wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm experiencing recurrent problems with my hot water being rusty. The
cold water is fine. We have a well which gives us water with low pH
(5.5) and lots of iron (9.17 mg/l) and manganese (6.5 mg/l). So for
treatment we have a greensand filter with the pH being raised using a
soda ash solution. We also have a 5 micron sediment filter after the
greensand filter. The well itself is quite full of bacteria
(iron/manganese), though there is no evidence that the bacteria is a
problem in the house (i.e. no slime buildup in the toilet tank). The
well is just over 6 yrs old.

I am new to having to deal with well water, we've just moved into this
house 6 months ago. The previous owners did not leave behind any
information regarding the water treatment system (there are no
manuals).

All I know about how to maintain this is from asking questions of the
people who installed the treatment equipment. However, getting
detailed information from them is difficult. And most of our learning
experience has been from screwing up and then having them come fix the
problem.

With regards to the rusty hot water, whenever it started to happen I
was usually able to fix the problem by replacing the sediment filter
which seems to be clogged with iron after about 2-4 weeks. However, I
have just changed the filter and the water is still just as bad.

I don't know if the problem may be because we had a well driller come
look at our well, last week (before I changed the filter). They put a
camera down the well which is how we know the well is full of bacteria.
Running the camera down the well looks like it would have disturbed
the existing bacteria. Could this cause problems like we now see?

The post treatment pH of the water does seem to be in the range of
7-7.5. I don't have any numbers on how well the treatment system is
reducing the iron and managanese.
Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Mike

I think you answered your rusty water issue with your first two sentences of
your post. It seems like the rusty water issue is with your hot water tank.
Is your filter after the hot water? Some, if not all filters will break down
with water temps above 100 degrees F. Maybe its time to replace the tank.
Or, do you have a tankless?