Tannins ruining my fixtures????

[Nicole Amstutz]

Hi. We bought a house with a well (my first well) and the prior owners had this elaborate system installed that their renters bypassed for 2 years. We bought the house on short sale "as is" and I cleaned the staining off all the fixtures (tubs, toilets, sinks, vacuumed sediment out of back of toilets) and had the water tested at Sears. They say very low Iron, the water is not hard but could be very high in magnese and tannins.

We bought a whole house filtration system to clean the water and sediment. This is NOT working and we are constantly cleaning the fixtures. The bath water looks like tea??????? It is so time consuming and to top it off the Army re-stationed us out of state and we want to get renters but need a system to fix this issue that won't be too much upkeep for the renters.

Please Helllllllllllllp us!!!!!

[Andy CWS]

What kind of filter did you buy? What were you hoping it to do? Tannis cannot be removed by filtration unless you are talking about ROs. You say 'elaborate' can you describe the equipment?

[Nicole Amstutz]

We bought Kenmore Elite Central Water Whole Home Filtration System from Sears.

The system they had on the house before was $4000 and had 3 separate canisters. Including salt and a chemical additive. Not sure what brand.

I was told they were oversold on the system and that alot of people are unaware that they have been sold a system they didnt even need. I also felt $4000 for water filtration was expensive, plus they had to add salt and change filters????

Should I have my water retested?

[Andy CWS]

I was told they were oversold on the system and that alot of people are unaware that they have been sold a system they didnt even need. I also felt $4000 for water filtration was expensive, plus they had to add salt and change filters????

Should I have my water retested?

Since you bought the Kenmore, what changes in your water have you noticed? What problems remain?

Yes, to the second question. Never buy any water treatment equipment without knowing what it is you are treating...that only makes sense.

What do you mean: "you were told..." Were these qualified water technicians, or neighbors? How could it be determined that someone was oversold? Did it work? I believe that if you buy something really, really cheap and it doesn't work as being 'over sold".

[TRT]

Trt

Andy,

I just had our well (46ft) water tested for tannins & lignins. The results indicate 0.36 mg/L tannins. Is that a significant level? Ferrous iron is above 7.0. I know a conventional treatment system will not remove tannins, but do not know if the level is material enough to treat for.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Andy CWS]

Tannin levels are enough to be noticeable, especially if filling a bathtub. But the iron is out of this world. A 7ppm you will need either a very capable twin tank softener or an iron filter followed by a softener. You didn't mention your hardness, TDS or pH. That might prove valuable for correctly sizing your equipment.

[PRR]

Manganese can leave stains too. Look in my toilets.

Interesting that Sears said very low iron. (Or is this a different house?)

Tannins are decaying leaves, which suggests surface water is getting into the well. And a 46' well on a property with a history of neglect(?) sure should be suspected of leaking. Tannins won't make you too sick, but surface germs are a real issue.

A deeper well (or this well re-sealed) might reduce tannins and germs, but probably won't do anything for iron or manganese unless there is an abrupt change in geology further down.

[TRT]

Tannins, ETC.

PRR,

Sorry you are having problems. Our well was new in the summer of '10. I doubt that leakage from the lake has occured. This well replaced a shallow well. The shallow well was great quality, just no pressure. I had it tested for tannins, and found the reported level. Maybe I'll check for other minerals before installing a filtration system... probably NOT SEARS! Sorry... one of my few prejudices!

Tim