minkia38
New Member
Posts:39
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| 30 Jan 2012 06:16 PM |
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Anyone here have any advise for some bad tasting well water?
I have a new well at my new house in Ray Twp, MI 48096, about 90 feet deep. Water is clear, but has a salty taste. I had it tested, and it was 3500ppm disolved solids.
Not much iron or sulfates, just tastes satly. My kids hate it, and taking a shower or bath, or brushing teeth is not much fun, after being on city water all our lives.
I have a nice water softener installed, but it really doest make a difference...
Short of a whole house Reverse Osmosis, any advise? |
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FBBP
Veteran Member
Posts:1215
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| 30 Jan 2012 07:43 PM |
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Posted By minkia38 on 30 Jan 2012 06:16 PM
Anyone here have any advise for some bad tasting well water?
I have a new well at my new house in Ray Twp, MI 48096, about 90 feet deep. Water is clear, but has a salty taste. I had it tested, and it was 3500ppm disolved solids.
Not much iron or sulfates, just tastes satly. My kids hate it, and taking a shower or bath, or brushing teeth is not much fun, after being on city water all our lives.
I have a nice water softener installed, but it really doest make a difference...
Short of a whole house Reverse Osmosis, any advise?
At 3500ppm it comes close to heavy water;-) Was it salty before the softener was installed? What was the sodium levels on the report? Normally one under the sink RO unit with additional taps at the bathroom sinks would handle this. No need to use RO to do dishes or flush toilets. |
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minkia38
New Member
Posts:39
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| 31 Jan 2012 08:47 AM |
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Yes, it was just as satly before the softener was installed. Thre was not a sodium level on th report unfortunately. The RO under the sink wont help with the kids bathroom upstairs, or any of the showers. It is a 2 story 3.5 bath house.....
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 31 Jan 2012 09:15 AM |
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Was the water tested for nitrates?
With water that bad, you need rainwater catchment or RO.
The good news is that there are underground cistern systems now that are fairly easy to install. They consist of arrays of smaller tanks connected together to make the storage amount you want/need. |
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FBBP
Veteran Member
Posts:1215
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| 31 Jan 2012 11:18 AM |
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Posted By minkia38 on 31 Jan 2012 08:47 AM
Yes, it was just as satly before the softener was installed. Thre was not a sodium level on th report unfortunately. The RO under the sink wont help with the kids bathroom upstairs, or any of the showers. It is a 2 story 3.5 bath house.....
minkia - check to see if you are using sodium (salt) chloride in the softener for brine. If you are switch to potassium chloride instead. In salty water salt doesn't work for ion exchange because the media bed is already saturated with sodium. Switching to potassium might help a bit for the salty taste and it will surely help for the softener. You might want to read this link http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/wawa/wawa_005.cfm
With ro you have to remember that for every gallon of product you make you are discarding 8 to 10 gallons of waste water depending on the temperature of the water. If you are on a well, are you also on a septic field? If you are, the additional water of the ro waste will put to high a demand on the field. Also the softener discharge must not be dumped into the septic system. It will kill the bacterial action in the tank and also overload your system.
Find out what you sodium rate is. It might be that you are best to go to a cistern. Wether you go with rain water or have a water hauler fill it with city water is some of the options. |
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minkia38
New Member
Posts:39
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| 01 Feb 2012 03:37 PM |
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Thanks for the advic, I will pick up some potassium chloride instead, and see what happens....
Does the salt water really tear up washer, dishwasher, and faucets like some people have told me? |
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Amazer98
New Member
Posts:29
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| 02 Feb 2012 01:41 PM |
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I would pick up a Brita pitcher with built-in charcoal filter. If that makes the water taste palatable, I would then have a more permanent charcoal filtering system installed-- either at the kitchen sink or perhaps for the entire house (but plumb it so that the outside taps don't run through the filter... that's just necessary). |
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wes
Advanced Member
Posts:810
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| 03 Feb 2012 05:06 PM |
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It doesn't take much in the way or iron or sulfates to make water taste bad. At 3500 ppm, you have enough 'junk' in the water to make it taste, or feel, very bad. I suggest you contact the nearest Culligan office (yes, that Culligan), and have them send the water to their national testing lab. It is one of the most sophisticated water quality labs in the world. They will give a detailed report on chemicals in the water. This may cost a couple hundred dollars, but you will know exactly what you are dealing with, and they will give you options for correcting the problems. Also, until you know exactly what you are dealing with, I would not switch your softener over to potassium chloride. If permangates are present in the water, you could create some pretty toxic stuff in your water.
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| Wes Shelby<br>Design Systems Group<br>Murray KY<br>[email protected] |
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FBBP
Veteran Member
Posts:1215
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| 03 Feb 2012 05:45 PM |
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Posted By wes on 03 Feb 2012 05:06 PM
Also, until you know exactly what you are dealing with, I would not switch your softener over to potassium chloride. If permangates are present in the water, you could create some pretty toxic stuff in your water.
Care to elaborate? |
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mnelson61
New Member
Posts:19
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| 04 Feb 2012 07:51 AM |
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Don't be scared off by a Whole House RO System. It sounds like you have limited options. In our area we have alot of salty wells. We have installed many complete house systems and providing they are sized correctly, can provide you with great water for your entire home. Don't waste your time with potassium chloride or carbon filters. With 3500 ppm of TDS the water, the only two technologies that can help are distillation and RO. I wouldn't consider distillation either.
