drinking well water

[micky]

A friend bought a house that is only 2 or 3 years old, with a well.

She has a softener, but the water still leaves deposits on the shower door, and on glasses after they're washed. And at the same time the water doesn't taste good. (In her previous home she drank water from the tap, after it went through some filter that screwed to the kitchen faucet.)

Somewhere, here?, I got the impression that softening the water more might lessen the deposits, but it would make the taste worse, and vice versa. Yes????

Maybe she could fill her water pitcher with the well water, before it went through the softener. Is there are a chance the water would taste better then? She says there is no spigot to do that with. The house was built with loads of bells and whistles. Shouldn't there be a way to bypass the softener and find out what the water tastes like unsoftened???

If it did taste better, she'd be willing to pay to put in a spigot and go to the basement to fill her water bottle. She might even be willing to run a pipe up to the kitchen counter.

She lives in what was rolling farmland near Finksburg / Westminster Maryland. Only a quarter mile from one of Baltimore's water reservoirs. IIRC, Baltimore barely treats its water -- just a little chlorine and maybe fluoride -- before sending it to homes.

Thanks

[bob haller]

call the driller who drilled the well for advice. with the right filter the water should be fine

[Roy]

The outside tap is usually not on the softened water line but is purposely routed from the water intake line before the softener. Nobody wants to waste treated and conditioned water and that is the reason. If she wants untreated water just get it from the outside tap. Come winter this will not be possible. Big jugs of water from the supermarkets sell for $2 to $5...that also works.

[micky]

Ugh. I should have thought of that! Maybe it was in the back of my mind when I thought there would be a tap in the basement.

Thanks,

Separate answer

I'm sure his name is on the pump or someplace nearby.

And thanks Bob.

cc: water drinker

[Tony Hwang]

Have the water tested to know exactly what's what. Here we can have it tested by local government free. We just send in the sample for testing.

[Jerry.Tan]

There is a certain type of bacteria that can contaminate wells. It will cause what looks like a brown/greenish slime inside the toilet tank. (like algie). It makes the water taste like sulfur. (nasty).

I ran across this when I worked as a plumber. I was sent to the job because the toilet was running all the time, and some faucets in the house barely had water. Since most of my jobs were in a city, I was puzzled when I saw all that slime in the toilet tank, and in faucet strainers, and everywhere else in the plumbing. My boss came out and even he was not sure what was the cause. The homeowner said they did not drink the water because ut tasted reak bad. A well driller was called and he determined it was this bacteria. (I cant recall the name of it).

He had to do something to treat the well, (I was not there). After that the water was clear and the homeowner said it tasted good again. But we had to replace all the toilet ballocks and some other stuff.

Yes, unsoftened water usually tastes better and is better for you. My well where I live now has very hard water, but tastes great. I dont use a softener. I get orange (rust) stains in the toilet, but "The Works" cleans it away. It really dont cause me any other problems.

Adding a faucet anywhere should not be a big deal. Cut the pipe, add a tee, and a faucet! Add one in the basement onto the pipes that feed the outdoor spigot. Pipe it up to the kitchen if you want. They do sell sinks with 3 holes just for that purpose. If it's stainless steel, cit an extra hole with a drill and/or hole cutter (which is often sold for making larger holes in electrical boxes). Made by "Greenley" (I think that's the name of the company????)

[gfretwell]

I am in SW Florida where the city water sucks and my well water is just nasty. (Sulfur, minerals, salt water intrusion etc) We run it through an aerator, water softener, filter and then a reverse osmosis unit. It is as good as bottled water then.

[Ed Pawlowski]

First thing to check is to see if the softener is working. Softening eliminates the minerals and thus, the deposits. You can take a sample to anyone that sells softeners or water treatment and they will test it for you. Or you can buy a test kit and DIY.

The water treatment company can make recommendations. She may need a carbon filter for the taste aspects. RO systems are available too.

[Frank]

I don't treat mine and it tastes fine but wife does not like it because sitting in a container will show sediment. I have a sediment filter but apparently something occurs to precipitate minerals on standing. Plumber tested my water for free as he might have gotten the job to put in a softener. I thought results were borderline and did nothing. Actually for those with heart conditions softened water with high sodium is worse to drink.

Softeners exchange calcium for sodium and should not effect taste. Carbon filters or reverse osmosis could get rid of bad taste.

I've got neighbors that have bottled water delivered but wife buys bottled when she wants water to just drink.

[danny burstein]

[snipppppp .. regarding a sulfur smell and lots of slime in well water]

...

lots of good info:

[RobertMacy]

My test for water, besides taste is to make coffee or tea and watch. In the city of San Jose, CA the tap water creates 'sludge' on the sides of our tea pot and huge amounts of sludge on the coffee put, worse, the coffee has a 'fishy' taste to it. Absolutely discusting!

Now, using the well water here in AZ, [Note the water comes from an aquifer over 600 ft down and is notably hard, leaving white powder upon drying EVERYWHERE!] Upon making coffee/tea there is no sludge and the taste is ok. However *if* the coffee sits for a while, like 6 hours, develops 'fishy' taste, so avoid doing unless emergency, when run ou of bottled water.

