Imagine you were outside for the whole day, it was a sunny day, and you didn’t even get the time to drink water. Just now, you arrived at the home and took a glass from your cupboard, opened your well, put the glass under the faucet for fill up. But unfortunately, your tap water is entirely brown.
It’s a common scenario of our day to day to life. For some people, the problem is prolonged for a long time, and they just become irritated about it.
So, that’s why we thought you guys might want to know how to get rid of brown well water. If you want to know that, then you are absolutely in the right place.
In the following part, we will try to provide some information about how to get rid of brown well water.
Let’s first know what may be the reasons for brown well water.
What are the Reasons for Brown Well Water?
We are discussing at first how well water become contaminated-
Rainwater, water from your lawn, rooftop, and gutters all goes back to the soil percolate. After percolating through the layer of dirt, rock, this water reaches the aquifer which is the main source of your drinking water.
Yeah, rock and dirt filter out some contaminants, but the rest of the reaches to your aquifer which contaminates your drinking water.
When you see the different color of your water, you feel the distinct taste of your water, and when one of your family members get ill, you may suspect that the water is contaminated.
But remember brown water can be the reason for contamination and sometimes it can be the reason for the natural process which is not harmful to your health.
Iron Ore
The well water contains some minerals such as sulfur or iron ore typically. The presence of a significant amount of iron can change the color of your water into a brown or reddish hue.
Generally, containing iron in water is not harmful; instead, it can help you by keeping metal in your diet. But iron water can stain your clothes and can also create plumbing fixtures.
Rust
Rusty pipes through which water comes can also turn the water into brown ones. Here, the source of brown color is the pipes, not the well water.
When from certain taps of your house you have brown water, but from other part’s taps, you are getting clear water, in this situation you can suspect pipes.
If you are living in an old house and pipes of this house were soldered with lead, then test your water for lead contamination.
Tannins
Tannins are mainly dissolved from leaves, which can make your water brown. Often in lakes and streams, this happens but if your well is shallow mostly you will find brown water in the fall.
As in that time, dry leaves gather on the ground, and water percolates through them which makes a kind of tea. Tannins are not harmful but can stain your clothes and can change the taste of water.
Silt
Sometimes water can contain suspended particles, leaves, organic matter, which makes water brown.
Check the filter of your well if you can see sediment in your water as silt sits to the bottom of water if you let them sit for a while.
How to Get Rid of Brown Well Water
Here, we will discuss some procedures for getting rid of brown water.
- If you are suspecting the reason is iron which is making your water brown, then you can install a filter for removing most of the iron.
- You can move all the pile-up leaves from your yard and can wait for the result.
- Most of the time, water silt is the result of floods. In that case contact with your water company for restoring the well.
- Check whether the brown water is coming from hot or cold water only. If just the hot water is brown, then your water heater may need to be flushed out.
- You can use a water softener which can be an effective way to get rid of brown water and also economical.
- If you are unaware of the reason and even the best way to get rid of brown well water is testing the water for knowing what the problem is and how to fix it. Remember the test should include assessments of pH, hardness, bacteria, iron bacteria, dissolved materials, coliform.
- Most of the time where you are doing the test there you will get some trained volunteers who can suggest to you what to do further, what will be the appropriate next step for you.
- Be sure that the water in your house wasn’t shut off for some time. If it was, then the brown water is the reason for dislodged rust. Running your tap for some time may help you in this case.
Conclusion
Water is crucial to our life. From dirty, unhealthy water, our health can be affected severely. We should ensure that we are getting clean water.
Before starting to write, our motivation was to give you tips about how to get rid of brown well water.
In the full writing, we tried to mention the reasons why you are getting brown well water. Moreover, we have discussed some solutions to how to get rid of brown well water according to your problem.