may biased), but the message is accurate from what I understand:
These aren't too bad price-wise! And I admire that they put prices right on the site, every other one wants me to fill out a form for information.
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