View Full Version : Well water running light brown. Running cold water for 15 min. helped a little.
 
 cmachado0613
Jun 2, 2013, 11:35 AM
All my taps are running light brown.  I have well water.  I ran the cold water for 15 minutes and that helped a little.  What should I do?
 speedball1
Jun 2, 2013, 12:26 PM
Light brown!   This could be rust built up in old galvanized pipe or soil from a water table that has fallen. There's a difference..  Soil has a small gritty feeling  w2hile rust  tends to flake.  How old is your system and what type of pipes do you have?  Back to you,  Tom
 ma0641
Jun 2, 2013, 02:18 PM
Could be iron from the soil, but it would take a lot to color and would have a metallic taste.  Fairly common in some areas but it should have shown up before.
 mygirlsdad77
Jun 2, 2013, 05:55 PM
Hi cm.  Do you have a whole house water filter?  If so, change it and see if the brown goes away.  If no filter, it may be time to add one.  Also, you can pour a gallon of bleach down the well, let it set overnight, then in the morning run water at an outside spigot for at least a couple of hours to flush the bleach.  Let it run until you can no longer smell, or taste the bleach.  
 
Let me know how things work out.