Question about well water

I don't think iron will hurt you. I drink mine straight from the well.

My well puts out water that is slightly on the hard side but it is the best water I have tasted anywhere. No stains on anything but like a tub shower unit supply valve is good for about 20 years.

The water tank on the cooler at church is my water and it get drank like crazy. Recently they had some extra meetings and a wedding there and I did not know so they ran out of water. Someone filled it with city water and that one took forever to run out. When it did and I was replacing it someone asked if that was my well water and when I said it was everyone there was cheering and two of them headed for the cooler with water bottles to fill.

Today I delivered eight gallon jugs of my water to Mom's house.
She has a 150 year old well as good as mine. 108 feet deep and shut down.
It was for the old house 100 feet away and the long iron pipe to the new house is filling up and the pump is shot. A well guy talked her into a new well behind the house that is 128 feet deep, orange and reeks of sulfur.

Thanks everyone! See, this is why I love this place. Yall are a wealth of knowledge and experience.

There are green sand filters designed to remove iron. They use potassium permanganate for regeneration in place of salt. I talked to a guy the other day that uses a water boss softener that effectively removes iron from water that seems to be colloidal iron, I.e. it does not settle, he also told me about every 6 months he treats his well over night with 4 bottles of bleach. This kills off iron digesting microbes which gives the off or sulphur smell. You have to flush for quite a while to reduce the chlorination, you should also remove your in line filters if you have them, as the dead microbes will quickly clog the filters, I also bypass the softener as well. Just run your water until the bleach smell goes away.

Rustaholic said "It was for the old house 100 feet away and the long iron pipe to the new house is filling up and the pump is shot. A well guy talked her into a new well behind the house that is 128 feet deep, orange and reeks of sulfur."
Did they plug the old well? If not the old pump can be pulled out, and a new one installed.

Have it tested. I had well water in two of my homes and had no problems. I used a water softener we because of hard water, but other filtering, no.

My MIL lost all her teeth because of bad well water though. Have it tested!

Unless you're gonna drink a tubful at a time, I would think you're worrying too much.

Oh yuck! That sounds terrible. How the heck did that happen?

Always have well water tested before buying a farm. If you plan on keeping livestock and maintaining a household, you need to ensure the well produces sufficiently (flow) potable water. Rust is not usually a big problem but a well can have a number of unseen problems that could make it unsafe for humans or livestock.

Yup, turn you into a red head in about 6 weeks.
I would want to get the iron out for laundry, but it won't bother you to drink or water plants.

Worried about drinking well water? Have you tasted city/municipal water recently?! Ugh.

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Rust stains just means there is iron in the water, which might be helpful to some family members. We have a well that is very high in minerals, as the water comes up through limestone. We have chosen not to use a softener, and we drink the water straight from the well with no problems.

The well should have been tested for bacterial and chemical contaminants in addition to minerals as part of the inspection process. If this has not been done, get it done ASAP! Your real estate agent should have made sure this was done and paid for by the seller. There should be records available from previous tests. If you are working without an agent, contact your county extension agent (through the USDA). Water testing labs are frequently listed in the phone book. Make sure they are licensed, monitored, etc., and have a good reputation.

We get ours tested every few years, and if we were in a low-lying area receiving residential or agricultural run-off, we would test it much more frequently. Animal farmers are required to test very frequently to ensure their operations (whether dairy, pigs, chickens, etc.) are not contaminating ground and surface water supplies.

Good luck

I'm not worried about the well water. I'm simply asking what everyone's experience is with well water.
We don't drink our tap water, because it has too much chlorine in it.

Actually too much iron can hurt you - there is a condition called Hemochromatosis - where a person's body collects too much iron which in turn can damage your liver - when you get a physical it is good to do a blood test - this condition tends to run in families - people may have it and not know it -

Well water can be very good or very bad. There is a wide variety of minerals in well water. Some good for you, others not so good. I have had well water my entire adult life. In this area, I get minerals like iron oxide and calcium carbonate. Many areas have sulfur, others have sodium (salt) not so good. Everyone gets used to their water's combination of minerals and when they drink water in other areas detect an off flavor.
If there is bacteria in your well water, you would be better off adding clorine.
There are water softeners that exchange the water's existing minerals with salt. Makes soap last longer.

you will always have something dissolved in your water. I'm a scientist and use deionized water (most dissolved particles that have a charge are removed, for example table salt splits into sodium and clorine ions in water) for cooling in electrical equipment (water is exposed to high current so ions must be removed so that it doesn't conduct electricity). The only reason I bring this up is that when you have water that "pure" you can see it cause oxidation stains on stainless steel in 10seconds of sitting water. Water is both acidic and alkaline at the same time so it will dissolve something. You will never get clean water, but what is in the water depends on what is in the ground that your well water filters through. Have you water analyzed to make sure that nothing is too high in concentrations. Check for arsenic as most arsenic poisoning is from tainted water supplies (and sadly pesticide use). Clorine is extremely toxic and would never be approved for consumer use if it weren't grandfathered for use. But yet even in the quantities in tap water it won't provide significant harm (yet adding fresh tap water to a fish tank can kill you fish). Simply leaving water sitting in an open container for 20 minutes will allow most of the clorine to leave the water.

Just because well water looks fine, doesn't mean it is and in some cases, fresh looking water can kill poultry and livestock.

Some iron is workable but a lot of iron will quickly affect your taps, washing machine, discolour light clothing in a bad way and result in frequent plumbing repairs.

We have our water tested intermittently, costs $50 here for mineral and bacterial tests. We have high iron (only, everything else tests ok) and have had a time getting it filtered well enough to use. There are different types of iron so today we had a chlorine injection and activated charcoal filter installed....we'll see how that works. I don't mind the iron so much (I could actually use more) but it does stain fixtures and clothes, and DH doesn't need more iron.

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I don't know for sure, but she noticed her teeth were dirty and starting to hurt. She ended up having to have the majority of them pulled and dentures.

She got a filter and the pipes replaced in the house.