My girlfriend's well water has high levels of iron, giving the water a sulfur smell and staining her sinks and toilets orange.
A local water treatment outfit has suggested she install a hydrogen peroxide unit as part of her treatment system (in addition to the existing softener and carbon filter)to help correct the situation.
Does anyone have any experience/advice on such an installation? Will it help get rid of the iron in her water?
TIA for any input.
Here is a site for reference (I don't see hydrogen peroxide mentioned).
I had the same problem when I was in Florida. The commonest solution there was a chlorine injector. Hydrogen peroxide might work just as well, I don't know. I know that what I used was bleach. The setup consisted of a pump to meter the chlorine into the water as it came from the pump, then a settling tank to let the sediment settle out, then a filter to take the remains of the chlorine out the water before it went to the house. It worked for me.
Bill
Local information from neighbours may be just as useful as laboratory data on chemical reactions. You know the well water has sulfur (by smell) and iron (visible rust) but it probably includes other minerals (e.g. calcium or magnesium) which probably interact with each other -- making the smell and visible staining either worse or better: we simply do not know, so long as we do not know what chemicals are present.
This is why neighbours' information may be more helpful even if negative. (If a particular product e.g. Home Plumber brand Iron Remover, worked next door, it is worth your trying: if it failed next door, look elsewhere.)
levels of iron, giving the water a
In the well water that I've seen that has high iron, I haven't noticed any sulfur smell. It sounds like you may have more than one problem and before deciding on how to fix the iron, you may want to consider what else is wrong or not working, etc.
levels of iron, giving the water a
I'm thinking the same here. I have water with the sulfur smell and sediment that is rust colored but it is _not_ iron. Before I bought the place they installed a chlorinator and a water softener. When the pump runs chlorine is injected into the water, then it all goes through a softener and comes out OK but not great. It's fine for bathing, it doesn't smell, but not great tasting. For taste I have a carbon filter on the kitchen sink and that water comes out perfect.
I also added a sediment filter before everything and that helped a lot with the rust colored dirt and stains. I first tried the best filter, but no way was it big enough to be a whole house filter, very low water volume. Next I went to a pleated paper filter, that didn't do enough filtering. Then I installed a string filter, it looks just like a big spool of string, and that's what I use now (all these filters are interchangeable in the same filter assembly). That stops about 95% of the rust colored stuff, what ever it is? (Maybe shale?)
Pumping chlorine into the softener is VERY bad!!! That shgould be cease immediately, especially at any concentration designed to treat problem waters. It will damage the resins and they will have to be replaced. Use a carbon backwashing filter to remove all chlorine before entering the softener. Period!
H202 is very effective at oxidizing sulfur gases and iron. It leaves no unusual by products as its waste is pure H20. you must use a paristalitic type pump, though, not a diaphragm type that most chlorine injection systems use.
Changeable filters can be very helpful if they are maintained and micron-rating is acceptable for removal AND flow rate. 25 microns is usually a good balance. The bigger the filter, the better.
There are aeration systems that work very well. These are chemical free and low maintenance cost.
Andy Christensen, CWS-II
Well... it's been working for over 8 years. Not sure what the big deal is? New resins every 10 years?
You could try googling for "sulfur bacteria".
The best link I looked at was
I think these two were about the same:
There are many more links.
The sulfur smell for sulfur bacteria is hydrogen sulfide - rotten eggs. Injecting hydrogen peroxide or bleach/chlorine is probably to kill the bacteria.
You could get options from other companies. Well drillers should be a good source.
You think so?? How about chlorinated city water and water softeners??? Done all the time. No apparent problems. My softener is over 30 years old - could be 40 - and still working fine on chlorinated city water.
Iron doesn't cause a sulpher smell. Sulpher does. As for the orange stains, well that's another matter altogether. Google it.
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