I can vouch for what creekside said about scams. I posted a long time ago about Roy Roy the Water Boy (I am not kidding, that is his marketing name) who came out to my house just when it was being finished to do his 50 dollar water test. Gee - i thought - what a great deal. When the Water Boy turned to me and said, "well, i have some good news, and some bad news" I should have known what was coming. The good news was that we had very clear water and no bacteria. The bad news, it was very hard water and had some iron. And for the mere pidance of "fouty nine ninety five" he could fix it. I turned to my wife and said, what the heck, we can splurge for the 49.95 right now to fix this. And she said, "ah, you need to move the decimal point over a bit - he is talking about 4995!" And that was just for the hard water. To do the iron and the hard water, it was over 8 grand!!! DW then proceeded to ask the Water Boy for his pamphlet, and told him we would get back in touch with him if we decided to treat the water. After he left, she ripped the builder for yet another unforseen oops which we later discovered he knew about and was setting us up (probably getting a kick back from the water boy too). Luckily I had this forum and did a lot of searching over on Plumbing. We wound up doing the water treatment ourselves after I read a bunch of posts - see posts from justalurker and aliceinwonderland - great info. I took the water test results from the Water Boy and called Abundant Water Flow to order the water softener - see link below. They were very helpful and helped me size the unit. I had a water softener delivered to the house site within a few days after Water Boy left and the plumbers were still here to hook it up for a small fee. I put in the resin myself which is the hardest part. FYI - have two people put the resin the tank as spilling it on the floor is not a good idea - very hard to clean up. After I fixed the water hardness issue, i later added a Big Blue water filter to take out the small bit of iron we had plus remove an aftertaste from the Potassium Chloride we used as the brine. In the end I did the entire water treatment for under 1500 bucks and our water is great. I am now my own water treatment maintenance guy and it isn't that hard. I test the water myself once per year with a DIY test kit just to make sure things are still OK. I make sure the brine tank is filled with pellets. I make sure the system is re-generating on the schedule. That's about it. Hopefully this info will hlep others. If your water is not too bad (hardness and moderate iron, no bacteria), then a DIY approach works just fine. if you have really bad water and bacteria - then you probably want a pro to handle it. Here is a link that might be useful: Abdundant Water Flow

I have well water, a "whole house filter" and an Icon fridge with a filter. My previous house had well water and a GE fridge with no filter, but we had a Culligan reverse osmosis water filtration system. As far as water/ice quality, I've noticed almost no difference from city water - except that well water tastes less "chemically" than my city water did. It is really a water quality issue. Once your well is up and running, you will be able to have the water tested and go from there regarding filters and such. Our new house happens to have a very deep well - over 600 feet down - and has excellent quality water - clear, no iron, low residue so we have great results from any tap. The other issue is water pressure. You want to make sure you will have adequate water pressure for an ice maker/water dispenser (this should really be no problem). Enjoy your well.

Hi library girl, We closed on the house on Thursday, so we haven't had a lot of experience with the water. However, I can tell you this. With no softener (just the UV filter and a new pressure/holding tank) the water is pretty darn good, from my point of view. The dishwasher in the house is older than me, I'm fairly certain, and there aren't any signs of rust on the inside. The glasses come out a bit cloudy though, but I can live with that. We've run a load of laundry and the whites didn't come out dingy, so I was pleased with that. Also, it doesn't taste half bad, either. I prefer the taste of harder water (I suppose its the higher mineral content) over softer water anyhow. The hot water does smell a little irony out of the tap, and we haven't tried to cook with it yet. I'm suspecting the hot water is a little off (in part, at least) to the water heater nearing the end of its useful life and never having the anode rod changed. Our UV filter is a Trojan, but that is all that I remember. I'll get you some info on oursIt was recommended to us because we have an older dug well with a cement casing and cement cap. Its not exactly weather tight, and the well company that inspected it said that the casing was in good shape and they didn't see any cracks. However, an earthworm may end up in there and there is your coliform. The seller paid for it, but it wasn't terribly expensive, and the bulb usually lasts about a year. As lurker said above, the hard water is a little harder on it and will probably shorten its life some. In our case, I was worried about the well being re-contaminated after it was chlorinated, as its a shallow well operating mostly off ground water, so at the very least, I wanted to take the possibility of bacteria out of the equation. We're still going to have our water tested regularly, but the UV filter provides us a good amount of peace of mind.

