How to Get Rid of Brown Well Water?

Water that is pumped from wells is among the most natural forms of water that can be found in any home.

However, if even one small thing happens to the well, you will find that your water might start turning brown.

At best, the water will have a yellowish color.

At worst, your water will have an ominous deep brown color to it.

Neither of these is preferable in the slightest, but there are a few things that you can do about this.

Before exploring the available strategies of how you can eliminate brown well water, it is a good idea to know what causes well water to become brown in the first place.

You should certainly pay attention to the next section if you want to prevent your well water from turning brown.

What Causes Well Water to Become Brown?

Knowing what exactly causes well water to become brown is the first thing you need to know about when it comes to getting rid of brown well water.

It is important to know about this because once you do succeed at eliminating brown well water, you will certainly want to do all you can to make sure that you can prevent it from turning brown again.

Well, water can turn brown because of three different things.

The first of these is rust buildup in your piping. If the water in certain areas of your home looks normal while water in other areas of your home is brown, it is probably because some pipes are rusted. This will give water a reddish brown color.

Correcting this is simple; you’ll need to replace your piping systems. You can either take a DIY approach to this if you know what you are doing, or you can get a professional to do this for you, it is your choice.

The second reason why well water becomes brown is because of iron and manganese buildup. These two compounds can get into your water supply when rain or snow runs through iron bearing rock or soil that surrounds yours well.

Iron and manganese can also develop when the casing of the well encounters corrosion. These two compounds will cause your water to turn into a deep yellow color. This is essentially harmless, but it will affect how your water tastes as well as what you can do with it.

Eliminating iron and manganese will require you to do all you can to make sure the casing of your well can resist corrosion. This will prevent iron and manganese from building up.

The last thing that will cause your well water to turn brown is the pump of the well itself. Don’t forget that a well is surrounded by soil and mud, and if the pump pulls up even a little bit of mud, your water will turn brown.

This can be prevented by making sure to go no further than 40 or 50 feet when casing the well. Casing the well this far down will aggravate the red clay and slitstone around the well, causing the pump to start pulling up mud.

Now that you know what causes the water in your well to turn brown and how to prevent it from happening, it is time to explore some ways to eliminate brown water that you are currently dealing with.

Eliminating Brown Well Water That is Currently in Your Supply

Knowing about the causes of brown well water and how to prevent it from emerging again is only half of this equation.

Knowing how to eliminate brown well water that is in your current supply is the other half of this equation, and there are numerous methods that you can utilize to do this.

If you know that your well water is turning brown because of an overabundance of iron, you can install a filter in the piping systems of your home.

You should do this anyway because filtered water can remove a lot of contaminants even from well water.

Make sure the area around the well is free of leaves and dirt. This can get into the casing of your well and get your well to start pulling up mud.

Eliminating Brown Well Water That is Currently in Your Supply

You would be surprised at what just routinely cleaning around your well can do to remove brown water.

The conditions of your water heater might also be affecting your water. If your water is only brown when the hot water is turned on but not when the cold water is turned on, you might just need to flush out your water heater.

Another quick method that you can try when it comes to eliminating brown well water is to simple install a water softener. Like with a filter, this is something that you should probably do anyway.

Sometimes water can be brown because it simply hasn’t been pumped in a long time. This can happen if you have come home from a vacation or something like that.

If you have been out of the home for longer than three days and you are encountering brown water, run your tap for a while and see if it will remove any dislodged rust.

These are just a few methods that you can attempt when it comes to removing brown water that is currently in your well.

One of the best things you can do to see if the water in your well has the potential to turn brown is to test your water.

Testing your water will show you what you might need to do to prevent it from turning brown.

This is how to do it properly.

Conducting Effective Water Tests

Testing the quality of your water is the most effective way to tell if it has the potential to develop the buildup that causes your water to turn brown.

However, there are specific things that you need to track when conducting your water tests, or else they will not be effective.

An effective water test should have you track the metrics of the following: pH levels, hardness levels, bacteria, iron bacteria, dissolved materials, and coliform.

Imbalances in these metrics are what can cause water in your well to possibly turn brown.

Familiarize yourself with these metrics and get a good understanding of how they interact with the water that your well pumps out.

Doing this as well as taking the precautionary measures mentioned earlier can nearly guarantee that the water in your well will not turn brown.

Conclusion

Do not panic if the water in your well turns brown or if you have been dealing with brown well water for a while.

You have a lot of options available to you if you do find that the water in your well has turned brown, and there are a lot of preventive measures that you can take to ensure that the water in your well does not turn brown in the future.

Make sure you know how to conduct a proper water test. Make sure that the water in your well has proper levels that will protect it from developing the iron and manganese buildup that causes it to turn brown.

You should definitely run these tests after it has rained or snowed intensely in your area. This water can harden inside of your well and cause the water to turn brown as well.

As you can see, there are plenty of causes and solutions that you should explore when you are dealing with brown well water.

Make it your business to explore these this way you know exactly what to do.

Resources:

  1. https://boggsinspect.com/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-well-water/
  2. https://waterfilterguru.com/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-well-water/
  3. https://kitchenoa.com/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-well-water/
  4. https://kitchenguider.com/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-well-water/

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FAQ:

Q: What are some causes for well water to turn brown?

A: Green or Blue Well Water. If the flow coming from your tap has a green or blue tinge,corrosion of the copper pipes in your plumbing system is the likely … Dark Brown or Black Well Water. Excess manganese or pipe sediment could be the reason for dark brown or black water. … Brown,Red,Orange or Yellow Well Water. … Milky White Well Water. …

Q: Why does your water filter turn brown?

A: Your water may appear brown or discolored for a number of reasons, including: Rusty pipework A burst water main Sediment build up in hot water heater Too much iron or manganese in the water Water main repairs being carried out on your municipal system

Q: What causes brown pool water?

A: What Causes Pool Water To Turn Brown? Opening the pool with a safety cover. … Water turned brown after adding chlorine. … Filtering out iron. … DIY iron filter. … Variable speed pump savings breakdown Pool and spa chemistry crash course New pool owner guide. … The Swimming Pool Steve blog Have a question – ask Steve Endorsed Brands From Swimming Pool Steve. … More items…