WellWaterFixes
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Independent well water guidance

Find out what’s in your water before anyone sells you a system.

Most well owners get a lab report they can’t read, then get quoted equipment in the wrong order. We’re not a dealer, an installer or a lead broker — so we can tell you when you don’t need something.

Read your water testDiagnose by symptom

Work it out yourself

Free, no signup, nothing emailed to you. The maths is documented on each page.

Water test interpreterEnter your lab results. Get each one judged against the EPA limit, and the treatment train your water calls for.Softener sizing calculatorGrain capacity from your hardness, iron and household size — with the iron adjustment most charts omit.Salt cost calculatorWhat your softener costs to run per year, and whether it's regenerating too often.Pressure tank calculatorSize a tank from your pump's flow rate and pressure switch — and stop the short-cycling that kills pumps.Shock chlorination calculatorBleach dose from your casing size and water depth — scaled for the strength on the bottle, which most guides ignore.

Start from the symptom

The same symptom usually has three or four causes needing completely different fixes. Each page gives you the check that tells them apart.

Orange, rusty or brown well waterIron — the most common well water complaint there is.Well water that smells like rotten eggsHydrogen sulfide — and the water heater that often causes it.Blue-green stains in sinks, tubs and showersAcidic water eating your copper plumbing.Black specks or black staining in well waterManganese, crumbling rubber, or filter media — three very different fixes.Well water that tastes metallicFour possible metals, and the tell that separates them.Cloudy or milky well waterOne glass of water tells you air from sediment.Pink slime in the toilet, shower or sinkThe one bathroom problem that isn't coming from your well.Low water pressure on a wellDiagnosed cheapest-first, so you don't replace a pump you didn't need to.Sand and sediment in well waterFilter it and you treat the symptom. Find the source first.Well water that smells musty or tastes earthyUsually organic, not mineral — and carbon alone often isn't enough.

Order matters more than brand

The most expensive mistake in well water treatment is not buying the wrong equipment. It is buying the right equipment and installing it in the wrong sequence — an iron filter ahead of an acid neutraliser barely works, a softener ahead of an iron filter fouls, and UV without filtration reports success while passing live bacteria.

Vendors rarely lead with this, because the sequence often means the thing you were about to buy is not the thing you should buy first.

The correct treatment order

  1. 1Sediment filtersFirst, where the supply line enters the house.
  2. 2Acid neutralisersEarly — after sediment filtration, before any iron filter or softener.
  3. 3Iron, manganese and sulfur filtersAfter any acid neutraliser, before the softener.
  4. 4Water softenersAfter iron removal, before carbon and UV.
  5. 5Carbon filtersAfter the softener; before UV if both are fitted.
  6. 6UV disinfectionLast of the whole-house stages, after all filtration.
  7. 7Reverse osmosisPoint of use, at one tap. Last of everything.

Why trust anything here?

Well Water Fixes is not a water treatment dealer, an installer, or a lead broker. We do not take your details and sell them on, and nobody is going to call you.

Health limits are cited from the EPA rather than asserted. The calculators show their assumptions and the reasoning is on the page. Where we earn anything, it is disclosed — and where the honest answer is that you do not need equipment, the site says so.

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