Beginner’s Guide to Well Water Treatment for New Homeowners
New homeowners on well water most likely find the idea of treating well water intimidating at first. Comparatively, you no longer have access to pre-treated municipal water that comes with its own set of pros & cons. On one side, municipal water is typically treated with chlorine or chloramines for purification purposes.
Most well water systems don’t use chlorine or chloramines, which is mostly a good thing. The key is to get the knowledge you need to purify your well water properly without chlorine or chloramines. In the end, you come out the winner since you don’t have to worry about the negative effects of chlorine in your tap water, such as dry skin.
In this guide, you’ll go through the most important points to consider when creating your well water treatment system.
Focus on Point-of-Entry
The first step is to focus on the point of entry when treating your well water. In layman’s terms, point of entry is the focus of treating your water at the point where it enter your home. While this may sound obvious, it’ll save you the grief of having to invest in shower filters, faucet filters, or an under-sink water filter.
By treating your water at the point of entry, you ensure that all the water that enters your home is purified. Ultimately, your drinking water and wash water are all ready to go without installing additional filters throughout your home.
Sediment Filtration
Now that you know how important it is to treat your water at the point of entry, it’s time to get acquainted with the first stage in your system, which is a sediment filter. Comparatively, well water is more likely to carry larger sediment than municipal water.
One of the best sediment filters for well water is the spin-down variety that’s easy to service. Once you install your spin-down filter, you’re ready to focus on the part of your well water treatment system that does the heavy lifting. Plus, you’ll extend the life of the following filters in your system by preventing large sediment from entering them.
Whole-House Water Filter
A whole-house water filter is the best way to thoroughly treat & purify well water to get it ready for use throughout your entire home. For a no-questions-asked filtering experience that captures every contaminant in your water at impressively high rates, a whole-house reverse osmosis system is the way to go. Visit Well Water Helper to get acquainted with the top systems currently on the market.
Outside of a whole-house reverse osmosis system, you’ll find that there are other systems that rely primarily on activated carbon and other common filtration media such as KDF varieties. The beauty of reverse osmosis filtration is that it uses filtration media along with a reverse osmosis membrane, which is the part of the system that captures the tiniest contaminants.
Test Your Water Hardness
Well water is typically harder than municipal water since it picks up minerals. Common minerals that cause scaling are calcium and magnesium. Well water picks up these minerals as it travels through limestone and/or gypsum.
If you find that your water is hard with a high TDS, then it’s important to add a water softener to your well water treatment system. Your options include traditional softeners that rely on salt and the newer salt-free systems. Depending on your level of hardness, you may or may not want to test a salt-free system.
For instance, a salt-free conditioner is more likely to give you the results you want if your water is moderately hard, while a traditional system is more desirable for treating very hard water. The bottom line is that this step is of the utmost importance to avoid persistent scaling around your plumbing fixtures and other common hard water problems.
Lastly, when you install your water softener, it will always be placed after your sediment filter. If you choose a whole-house RO filter, install the softener before the RO system for best results.
UV Water Purification
The final stage of your system is a UV water purifier. Remember that municipalities treat city water with chlorine to kill potentially harmful bacteria. Since you’re not using chlorine, UV water purification is the most desirable alternative to chlorine.
When installing your UV water purifier, make sure that it’s the final stage in your system. For example, a good system starts with a sediment filter before moving to the following filters and softeners.
Once the water exits the softening and filtration stages, it’s time for it to pass through the UV filter to ensure that no harmful bacteria are present in the water used throughout your home.
Finally, the good news is that the UV water purifier installs neatly beside your other filters as part of your complete system.
Conclusion
If you were completely new to well water treatment when you arrived here today, now you have a basic understanding of the differences between treating well water and municipal water.
While it may seem more challenging at first, once you get your system installed, you’ll realize that well water is better than city water. After all, it never gets touched by harsh chemicals such as chloramines that can be a pain to remove.