We live far out in the country, no city water for us. :-( Truly, I should not complain. Here in central FL, we have some of the BEST aquifers in the USA! Did you know that many of the bottled waters you drink come from these same natural spring aquifers? There is one company, Deer Park, I THINK it is, and they are not far from here---- their bottled water is taken right out of their tap, which is drilled right into the ground, just like our well pump is. The water in our springs is beautiful, a dark vibrant blue at it's deepest, and I know you won't believe me, but when I fill up our white bathtub, it has a light blue hue to it. Really neat! The water tastes great. Clean. Clear. In fact, it doesn't have any taste to it, not like city water, which I happen to love for that taste, and for the chlorine the put in it.

WHY?

Because the chlorine, or whatever chemicals they use, kills everything in the water.

What am I talking about, you ask?

Well, let me put it like this: I HATE this water because it is hard water, and it leaves a film on everything! WHY do I even bother to clean house--to polish the chrome in the bathroom and kitchen, when as soon as a drop of water gets on it, and dries, there is a white chalky spot there.

After 5 years of living here, I'm starting to have my doubts about this water. Starting to wonder what it is doing to my insides. Can it hurt me?

The water seems to help in growing slimy stuff. I'm not kidding. It grows around the sink fixtures, in the tub drain. In my kiddie pool. I have to clean our tap screens constantly. The water can't stand in the washing machine long before it starts to smell. I truly hate this water. I'd swear there are organisms in it, that can't be seen. I mean, this water is coming straight out of the ground, after all. It has GOT to have something in it!

So anyways, it leaves a film on my bathtub. My tub might be clean, but it won't be a day or two before the white chalky appearance comes back. What do you guys do about this? I've tried that green bottle of GLR or whatever it's called, and I didn't read the instructions properly---left in on my stainless sink too long and it ruined my sink, left huge discolorations all over it. My fault. But still!

This water is driving me crazy! And I know it won't do any good to buy bottled water, especially when it comes right out of the same aquifers. I run to my husband's truck when he gets home every day, to grab his yellow Igloo cooler, because it is FULL of glorious city-water ice, and city water! Yum! I LOVE that taste. I hate this fresh water we have! Isn't that a shame? But only for the spots in leaves on everything! Forget about washing the windows, the car even! GRRRR!!!

I grew up with well water and LOVED it, but it was soft, not hard. The only suggestion I can make is to get a water softener added to your system. I know they're kind of expensive, but it would solve at least part of your problem. I don't know how it would effect the taste of your water, though.

We have well water. We don't drink it. We buy bottled water or put one of those purifiers on the faucet. They (health officials) tell everyone to pour about a cup of clorox in the well once a year or so.

As for the stains in the bathtub/showers, I keep the automatic daily shower cleaner in our showers. Last one to shower in the morning pushes the button.

We've switched our little dog over to bottled water too. We always noticed our other dog that died after 17 years, he always had horrible breath. When we got our new little dog, he didn't have bad breath when he got here. Once he was at our house for a while and was drinking well water, his breath started smelling. Now we've switched him to bottled water and his breath is fine now.

The well has been tested and it's fine. It's just the minerals, etc. in it. But it does makes you wonder, you know?? That's why we switched to bottled water.

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"GO HOKIES!"

Mom2twins, I'm confused about something. HOW do you put a cup of bleach in the well? I am thinking your well is something differnent that mine. Is yours a standing well? Ours is not--- we have a pipe that goes nearly 100 feet down into the ground, into the aquifer itself and so how could one pour anything down there? The aquifer is huge, anyways! Even a whole bottle wouldn't do a thing.

That water purifying system---is that the kind that uses those huge bags of salt? We can't afford that. My husband would NEVER go for it. He swears this is the best water in the world. But he isn't the one battling the water spots on everything from the microwave to the bathroom countertop. Buying a brita filter for the sink wouldn't help either---- as I'd have to replace cartridges constantly, couldn't afford that, and DH won't buy it.

I'm stuck with it, I guess.

I had one of those expensive scrubbing bubbles shower cleaners and loved it until it broke. I got it from BzzAgent. I ended up buying mom one, but she has well water too, and won't give it up the machine! LOL

OH WELL!!

Oh, and mom2twins, isn't that bottled water the same as what is coming out of the aquifer? Remember when 60 Minutes and 20/20 did all of those pieces on how people were paying out the yin yang for bottled water and it turned out to be nothing more than tap water? If you look on some of the bottles it has a code there, something like 3 letters, I forget what they are, but the stand for 3 words that basically say something to the tune of "From The Tap".

Is it possible to have some sort of device put in that softens or cleans the water (or whatever needs to be done to it)?

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Faith + Love = Happy

Have you had your water tested? We had hard water when we lived in NJ and it ruined dishes (stained them) the inside of the dishwasher etc. Then we had a water softner installed, that helped.

