Hello and thank you in advance for yourtime. Here is the problem. I have municipal water that is within all federal limits for contaminants except for rust, which is high. The laundry and toilets were being stained. 3 years ago I installed a Aqua Pura AP-810 whole house filter with an AP 801 rust/sediment filter cartridge. I change the cartidge on a monthly basis. About 8 months ago, my wife complained that the whites in the laundry were now tinted a light blue. Sure enough they were. I thought it was the laundry detergent she was using, but ruled this out as our sink basins and bathtub also have this light tint. The filter housing itself has a blue color which matches the stain color left by the water. I cannot for the life of me figure out what would cause this reaction as the whole filter housing is man of plastic. Any ideas on what is in the water that would react with the filter housing? My wife took a sample of water before the filter and soaked it in water overnight, and it did not chage in color, whereas a sample of water after the filter did chage the color of the white towel. Is this safe for drinking? I have called the local water company and the manufacturer (Cuno) of the filter and both are stumped. Cuno says their filter is inert. I need to have some kind of filter installed to keep the rust problem at bay. Any suggestions on a different brand of filter?
Thanks again.
Ray.

 

I don't think I can help much and this probably isn't it, but have you ruled out that its copper? Do you have copper plumbing? Have you checked the ph of your water? If the ph has dropped or has been low all along so that the water is acid, and you have copper pipes, you will get bluish green staining. The biggest problem with this is that over time, it weakens the copper pipes and you will get very fragile pipes that can easily develop pinhole leaks. That takes years however, but should be corrected. The only way to correct this is with some type of acid neutralizer on the incoming water supply. If you have to go that route, you may want to put in a softener at the same time as neutralizers make the water very hard. The good news is that these would get rid of your rust problem too. I tend to doubt your water filter has anything to do with this and it is just coincedence that it is happening after it but not before. This would make sense also if the water has flowed through more copper pipe after it than before and therefore picked up more copper.

 

Thanks chiguy. You were right on with regards to the ph of the water. I tested it yesterday, and found it to be below 6.5. Also did a copper test and found it to be 1.1. It seems the low ph is causing leaching from my copper pipes. I must now get a ph inceasing system for my house, as well as a water softening system. Thanks again!
Ray.

 

It'd be prudent to call a couple water treatment companies and have them come out, test your water completely, and make treatment recommendations. They'll do it for free and the more info you have the more intelligent a decision you can make.

If your iron content is low enough a GOOD softener will take care of it. If not, then best to dump yuor filter and treat the iron the right way. Whole house filter can (and do) cut down on water flow and pressure.

You may have other treatment considerations than simply hardness and PH.

 

Yes, definitely talk to several companies and get several quotes. Be careful as this is an area where you will find a lot of companies that "see you coming" and try to convince you that you need their and only their system asap. Watch out for the "if you buy today, we'll give you an extra $200 off. If its a good deal today, it'll be a good deal tomorrow, or you'll deal with someone else. You can even find acid neutralizers and softeners on the web at good prices, but with the high cost of shipping, I think you can do as well with a reputable local company, but you may have to get quotes from 5 or more to find one. You will definitely find quotes vary by hundreds of dollars on these systems and it pays to shop around.

Watch out on softeners also. I bought a cheap softener at one of the big box stores at a house I was selling to get rid of the iron showing up in the toilets while it was on the market. It worked, but it used a bag of salt every two weeks. I now have the top of the line GE unit (I got it because I could get employee pricing on it, not for particularly any other reason) and it has many times the capacity, but uses only one bag of salt about every 6 months. There is a vast difference in efficiency between cheap units and better units, apparently.

On the neutralizer, depending on your iron content, you may want to oversize it and have catalytic media in the bottom before the calcite is added. This catalyst oxidizes the iron to help remove it, but is not consumed itself. You only have to replenish the calcite or blend thereof every few months (I find about 9-12 in my system). This type of neutralizer with the softener I mentioned above is what I have and I have very nice water.

I agree with getting a couple/few places to test your water and make sure that ph and softness are the extent of your issues. Just make sure you take what they say with a grain of salt (sorry, softener joke, couldn't resist) and don't let them oversell you.