Red Residue in shower and sink aerator etc.

[jessb_55]

Ever since I bought my house about 3 years ago I've had issues with hard water, etc. Originally the house had a Kenmore water softener which from what I've read aren't that great. So I replaced it with a brand new Fleck Ecominder 5600.

Well the new model seems to be doing better with the water hardness, however I've noticed that we get a lot of red residue in the shower grout, on the facet aerators. Does this mean we have a lot of iron? If that's the caxe I would have thought we would have issues with rust which we don't have at all.

Also our white clothes really loose their white color, almost makes them brown/gray after multiple washes.


Any advice would be great! Would some softener salt with Rust Remover be beneficial at all?

 

[speedbump]

The first thing to do is have the water tested before your softener. See how much iron you have. More than likely you will need an iron filter along with the softener to get rid of the iron. Softeners do remove some iron, but not all of it. It only takes a minute bit of iron to stain. Iron also fouls the media bed in the softener.

 

[jessb_55]

speedbump, I'll test the water and let you know! As far as the iron Filter is that a while separate system and is that something that I could possibly install myself, and how much are we looking at in cost?


THANKS

 

[speedbump]

If you can do a little plumbing, you could install it yourself. It's simply in and out with a drain line. It uses air instead of chemicals to oxidize the sulphur and iron. Cost for a 1" bypass, 12x52 black tank, Fleck 2510 Air injected valve, Top & bottom distributors along with two cubic feet of resin is around $900.00.

 

[jessb_55]

Hey Speedbump-
I finally got around to picking up another test kit.. Here are the results:

ph: 6.5
total alkalinity:240
total chlorine: 1
total hardness: inbetween 120 and 250
iron: 0
Copper: 0
Nitrate: 1
Nitrite: 0

granted I just noticed now that you said to test the water before the softener, which I didn't do.

Anyway, our Iron level is so low it was basically non-existent, so now what are your thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[speedbump]

I would like to see the PH a little higher, but if you have no iron, it's not a problem. It will get all the sulphur gas.

Redo your test before the softener. I just need the hardness in either PPM or Grains. Re test the PH too. Since it's after the softener, check the iron too just for the heck of it.

 

[jessb_55]

So redo the PH, hardness and Iron test before the softener?

Not to sound dumb but how do I access the water before the softener? Or do I just put the softener into bypass?

thanks!

 

[camaroderrick73]

A hose bib shouldn't be hooked into your softener. The softener would kill your plants...

 

[jessb_55]

Camaroderrick I have no idea what you're talking about lol

 

[speedbump]

I forget, not everybody in the US has their tank in the back yard like here in Florida. If you don't have a hose bibb before the softener somewhere, you may have to put it in bypass and let it run for at least ten minutes to be sure you're getting a raw sample.

 

[Drof65]

Another thought is pink mold.