The Stainers and The Stinker
Iron and manganese are the stainers and boy, do they stain!
The stinker is hydrogen sulfide, also called “sulfur” which produces that significant “rotten-egg odor.”
Included in the above is iron-reducing bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria. These are the little critters that eat the iron or sulfur and then die, and you smell and see their rotting dead carcasses left behind (OK, I embellished that a lot, but it sounds cool).
Anyway you slice it, the stainers and the stinker are a problem. If you have well water in Central Indiana, the odds are you have at least one of these problems and many people have all three. This is especially true if you live in Avon, Danville, Greenfield, Zionsville, Carmel, Westfield, Fishers, Noblesville, Lebanon, Greenfield, New Palestine, Greenwood, Franklin and Brownsburg, Indiana.
If you have been unlucky enough to have iron, sulfur and/or manganese, and you tried to treat it with just a water softener, you already know that doesn’t work. Iron, sulfur and manganese need to be oxidized in order to be removed and there are many ways to oxidize them. I’ll list a few:
Potassium Permanganate – For over 50 years, people have used Manganese Greensand and Potassium Permanganate (a nasty, gross, purple, deadly poisonous chemical to remove these with very poor results. These “iron filters” were inherently unreliable and produced purple basement and garage floors for many people. What is surprising is that it took over 50 years to figure this out. I am proud to say that in 40 years of water water treatment, I sold only enough to count on one hand, and I can’t believe so many people sold these for so long. WOW!
Chlorine – For years, chlorine has been used as an oxidizer for iron, manganese and sulfur, and while it does oxidize iron pretty well (in moderate levels), it is not nearly as effective on even low levels of hydrogen sulfide. One drawback is that it needs approximately 20 minutes of contact time in order to work properly. That would mean that if your peak flow rate in your home was 15 GPM, you would need 20 minutes times 15 GPM or a 300 gallon tank. A tank that size would be approximately 35″ x 81.” That’s a lot of space.
Now, I do have to say that pellet chlorination can work well in some cases. A pellet chlorinator sits on top of your well casing and drops chlorine pellets down the well casing at a per-calculated rate. The well casing acts as a retention tank and solves the big tank problem. The other problem with chlorine is that it can produce carcinogenic disinfection byproducts. If you don’t understand what I just wrote, I’ll break it down a little more: Chlorine combines with organics in the water to form trihalomethanes (THM’s) which are cancer-causing agents. That means that you must have an adequate sized back-washing filter to remove the residual chlorine and THM’s.
Hydrogen Peroxide: We were one of the first companies who pioneered the use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the treatment of iron, sulfur and manganese about 17 years ago. Since then, we have sold thousands of hydrogen peroxide systems (OXi-Gen is what we call it) and in 17 years, we have NEVER (and I mean NEVER) had a failure. Hydrogen peroxide is a much better oxidizer than chlorine – I mean it is dramatically better! It removes all the iron, sulfur and manganese – end of story! There is one drawback – you will have an annual hydrogen peroxide bill (typically $300 -$500 a year), but you will have incredible water. Oh, and it doesn’t produce any disinfection byproducts like chlorine, even though the system uses granular activated carbon anyway.
Ozone – Just as hydrogen peroxide is a better oxidizer than chlorine, ozone is the best oxidizer you can use in residential water treatment. It’s like hydrogen peroxide on steroids! It will eradicate all the iron, sulfur and manganese without any chemicals. It’s truly like a miracle drug for bad water. So, why doesn’t everyone use it? Well, it’s very expensive. A hydrogen peroxide system may cost $2,000 to $3,000 and then you have a $300 or more H2O2 cost per year, but an ozone system doesn’t have any annual cost – the purchase can cost $8,000 to $16,000, depending upon the size of the home and amount of the contaminants.
Oxygen – The last I checked, air was free, and we have been using air for years in filters to oxidize iron and sulfur. We now have the inFusion filters which literally take a big gulp of air and keep it in the tank, so that iron, manganese and sulfur can be oxidized for free, and without chemicals. Unlike the OXi system, it does have limits, but it will handle up to 12 PPM of iron and 8 PPm of sulfur, and we can double that if we add a H2O2 injection system which only uses the peroxide during the backwash cycle. That means that you would only use about a $100 of hydrogen peroxide a year.
The Sanitizer – Water-Right Corporation of Appleton, Wisconsin manufactures a water softener that utilizes natural zeolite media and generates chlorine from the salt (like a salt-water swimming pool). If you have iron bacteria, sulfur reducing bacteria, iron, manganese and less than 1.0 PPM of sulfur, it will soften your water, oxidize the iron and sulfu and get rid of the odor – all with one piece of equipment.
Which is right for you? That’s where we come in. We test your water, we ask a few questions and then you can rely on our 40 years of experience and our money back guarantee to solve your problem. PERIOD! We have been doing this for a long time and specialize in treating bad water. We can fix your water. We guarantee it! Give us a call – we don’t have salespeople.
Categorised as: Well Water Problems