For bottled water, we use Crystal Geyser bottled water because it satisfies thirst, has NO measurable sodium. [at least that is my understanding] Plus, left over coffee can be reheated days later and still tastes great.

Distilled water also works for coffee/tea, but often because the distilled water has sat for so long, the coffee/tea has a peculiar taste, like plastic. Importantly, it is my undertanding, don't drink distilled water.

[Frank]

You get some minerals you need from water and distilled water of course has none.

My wife has no problem with taste and cooks or makes tea with our well water but just does not drink the pure stuff because of deposits.

I'll figure it out but there may be an oxidation phenomenon that makes less soluble salts.

Years ago when my mother and father were alive, they would often come to our house for drinking water as sometimes the city water had off taste. I worked in the city and could not stand the chlorine taste and odor of the tap water at times.

[rbowman]

That explains a lot. I always figured there was something in the water.

[songbird]

...

she needs to trace the lines and make sure that the kitchen sink is not treated/softened water. it should not be. drinking treated/softened water is not good for you (added salts or other minerals). there should be either a RO unit or an untreated line for drinking water or the plumber was on crack.

drinking RO water all the time isn't that good for a person either. your body needs minerals to keep the bones strong, if it doesn't get enough it will start pulling them from the bones.

well water that tastes a little like iron is better than nothing. those pitchers with the filters on them will take care of the off taste. i don't mind it so drink it untreated.

songbird

[makolber]

I find that if you take city tap water and simply leave it in a container in the fridge for about 1 day, the chlorine smell/taste goes away.

Mark

[micky]

I tried Crystal Geyser, but the bottle blew up and left pieces of glass all over the kitchen.

Every 44 minutes

[Scott Lurndal]

That would be disgusting, I imagine. Not all parts of San Jose are on the same water system; santa teresa is on well water, and while hard, it's quite tasty.

[Mayayana]

| Yes, unsoftened water usually tastes better and is better for you. My | well where I live now has very hard water, but tastes great.

I'm not so sure those are accurate generalizations. If it were me I'd want to test the water, as Tony said, before deciding to drink it on a regular basis without filtering. Manganese, for instance, is associated with nerve damage. And local well water could contain just about anything. I also don't see any reason to think that hard water is better for you. If you eat decent food and get minerals that you need, then why would non-organic minerals dissolved in water necessarily be "better for you"?

I once lived in Arizona. Hard water. Salty. Terrible taste. I now live near Boston. Soft water. Delicious. A top-rated water system. Yet Cambridge, which is next to Boston, has separate reservoirs and has some of the worst water I've tasted. It's both salty and "swampy". The flavor is not removed by water filters such as Britta. When I work in Cambridge I try to bring enough water for the day, so that I won't have to drink Cambridge water. Their reservoir gets lots of leaves and then gets treated with lots of copper sulfate. When I once lived there I was told that about 1/3 of the delivery pipes were lead and that some are oak. It might start out good but several factors affect it along the way.

In another local town, Woburn, there was a famous case of cancer clusters due to trichloroethane from industrial sources that migrated to local wells.

Another possible risk with well water is radon gas, especially if there's granite bedrock. Radon has been estimated to be a cause of lung cancer in possibly 20% of cases. It can come up with the water and then be spread in the air when taking a shower.

Different water supplies. Very different issues with the water, and big differences in flavor, none of which has much to do with soft vs hard.

[notbob]

Sounds like the well water we had back in CA. Terrible stuff! Almost undrinkable. Even Kool-Aid wouldn't help.

Try letting the water stand in the refrigerator over night. If that doesn't help, try a filter, like Brita. If all else fails, there's bottled water filter stations most everywhere. Bring yer own jugs.

nb

[Mayayana]

| I've got neighbors that have bottled water delivered but wife buys | bottled when she wants water to just drink.

I'm not aware of any regulations on bottled water. Where I live, at least, I know that it can be legally sold in a bottle marked "Crystal Spring Water" having been filled out of any old tap. And then there's the question of possible chemicals leeching in from the plastic bottles. It's fine when local water is not safe, but the idea of bottled water being superior is a case of marketing overwhelming common sense.

A great example is Dasani, from Coca Cola. In many cases it's just filtered local water with minerals added back in. They don't even pretend otherwise!

---------------------------------- Expertly Designed Water In designing DASANI to be the best tasting water, we start with the local water supply, which is then filtered by reverse osmosis to remove impurities. The purified water is then enhanced with a special blend of minerals for the pure, crisp, fresh taste that?s delightfully DASANI.

----------------------------

A lot of fancy talk to say, "We're charging you an arm and a leg for your own water, sucker."

In some cases it's reportedly water from India, which created a water crisis there because Coca Cola was taking too much of it. Yet yuppies go and pay ridiculous prices at their health clubs because the bottles look good and the name sounds stylish.