Your well water smells. It leaves rust stains on clothes, and everything else in your home.
You tried to chlorinate your well. But it didn’t solve the problems..for long.
Our customer in Wonder Lake, IL struggled like this. And then we helped them – with a long term solution to their problem.
Iron Bacteria – Rusty and Smelly
Iron can cause rust stains. It can even cause a metallic smell. But that’s about it.
Iron Bacteria is a little trickier. It can smell like rotten eggs, sewage, or cucumbers.
A telltale sign of Iron Bacteria is the orange snot-like slime it leaves in toilets. This slime also builds up in water softeners and plumbing.
You might notice that one sink smells, but another sink doesn’t.
Iron Bacteria will also plug up water softener resin. This damages the system. It shortens the life of the softener, and reduces its ability to remove hard water minerals.
How to Treat Iron Bacteria in Well Water
You can chlorinate a well by pouring a strong chlorine solution into your well. Next you have to run the chlorine throughout your home. The chlorine needs to soak for 12 hours or more. This means you can’t use your water during this time.
When you chlorinate a well, you will kill Iron Bacteria. But it will grow back. Maybe in a year. Maybe in a week. But it grows back eventually.
An Air Injection Iron Filter works great to remove Iron. But NOT Iron Bacteria! Adding air puts Iron Bacteria on steroids. The wrong Iron Filter will actually increase bacterial growth!
Constant chlorination is the best approach to controlling Iron Bacteria. With continual disinfection, the bugs never grow back. It does a great job of oxidizing Iron too. It can work even better when combined with air injection.
An Iron Filter that uses Chlorine Injection is simple to operate. A small pump draws chlorine out of a storage tank and injects the solution into an Iron Filter. Best of all, you can buy chlorine at any grocery store. It’s cheap, easy to get, and it works!
Keep in mind that oxidized Iron cannot be removed by a Water Softener. You will need an Iron Filter to remove the oxidized minerals that chlorine will produce.
Customer Iron Filter in Wonder Lake, IL
Garrelts Water designed a custom Iron Curtain Junior Filter System that combines air and chlorine injection.
This single tank Iron Filter is more compact than it’s big brother – the Iron Curtain. It’s perfect for low to moderate levels of Iron. With the help of chlorine injection, it will handle Iron Bacteria too!
This custom Iron Curtain Junior uses a digital controller that meters your water usage. The controller tells the system to inject air and chlorine based on how many gallons have been used. You get precise water treatment.
The valve is a larger diameter 1.25″ model for better flow. This allows the system to tolerate temporary Iron Buildup that would hurt other systems.
Commercial quality parts were also used to withstand severe water problems that would damage residential-grade models.
The results speak for themselves. Here’s what our customers had to say:
“The Greensand Filter System and Autotrol Water Softener that we bought from Quality Water Conditioning was not doing a good job. We had HORRIBLE staining in every bathroom! Jim designed a new Iron Filter for us and installed a new water softener as well. This is the best money we have ever spent! Our water is so good now, we wish we had installed this system years ago.”
Rich and Mary Yager,Wonder Lake, IL
What’s Your Next Step?
Do you have rust stains or a foul smell in your water? Why else would you read this article 🙂
You need advise you can trust. Real world experience handling problem well water. Problems like Iron Bacteria.
Contact Garrelts Water for a no-obligation estimate! We will test your water and assess your needs at no charge. Best of all, we will design a system that works! Call us at (815) 344-8186!