We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

wrote:
We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

Have you had your water tested? The black could be from the reaction of the
bleach with iron that may be present. If you fill the sink and add bleach
does the water become black then too?

Ferrous chloride is black

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrous_chloride


wrote in message
...
We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

The black matter you are seeing is probably an iron salt. I suspect it
is found in pipes that haven't had water flowing through them
frequently. Opening an outside silcock now will probably yield black
material. Ferric chloride is black, as are some iron sulfides and
several iron oxides.

Are you in an area where there is a substantial amount of iron in the
ground? If so the anerobic organism that is probably responsible for
much of your odors (hydrogen sulfide most likely) is best eliminated by
titrating the water with hydrogen peroxide. I built a system to do this
do this automatically in my home and it was not difficult. Just don't
use drug store hydrogen peroxide because it has preservatives, not
disclosed on the label, that are better not ingested.

Having spent a good portion of my life working with halogens (chlorine,
etc.) and polymers I would stay as far away from chlorinated water as
possible. I will acknowledge that most municipal water supplies are
chlorinated but don't loose sight of the fact that artherosclerotic
hearts disease didn't appear until after those same municipalities began
to chlorinate water in the period from about 1910 to 1940.

My non-scientific observation of this (I am now retired to an area where
individual wells are the predominate source of water) is that people who
have not consumed chlorinated water during their lifetime don't have
heart bypass operations.

Boden

wrote:
We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

wrote in message
...
We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. .......................

We have also used well water in an area where there was iron in the water.
At times water could turn brown especially when used with bleach etc.
We are now on town supply. We understod that chlorine is added, as done by
many municipalities to water supplies, (our current town supply comes from
lakes/ponds) to combat disease causing organisms; not to get rid of
dissolved chemicals such as ferric/ferrous? iron. Chlorination in municipal
systems usually being more important AIUI in summer.
If the water tests 'good' biologically why add chlorine? Dissolved minerals
are another matter and might warrant detailed lab analysis? Not sure if high
levels of dissolved chemicals can aggravate the formation of kidney stones
etc. Ask you doctor.

Ferrous chloride is green. Ferric chloride is black.

PipeDown wrote:
Ferrous chloride is black

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrous_chloride


wrote in message
...

We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 19:23:33 GMT, wrote:

We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

You probably have the water supply and drain pipes connected together.
You are likely getting fecal matter from your toilet into your clean
water, along with soap scum from the dishwasher.

***** CALL A PLUMBER *****

On Sun, 16 Apr 2006 02:43:46 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 19:23:33 GMT, wrote:

We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our
pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper
pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of
chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and
can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine.
Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out
is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up.
I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it
happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing
company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has
anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and
how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

You probably have the water supply and drain pipes connected together.
You are likely getting fecal matter from your toilet into your clean
water, along with soap scum from the dishwasher.

***** CALL A PLUMBER *****


BWAHAHAHAHAHHAA....i hope that this is a joke. supply and drain pipes
connected together? i can't say i've heard of copper drain pipes, and
i can't say that i would own a house where the in/out pipes are the
same size, that would really slow the toilet down.

but wait...this can't be a joke, i've read 3 posts in total that
warned of gloom and doom when putting a washer onto a waterhose and
replacing a sink washer...problems ranging from floods to waterdamage
to drowning the family dog.

"...best left to a professional" either your a criminal shister
plumber or an idiot...which is it?


just going by the description of the problem, i would think that there
is something wrong with their chlorinator.

replying to jplasater, John keeter wrote:
I am having the same problem right now I can turn on my faucet no matter where
in the house and Blackwater will come out and it leaves a sediment after it
drains and I have no idea what's going on if money you can reach me at Keeter
35 at gmail.com if you have any solutions or need to contact me about anything
questions that I'm having problems with

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...et-106229-.htm

replying to jplasater, sandy wrote:
Its called Manganese and some wells have pockets of this mineral in deep
wells. It is not harmful but unsightly. It will run black for seconds and
then clear up for years.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...et-106229-.htm

replying to jplasater, patcher wrote:
its the anode in the hot water tank


--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...et-106229-.htm