Hard and dirty water after shutoff/restart.

[redwardsp]

I have a general question that is probably simple:
Our house has a private well and we have both a softener and a filter. It seems that everytime we have to shut the water off at either the main shutoff (after the pressure tank) or at the pressure tank, the water is rusty and hard when we turn it back on. This seems to last an inordinant amount of time.
The most recent example was due to the fact that we had to replace some piping and valves for our utility sink and washing machine. The work was done and the water was turned back on before the filter and softener cycles started that night. The filter cycles every night and the softener cycles every other night. They have both run at least twice since we turned the water back on, but the water is still hard and rusty. Why does this happen??
Thanks for the info.

 

[IFIXH20]

Sounds like your water softner is not working proper or it's not adjust proper (softness adjusted to the grains of hard water)-- Are you using a salt that help with rust ? You should have a water softner company come out and test the softner.

 

[speedbump]

You said you have a softener and a filter. What is the filter???

When turning off water or dropping the pressure below normal settings, mineral will break loose from the piping and discolor the water. This is normal with most water. Unless you have pristine mineral free water (which not many of us do) you will always have mineral build up.

I hear all the time that softeners will remove iron. And they will, just not all the iron. I have tried on my own water over the years to get my softener to remove iron and it still stains. So maybe your other filter is an iron filter.

 

[redwardsp]

Yes - the filter is supposed to take out iron and the sulfer smell. It is also supposed to remove the chlorine. I am not sure of the brand. It was sold to us by a local water service company - similar to culligan but a local operation. They are familiar with the well water usage in our area.

Our system is set up as follows: The pressure tank calls for water and it is mixed at that point with the water from our chlorine tank. The water then goes through the softener and then the filter. The softener is set to run every other night and the filter runs every night. Our water is very hard and has a lot of the sulfer smell. I am not sure exactly how the filter works, but it is an additional tank just like the softener and it cycles and regenerates. It does not use any additives.
Generally our setup works great, but after this last round of repairs the water was def. not as clear and soft as it should be.
We have since found out that the bypass valve that sends the water to the softener/filtration system is leaking and therefore untreated water is getting into the mix of treated water throughout the house.

 

[speedbump]

So they're chlorinating to get rid of the sulphur and using the chlorine as and oxidizer to help remove the iron. In my opinion, the carbon filter should be in front of the softener or better yet, an iron filter in front of the softener. That takes the iron out of the water before it goes to the softener. The iron will foul the carbon over time, so that's where an iron filter would have been better. If the chlorine is adjusted so it's very minimal, it wouldn't do any damage to the softener.