Well Water Acid Neutralizer

[Shimon]

My well water is acidic. I recently discovered this after replacing some copper pipes with pinhole leaks and finally figuring out that those blue stains in my sink are disolved copper. The water isn't very hard at all. Hardly any minerals. I run a small humidifier by my bed and I get no white dust (like when I was on city water).

So I'm looking to get an acid neutralizer and I've been doing some research on the net. Just would like to know if anyone has any experience with these units or someone has some recommendations or "lessons learned". Thanks!

 

[Highbeam]

I've had to adjust the pH in city water systems. It was done on a large scale but all it was just a dosed injection of sodium hydroxide, NaOH, to raise the pH to make it less acidic. The reason we did it is because the city's sewer plant was releasing high amounts of dissolved lead and copper. The lead and copper was coming from people's pipes. Drinking water is like pool water, there are pH up chemicals and pH down chemicals.

To do this at home you would be looking for a contact chamber just past the well where a tablet of something would dissolve to equilibrium at neutral pH. I would look to the people that make water softeners and such things for a system. These types of things are never cheap.

 

[Ken_CT]

I use soda ash to adjust the ph. It's mixed with water in a covered container about the size of a trash can. A metering pump pumps a small amount of this solution into the well tank when the well pump is running. You adjust the waters ph by adjusting the metering pumps output (trial & error). You can test the water at the faucet using a fish tank test kit that costs about $5. I'm sure there are fancier setups with electronics & LED readouts, but hey, this ain't rocket science, as much as some manufacturers would like to have you believe.

 

[pennwalk]

Our water was acid and we had pin holing and blue stains. We now have an acid neutralized. It is a tank about the size of a welding tank. It is filled with calcium carbonate granules(lime?). Looks like kitty litter. The neutralizer adds to the hardness so we have a softener then a filter and the UV light. The granules in the neutralizer have to be replenished periodically which is a mess.

Chris

 

[Highbeam]

"I use soda ash to adjust the ph. It's mixed with water in a covered container about the size of a trash can. A metering pump pumps a small amount of this solution into the well tank when the well pump is running."

This is just like the system we use at citys except the soda ash is hard to use because it is dusty and nasty and requires mixing, the sodium hydroxide is delivered as a liquid and the guys like using it more. A barrel of solution with a little diaphragm pump on top that makes little squirts when flow is detected is all it takes. The frequency of squirts, the size of squirt, and the concentration of the chemical in the squirt are all adjustable. This is a DIY approach. Flouride is added the same way if you're into that.

The packaged system with the kitty litter is the commercial type system that I spoke of.

 

[heehaw]

if you have a pump house big enough, you could install a tank to pump the water into, filtering it thru oyster shells and sand, then pump from that your house: it requires the tank and a second pump, but works. i use this set up to filter iron out of the water, plus put in whatever additives needed..have even seen some people use bathtubs to hold the filtering media and then the water goes into a holding tank, that they pump out of.
heehaw

 

[kensfarm]

I wondered if anyone has used a large pool sand filter for a house water filter.. they are pressurized.. and you wouldn't need a second pump.

 

[Highbeam]

The differences between pool equipment and drinking water equipment are nearly nothing. Really, I was a pool rat running several pools through school and dealt with chlorine, ozone, UV, sand filters, pH adjustment, alkalinity, etc. and now as a civil engineer all the same rules and lessons learned apply. I would not hesitate to use pool equipment to filter drinking water.

I even use sodium carbonate, a pH adjuster from the pool section, to clean my coffee thermos.

 

[Pilot]

Shimon,

We had the same problem. Water tasted fine as the house was built, but once it started running thru the copper pipes, it didn't taste so good & we got greenish blue stains.

pH tested around 5 point something, the lowest the testing guy had ever seen.

Put in a treatment system for about $1,300. No more stains & the water tastes better. Located by well tank in garage. Works well and we add calcium about every 1.5 yrs.

One problem: Pipe from well to garage is PVC (I installed), plumber went from there to well tank with copper, then the concrete garage floor was poured over the copper pipe. Of course this was before the water hit the treatment system, so the pipe under the garage was corroding. Ended up running a new line from the well, under the house, thru the foundation into the garage to the well tank.

The system has a timer & flushes itself once a week. Other than adding calcium, it requires no effort on my part.

 

[rox]

heehaw,
That is what we have in France. Until this thread I never knew why though. Apparently our water must be acidic. We ahd to put out a couple grand to put down a new well pipe. The pump/well guy said that in our area the well casings only last 10 - 12 years, and our home was right at the 12 yar mark. We have a big tank, that I think is pressurized and it is full of a special kind of sand. It goes form the well to this big tank, then into the house.

Now I know, our water must be acidic.