Iron/Rust In Well Water

[NALAK]

hi i have just moved into a new house Near Mabprachan, i changed all the drinking water filters, within 3 days they were all red rust coulered, the land lord got the water guys to fix it but within 3 days its as bad. i also got quite a few skin problems,i now have to rinse off with bottled drinking water after a shower, apparantly its due to access iron in the supply. Landlords dragging his feet on the solution so i wondered has anybody else experienced this, is there a fix locally. does anybody know hwere i get get a water testing kit in Pattaya. the water guys that came out said it would eventually ruin washing machine, showers etc. would ask them but not got there number or location and they were sent by landlord.

any information on solution and where to get testing kit appreciated. apparantly the kit shows how many particles per millilitre

[BB1950]

I've seen people who are trying to sell Reverse Osmosis equipment use a test kit like you are referring to, so I would try one of the shops on Sukhumvit that sell filters and Reverse Osmosis equipment to see if they sell the testing kits.

There are a few factors you did not mention. You mentioned you just moved into a new house, and you have a landlord. So my assumption is that the house may be an older house.

If the house is more than 5 years old. then the rust may be coming from the unions and nipples used to connect up the PVC pipes to facets and etc. Typically here in Pattaya, they use steel fittings rather than brass. Brass fittings are expensive and difficult to get or replace. That may be the reason you landlord may be dragging his feet.

You also didn't mention if you are the only one using the well. If the water is used by others and stored in one of those tall mushroom shaped water tanks, they are steel and could be the source of the rust.. Again a very expensive proposition for the landlord to fix.

It's also possible for your skin being affected by bacteria, algae, fungus, mold, and other contaminates in the well water, (rather than the rust) which can't be tested using those kits.The water would have to go to a lab to be tested properly. I have asked about that myself and no one I asked knew of a testing lab.

The water would have to be chlorinated to handle bacterial, algae, fungus, and mold problem. Again, I have not seen chlorinators for well water sold.here. Maybe swimming pool chlorinators could be used. Again that would be an expense the landlord wouldn't be willing to resolve.

As far as other contaminates (such a phosphates or other dangerous chemicals) I don't know what can be done

Probably you might go to a hospital and see if they can have the water tested to see what is affecting your skin and what could be done. You might also try one of the water filtration suppliers on Sukhumvit to see if they can provide any more solutions.

Edited January 1, 2011 by BB1950

[nam-thip]

I found this forum members reply to another post on TV.

It can be viewed at the web address below which might be of some help.

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Having used University laboratories for water testing in the past, I would be a bit wary regarding the level of quality and the methods practised there. If they are telling you that they will provide a single sterile bottle for the full testing suite, they are already showing their lack of compliance with the standard testing methods, which require all sort of different bottles with different types of preservatives. Our office occasionally requires groundwater and wastewater testing and we have since used an American environmental laboratory group with a laboratory located in Bangkok and have found that they follow international standards with their work. They also have some expats there so it's a lot easier to communicate.

Here's a link:

http://www.ncalabs.co.th/

[NALAK]

thanks for both replies, i am the only one using the well, the house is 4 years old, landlord purchased it a few weeks before i moved in. i have the water reverse osmosis drinking water system the white filter is a full red rust color within a coupls of days or 10 bottles of water, since i started rinsing off with purchased drinking water my skin has cleard up (2 weeks) so i jsut thought the iron content was the reason. best to put the ball in landlords caught as mains supply is not far away, i might be wrong but that seems ideal situation.

problem is quite common in the states as well

further comments welcome.

[avidflyer]

I had a similar problem in the States and, surprisingly, to me at least, the best solution was a water softener. Apparently a bacteria is the root cause. Go figure.

[yermanee]

Most probably your well was not drilled deep enough.

Yermanee

[Rimmer]

I can move your topic to DIY if you think you can get more general advice on the problem, let me know if you want me to.

[Pib]

You also didn't mention if you are the only one using the well. If the water is used by others and stored in one of those tall mushroom shaped water tanks, they are steel and could be the source of the rust.. Again a very expensive proposition for the landlord to fix.

Or if the water pump uses a low grade plain steel expansion/pressure tank (i.e., not a food grade/potable water grade expansion tank that use a diaphragm or bladder tank or a rust resistant steel alloy), the rust could be coming from there. These types of low grade plain steel expansion/pressure tanks which are significantly cheaper than other tanks should only be used for irrigation purposes since they do rust (inside and outside), unless it's a stainless steel tank which are kinda expensive. The outside of a low grade plain steel expansion/pressure tank can be made rust resistant by a good paint job, but on the inside rust forms easily.

[Artisi]

Without getting too academic, I think you will find it is iron within the groundwater and has nothing to do with pipes, fittings or tanks. Ask round the local area to see who else is using groundwater and if thery have similar problems.

Go to google and enter "iron in drinking water" - plenty of info there.

[Artisi]

Correction - google -- "iron in water wells"

[NALAK]

checked google quite a bit, water softerners seem to help, found a shop in Pattaya today who will do a test on the water and give me the info, just changed the pump so maybe that could have been source of rust. see what water test states but must admit a company selling filters at 30k doing the test i think it may come back suprisingly bad.

thanks for info and replies

[Digger]

You probably need to add a water filter similar to the used in swimming pools and fill it with a filter medium called ZEOLITE. I had to do the same thing for my swimming pool and house water as the iron content in ground water is very high. Zeolite from the research I undertook is apparently the medium that can remove the iron from the water. It wont get all of it but since I put in an extra filter its removed the bulk of it. Couple of Western pool suppliers in Pattaya stock the Zeolite and the filters you need.

[Pib]

checked google quite a bit, water softerners seem to help, found a shop in Pattaya today who will do a test on the water and give me the info, just changed the pump so maybe that could have been source of rust. see what water test states but must admit a company selling filters at 30k doing the test i think it may come back suprisingly bad.

thanks for info and replies

When the results do come back be sure to do some research/googling on what levels/parts per million/etc., is considered bad. As you implied a company selling water filters just may present the results in such a way to make you feel the water is close to poisonous level and you need a 30K baht filter today to have any hopes of living.

[Greenside]

Our well water is full of iron too but we do have a carbon/manganese/sand filter which makes it look at least usable - at the moment it just goes on the garden. I'm interested to hear someone say maybe it wasn't sunk deep enough, our well guy didn't seem to think that was the issue and you'd expect him to want to get every last baht out of the job. We expected to go to 35 - 40m but stopped at 28 or so.

[Greenside]

Having just written the last post I went to check our system and found that the filter was clogged to the point of not letting any water through - we have two tanks and the second one is gravity fed from the first via the filter but just now the filter tank was full and the second tank low enough to trip the float switch that protects the irrigation pump. It's only been a week since I did a serious backwash because of the same issue and (thankfully) fitted the cutout to the pump and I'd say we've maybe used 3 or 4,000 litres.

I haven't asked around about other people's well depth but I'd be surprised if anyone could filter out this level of iron routinely and not have mentioned it when we were drilling.