An undersink RO system is way to small and will only do your drinking water. You need to treat all your water because the high TDS with ruin all your plumbing and appliances in a very short time. Most likely your hardness, sodium and chlorides are through the roof. You should really get a better water analysis and take it to a water treatment professional. There are other dealers out there besides Culligan that sell very good equipment, get more than one price!
A whole house system will have 50% recovery, meaning that for every gallon produced, the same amount goes to drain. This is much different than an undersink system that is only 25% effecient at best. The most critical issue to ensure an RO system with work properly is the sizing. RO's are generally rated at GPD (gallons per day) output. The factory rating will need to be adjusted down to give you an realistic output when applied with your water chemistry. Your pre-treatment equipment needs to be sized to your RO requirements and if you cheap out here the whole system falls apart in a short time.
In our area, a whole house system with a 400 gallon storage tank, repressurization, RO and pre-treament goes for between 15-20K installed. There are alot of variables that are site specific so you need to get someone in who knows what they are doing.
There may be alternatives for you but they all have their drawbacks. Having a good, clean and reliable source of water for your home is probably the first and most important aspect of enjoying your day to day living. Good luck! |
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minkia38
New Member
Posts:39
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| 07 Feb 2012 11:42 AM |
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thanks for all the advice/ideas.....
15-20K is ALOT more than drilling anew well, and hoping to hit a better vein.....
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 07 Feb 2012 03:11 PM |
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and hoping to hit a better vein..... Do the drillers offer any estimates of what the chances of that are? What about neighbors' wells? Any clues there? |
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richm
Basic Member
Posts:107
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| 08 Feb 2012 08:42 PM |
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Minkia38,
You might want to check with your local, county or state Health Department and/or Environmental Health office. They may have information that may be helpful in deciding what your options are. Some health offices have excellent records of problems like yours along with experts on the subject who have no incentive to get in your purse.
Rich Melius |
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jonr
Senior Member
Posts:5341
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| 08 Feb 2012 09:08 PM |
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I would use as much RO as you can afford. The GE Merlin claims 720 GPD. |
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FBBP
Veteran Member
Posts:1215
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| 08 Feb 2012 09:22 PM |
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Posted By jonr on 08 Feb 2012 09:08 PM
I would use as much RO as you can afford. The GE Merlin claims 720 GPD.
http://waterguide.net/reverse-osmosis-system/ge-merlin-reverse-osmosis-water-system-reviews/ |
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minkia38
New Member
Posts:39
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| 09 Feb 2012 09:10 AM |
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I tried the Britta filter = no difference in taste. I havent had the chance to price out a new well yet, but my brother is bulding a house enxt door this summer, so Im sure it will be ALOT cheaper if th truck is already here. I'll contatc my health dept to see if they have any suggestions.
thanks alot!
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 09 Feb 2012 10:01 AM |
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I tried the Britta filter = no difference in taste. Charcoal filters can't remove the taste of salt. If you go to the website of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, you can use a water well viewer to access the well records in your surrounding area. Using those records will help you decide how to drill to get the best water. Your driller should have known that. This time, when you drill, enlist the services of a water specialist to analyze the water coming up before you decide to stop drilling. |
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minkia38
New Member
Posts:39
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| 09 Feb 2012 02:10 PM |
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ICFHybrid, interetsed in a job? |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 09 Feb 2012 04:50 PM |
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No, but thank you kindly for the offer.
I am a little bit concerned about your drinking water, though. Water with that high of TDS isn't necessarily dangerous, but without complete analysis it could harbor all kinds of health issues for you or your family.
Here's what you can do on your own.
1) Analyze the water wells in your area using that Michigan DEQ website tool. Talk to the wells owners. You can get an idea about what depth might yield better water.
2) Get a driller who seems interested in drilling for good water, not just getting dollars per foot.
3) Coordinate a water specialist to come out on site and analyze the water that is coming up when you get to your target depth. The specialist can do a certain amount of on-site analysis that can help guide the drilling.
4) Talk to the driller about what it might cost (extra) to hold the rig for a few hours or a day until the water can be fully analyzed. With economic activity so low these days, I have found that they often don't have another job they have to be at, so they shouldn't charge much more for the delays.
There will be extra upfront costs for the specialist, testing and delaying the rig, etc., but they are small compared to the extra costs you will incur over the next 20 years in trying to remediate bad water. |
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mnelson61
New Member
Posts:19
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| 10 Feb 2012 05:46 PM |
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Once you've done some investigating to determine the water quality of other wells in your area you will be in a better position to make an educated decision. If your first well is that bad, it's quite likely that others near you are the same unless your driller drilled past the good aquifers and possibly very deep into some terrrible stuff. If the neighbours wells are better but not great you have to weigh the odds of: 1) Drilling again and getting the same bad water in which case you'll waste another 5K 2) Your second well will not be perfect and still likely need water treatment of some kind so you'll probably spend at least 2, 4, 6K anyway to treat it. I know 15-20K for a full RO system may sound like alot, but you will be done and you will have the best water on the block and guaranteed! You will never ever get a guarantee from a well driller on the quality so you may end up spending close to the same and still have crappy water  |
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