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Sometimes the elevator often the shaft

Our well goes down real deep, too, OP. But it comes out of the ground to where you can open the top if you need to (that how they put the pump, etc. in there). When we were selling my parents house, the health official actually walked me thru how to pour Clorox down the well. It does filter through because I remember having to run the water till I could smell the Clorox coming from the faucet.

As for the water softeners, my sister had a system installed. Very expensive and they can't drink their water at all. The taste is terrible. But it did soften up the water.

OP, all I know about our bottled water is, I feel like it's better than drinking our well water. I will look on our bottled water and see if I can find those initials you're talking about.

We have a great well, though, with TONS of pressure. When our well was dug years and years ago, it was so much water, it couldn't be measured.... over 20 gallons a minute. So we love our well water --- we just don't like the taste of it!!!

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"GO HOKIES!"

I have well water too with the pipe that comes out of ground and a pump in it. I have heard that you can take those clorine tabs that are used in swimming pools and just toss them in the pipe. I absolutely hate our water. It also leaves all the mineral deposite stains on the faucets and the sink. I have tried all the fancy schmancy stuff on the store shelves and NOTHING removes them. We also have a rust issue even with the water softener (uses the bags of salt). Our water softener has a back flush system which cleans itself out nightly.

My advice is to get a whole house filter system (not cheap) if you really hate your water. A friend of mine has one and her clothes are just beautiful! She can drink straight from the tap.
I have an under the sink filter system and that does cut down on the bad taste but we still buy water from the store. I think that bottled water is a bit more filtered or distilled before its bottled.

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Paula
Some days are diamonds Some days are stone

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We have a well and our water was hard. Calcium carbonate (the white spots, etc.), alot of iron, and also copper. We have Culligan, who came and tested. It depends on what is wrong with your water. This was the second person we had over the years because the other person put in the salt tanks and something else. It slipped my mind the kind of fine stone they put in to catch the iron, but it didn't work. Now we have something called neutralizer, which is another kind of fine stone. We also need to change filters every two months because the iron builds up. We do have soft water now. We drink it, and our water tastes ok. They say it is just a minute amount of salt that goes into the water. Before the pipes would rust out, our hot water tank would go every year, our clothes would be yucky from the hard water and not being able to produce suds. Now it is cleared up. I would suggest it you do get anything that you learn to do the stuff yourself, as if they come to add all the things needed it really gets expensive. We only try to get them to do service once a year. This past year they said the neutralizer thing was getting clogged with iron and wanted $600 to do it. It hadn't been changed or cleaned for 11 years. We don't have that kind of money so we went to another place, got the stuff, and did it ourselves for $129.

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groundy1951@hotmail.com

Flouride too. I grew up with hard water and have zero cavities at close to age 50.

PWS = Public water source Aquafina has it and Dasani both

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My DH is a what I call the "Water Guru". He will have colorless, odorless, and tasteless water at any expense. We have well water and live outside of the city limits but could choose to tap in since the city/municipality ran a main past the front of our house several years ago for a small factory a couple of miles down the road.

We have always had a water softener system since we moved in back in the early 80's and had installed a Culligan softner along with a RO (reverse osmosis) for a special tap at the kitchen sink and to feed the ice maker. Earlier this year the Culligan unit went on the fritz and we replaced it with a Kinetico softening system (very pricey) and was still able to keep our same Culligan RO for the drinking water. We do not drink the softened water only water from the RO tap. It is delicious and if it ever goes out we will be getting another one right away.

After all, perfect water is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. The RO system needs the filter changed once a year at about $25 a pop.

we had a well until it dried up a few years ago and we got city water~~ I miss the well water, it was much better tasting

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Smile and the world smiles with you!

Tami ~*~

FYI....i use just plain vinegar to remove the white deposits in the faucets etc. It works great. For real bad (ie I haven't done it in a while) spots I just poor it right on...but I keep some in a spray bottle. Works great!!!

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Melissa

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak argument.

I must be missing something.

We have well water that comes from Cow Creek aquifer. How would putting a cup of bleach down a pipe into your "well" achieve anything. Wouldn't the bleach go/dissipate into the entire aquifer?

If you have no choice (no city/county/public water system avail) why not just get a water softening system? But I know they can be expensive.

Honestly, if I knew someone was contaminating the aquifer we get our water from by putting bleach in it, I would be really miffed.

We live in South Central Texas and the recharge zone for our aquifer is dense sand/limestone. If it rains, you will not see an increase in the water table for a week because it takes so long for the water to make it's way down - this means the water is "filtered" naturally very well.

We have very hard water, but I've learned to live with it, and we have a Pur faucet filter we use.

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Mary

I guess an aquifer is different from a well. We share with no one. The well was dug on our property and it's ours.

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