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well water is orange/rust colored

post #1 of 15
8/13/10 at 12:00am
Thread Starter 
Does anyone have any experience with well water, water pump? The last few days my well water looks like orange juice, tang, and black fine particles of sedement. My pressure is good, we haven't had rain in a bit, this is our first year in the house, i'm worried i could have a bad well? my water was never ever crystal clear but this stuff is not looking good at all. It's a cold water source, the pump is in my basement, sits on this blue tank, no filtration system, water comes in from the well, goes into holding tank, from holding tank it goes through-out the house, could it be the tank? the longer i let the water sit, the less orange it gets, but if i run the water for a bit, it gets worse. Couldn't come at a worst time.
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post #2 of 15
8/13/10 at 1:10am
It wasn't rust or the tanks,

It was well water tinted due to clay layer,

Some days was worse than others,

We ended up with a $2200 water system,

Crystal clear water ever since
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post #3 of 15
8/13/10 at 1:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terasec View Post
It wasn't rust or the tanks,
It was well water tinted due to clay layer,
Some days was worse than others,
We ended up with a $2200 water system,
Crystal clear water ever since
that's what i'm afraid of
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post #4 of 15
8/13/10 at 8:33am
I had the same after a long weekend away. Came home and started doing the usual (laundry, dish washer, etc) and water turned exactly the same as you mentioned. I called a friend that was on well water and he had the problem before. Something about earth shifting sometime and breaks up sediments. Said to let it run out. I let water run for some time and it started coming clean again. Now water running crystal clear again.

Open outdoor hose and let the water run. See if it becomes better. If not call your well guy. I made the mistake of turning on a few cold water source in the house. With all the sediments coming through it clog up the strainers in the faucet. I had to go around and clean them.
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post #5 of 15
8/13/10 at 11:09am
If it's the well, it should clean itself out, unless the casing is cracked. If it's teh tank, it should also clean itself out, or the tank could be rotting out from the inside. Let it run for a few hours straight and see what it does. If you have a purge point, let that run for a while.
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post #6 of 15
8/13/10 at 12:39pm
Has there been a well drilled in your immediate area lately? Sometimes when a new well breaks into teh vein of water you are on the sediment is disturbed. Also if teh water level gets low in the vein sediment dries and drops into the water that is there. You well pump picks it up. Run your hose into a storm drain at the street. Let the water run for a while and see what happens.
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post #7 of 15
8/13/10 at 3:20pm
My sugessiton would be spend 100 to 150 dollars and put a good filter in the system, very easy to install ,it can't hurt anything actually may help a lot , just my thoughts , my well gets the sulphur smell now and then so I drop a bag or two of those packs of super shock chlorine they use in kids pools into it, hey it works for me --- Frank
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post #8 of 15
8/13/10 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTRAV View Post
My sugessiton would be spend 100 to 150 dollars and put a good filter in the system, very easy to install ,it can't hurt anything actually may help a lot , just my thoughts , my well gets the sulphur smell now and then so I drop a bag or two of those packs of super shock chlorine they use in kids pools into it, hey it works for me --- Frank


if there is brown water,
filter will clog easily and need to be replaced way too often,
i had 1 installed used filters of different levels, .05 microns 20 microns, etc,
didnt work,
sometimes only worked for 1 day before getting clogged
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post #9 of 15
8/13/10 at 3:44pm
if your well water level is low, be careful about running it for extended periods of time. You don't want to empty the well completely and pump nothing, not good for the pump to run dry.

Do you know how deep your well is? Can you determine the water level? If it's a deep well you can roughly determine how much water is in the column by dropping ice cubes down the casing and timing the splash. Distance traveled in 1 sec will be about 32ft. Apply the equation y = gt2/2 where Y = distance, g=32ft/sec2 and t=time you should be able to approximate water level to pump. Hopefully you know the well depth.
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post #10 of 15
8/13/10 at 4:02pm
Have the water tested , find out exactly what your dealing with , then go from there , no more guessing --- Frank
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post #11 of 15
8/16/10 at 11:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g2h View Post
Does anyone have any experience with well water, water pump? The last few days my well water looks like orange juice, tang, and black fine particles of sedement. My pressure is good, we haven't had rain in a bit, this is our first year in the house, i'm worried i could have a bad well? my water was never ever crystal clear but this stuff is not looking good at all. It's a cold water source, the pump is in my basement, sits on this blue tank, no filtration system, water comes in from the well, goes into holding tank, from holding tank it goes through-out the house, could it be the tank? the longer i let the water sit, the less orange it gets, but if i run the water for a bit, it gets worse. Couldn't come at a worst time.


Ditto on water testing. What did your inspection report state? Mine is the same set up, and I have a clay-reddish brown sediment that is caught by a 0.5 micron filter that I change every 2-4 months. Do you have a clear filter housing that you can open up (after shutting supply valves & releasing the pressure on this housing before unscrewing)? The filter does the job although it is a bit hard, no staining of my tub & sinks. Tastes great. I would like to get a softener in a few years, but the color of the collected sediment doesn't bother me.,, buy a goldfish, let it acclimate to the water temp and put it in. See how it fares over night.
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post #12 of 15
8/17/10 at 6:28am
Mine did this right before the tank failed. Check it out and replace it before the sediment gets through the whole system.
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post #13 of 15
8/17/10 at 11:27am
I had a shallow well about 30' with an above ground pump and the well point went bad. Water was dirty orange with fine black sand and clogged my inline filters so fast I had to take them out. The bad water will mess up your clothes and clog the water inlets on your washer. I had to put in a new well with a submersible pump for $5500 to go 90’ but it was worth it.
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post #14 of 15
8/17/10 at 3:55pm

Quote:








Originally Posted by GetDaGaff
View Post

I had a shallow well about 30' with an above ground pump and the well point went bad. Water was dirty orange with fine black sand and clogged my inline filters so fast I had to take them out. The bad water will mess up your clothes and clog the water inlets on your washer. I had to put in a new well with a submersible pump for $5500 to go 90’ but it was worth it.


Same as me, July 2 no water 10 days before my Dad died. Took 42 days with no water screwing around with Health Department and well driller. New well 100' $2500 plus $300 for electrician and another $60 plus materials to a friend to dig new water line and hook it up.
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post #15 of 15
8/18/10 at 8:41pm
You need to have the water tested. The orange water and black specs sounds like it may be iron. You dont want to be washing white clothes with this water or they will end up being dingy. My guess is that you need a filtration system. I had the orange water and black specs. It was iron and it was cleared up with a filtration system.
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