There are several options for iron removal. Each has pros and cons - hopefully this will help you make a decision: Softener: You have expressed no desire for a softener, but, just in case you want the info anyway - A softener with specialty resin is capable of removing dissolved iron, up to 7 ppm (mg/L) but asking a softener to remove iron at those upper limits is really pushing it so I do not recommend this method. In addition, a softener will become fouled with particulate iron. A softener will not remove sulfur compounds. Additionally, extra steps need to be taken monthly to ensure the iron is adequately stripped from softener resin - This is the poorest choice for iron treatment. Oxidation/Filtration: An oxidizer such as ozone, air, or chlorine may be used to react with the iron and force it to become particulate iron that can then be removed via filtration. This will also remove most sulfur compounds. A typical setup would involve the oxidizing unit, a holding tank, then a media filter. This type of system works quite well, but takes some expertise in sizing - you would want a water treatment pro that you trust to help you with this option. Oxidizing filtration media: This type of treatment consists of a sealed tank filled with one of several media. Water passes through and is oxidized and filtered by the media. Most will remove sulfur compounds as well as iron. These are relatively easy to operate and what I recommend for the average homeowner. There are several different media that can be used: Manganese greensand: water runs through for treatment. The media must be regenerated with potassium permanganate. Care must be taken with dealing with potassium permanganate as it readily dies organic material, such as your skin, a purple-brown color. Some people are quite comfortable dealing with the chemical; others are not. Synthetic greensand: This is essentially the same as option (a) but consists of a coating of greensand on a silica sand core so does not require as much backwash flow. Service flow rate is 2 - 5 gpm/sq ft. Backwash flow rate is 12 gpm/sq ft. Birm: This media acts as a catalyst to force oxidation of iron. While it does not need to be regenerated, it does need fairly high dissolved oxygen in the water. If your water does not have adequate dissolved oxygen (and it probably doesn't since it is well water), air injection would be necessary prior to the birm. Additionally, birm requires a minimum pH of 6.8. Service flow rate is 3.5 - 5.0 gpm per sqft. Backwash flow rate is 11 - 20 gpm, depending upon water temperatures and desired bed expansion. Pyrolox: an ore that oxidizes then filters the iron out. It does not need regeneration, but needs to be backwashed (to rinse out the iron) at a high rate. pH range is 6.5 - 9.0. This type of filter works very well, but backwash is critical. Service flow rate is 5 gpm/sqft. Backwash is 25-30 gpm/sqft. Backwash daily. Terminox: Similar to Pyrolox, but a proprietary formula . It does not require as much backwash flow rate and is more resistance to a low pH. The particulars are only available from the company that sells it - this means you have to rely entirely on the vendor for proper sizing. Backwash daily. Filox: Also similar to Pyrolox. pH range 5.0 - 9.0. Backwash flow 12-15 gpm/sqft. Service flow 6 gpm/sqft. It must be backwashed daily. Pro-OX: Essentially the same as the previous three. Requires 12-15 gpm/sqft backwash. As with Terminox, specs are lacking information so you'll have no way of knowing if the unit you get is sized appropriately. Katalox-light: Similar in action to the previous four, but is comprised of zeolite, manganese dioxide and hydrated lime. It should be designed for 6 - 12 gpm/sqft service flow atnd 8 - 10 gpm/sqft backwash. For well water, it's a good option as it requires lower backwash. In all cases, media ought to be replace somewhere between 5 - 10 years. If any vendor tells you their media lasts forever, walk away - they aren't trustworthy.