Why the Well
Sandy, cloudy, or gritty well water is particles. Feel it before you buy a tank.
Sediment is grit in the glass. Iron is orange, and often starts clear. A spin-down filter can protect plumbing after you know which one you have.
Dirt in the aerator. Sand in the bottom of a glass. Cloudiness that settles. That is not hardness, and it is not a reason to buy a softener.
Do this first
- Fill a clear glass from a cold tap. Look. Then swirl it. Grit you can feel is sediment.
- Is the water already orange, or clear and then rusty after it sits? That is iron, not sand. Read the orange-stain page.
- Did this start after a flood, a dry well, or work on the well? Sudden mud is a sanitary question, not a shopping problem.
What it probably is
Particles: sand, silt, or rust flakes from the well or the pipes. A worn well screen, a pump sitting too deep or pulling from the bottom, recent drilling or pump work, or a well that is running out of water and sucking dirt. You can usually feel it. Dissolved iron you cannot feel until it rusts out of solution, and it is orange.
A cheap spin-down or cartridge sediment filter can protect plumbing and fixtures once you know it is actually particles. It is a strainer. It does not fix a dying well, a broken screen, or dissolved iron. If the well is coughing up sand, a well contractor looks at the screen and the pump. The filter is the mop, not the well.
What not to buy
- A water softener for sand. Softeners treat hardness.
- An iron filter because the water looks dirty. Dirt is not iron.
- A fridge pitcher for the whole house. It will clog and the laundry still gets grit.
If the water went muddy after a flood, a broken cap, or the well ran dry, that can be surface water in the well. Do not treat that as a filter sale. Go to the flooded well / coliform page. Orange that starts clear is iron. Slimy gunk is bacteria, not grit. If pressure died while the water got sandy, that is also a pump and well problem.
If you actually need a box
Once you can feel grit, and this is not a flood, a spin-down sediment filter is a strainer for the plumbing. Match the pipe size. It does not fix a dying well. Do not put one on muddy water after the well took on surface water.