Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - Need help with well water filtration

We have been on well water with no filtration for 12 years. The water is perfectly clear with a slight metallic taste. However, the toilet tanks have always been coated with what appears to be a siltlike substance. It is brown and adheres to the tank sides and bottom. It is like a fine mud. Living in Virginia, this is not surprising considering that our soil is heavy with clay.

Also, the washer cold inlet hose has to be cleaned from time to time as small particles of what appear to be rocks (along with "silt") accumulate there and need to be removed. The same thing happens less frequently at the faucet aerators.

Interestingly we have no problems with clothes staining and only minor rings in the toilet bowls that are cleaned regularly anyway, of course.

Another curious phenomenon is that the cold water supply pipes have green "tarnish" on them in various spots in the basement. Not sure if this is related or normal. Never had any leaks and the house is 20 years old (we are not original owners).

I am finishing my basement and adding a full bath. So, I was thinking of adding a sediment filter since I have to open up the pipes anyway. However, after perusing this site, I figure I ought to test the water to be sure.

I'll do that, but in the meantime, any thoughts on what this is likely to be and whether a sediment filter unit will help at all? They are pretty cheap, and I assume I would need one anyway as a prefilter.

Thanks.

Yes get a water analysis done before you do anything; the vast majority of equipment you might need does not need a prefilter.

More than likely the rocks are hard water scale and the sediment is from iron, tannin or rust stained scale etc..

Gary
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Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2

Thanks, will do. As for hardness, we have never believed we had a problem with hard water. Detergents work just like they did when we were on municipal water. Though perhaps I have misconceptions about what "hardness" actually means.

If you were inclined to provide some info on that subject I am sure others besides me would also appreciate the education.

Very possibly if not probably, your previous water was hard also. Defined as having over 3-4 grains per gallon (gpg) of total hardness. Now watr compaines will do their best to convince their custoemrs that water with 150 mg/ is fine, but converted to gpg that's 150/17.1=8.77 gpg. Detergents are formulated for hard water and possibly by regions of the US.

Gary
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Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2

Hmmm... Interesting. So, assuming the little rocks are scale, does that mean they are produced after the water is pumped from the well? Is that what "scale" is? Minerals that precipitate from the water after they pass into the pipes, thus, a sediment filter would do little to remove it? They are black or possibly very dark blue/gray in color, not red or brown in the least.

As for testing the water, given what I have described, can a DIY test be helpful, or do I really need a lab? I have little faith in the free water analysis types around my neck of the woods. I have encountered so much incompetence in the service industries here that I really hate to start something like that in motion, as I expect a lot of wasted time to be the result. The art and science of troubleshooting and diagnostics in general seems little evident here these days. Wishful thinking parts replacement or wholesale changeout of major systems seems the order of the day. No one seems to have any analytic aptitude. Or, more probably, that is less profitable. Anyway, sorry for the whining.

I thought I would start with a general purpose DIY test kit, but what would you recommend in the way of specific tests given my circumstances so I can be sure the kit includes them?

Thanks again.

Do you remember the term a soap company used a few years ago, "squeaky clean" ? Not clean. It's soap dried in the pores of your skin....... kind of an easy way to "feel" hard water.....a DIY hardness kit is fine...no labs involved because you really don't need to know "what" the hardness is, only "how" hard it is..(stay away from the little paper strips you dip in the water, not very accurate!)

Yes, I do. Never thought about that like that.

Thanks again. I'll be back with my test results as soon as I can get some time...