Well Water Problems: Symptoms, Causes & What to Do

Something in your water looks wrong, smells wrong or is leaving a stain, and you want to know what it is before you spend money on it. The sign itself can point to the cause: the color of the stain, whether black specks sink right away or show up after the water sits, whether the smell comes only from the hot side. Tap the one that looks like yours and I'll tell you what it usually is and which page has the fix. A lab test is what confirms it.

Which one looks like yours? Tap it.

Orange or rust stains Brown or yellow water Blue-green stains in the tub White crust on faucets Black slime in the faucet Rotten egg smell

Black specks or black water? See what the black specks are. Sand or grit? See sand in the toilet tank.

What are the black specks in my water?

Black specks in well water are usually manganese or sediment, and three quick checks at the sink tell you which. A caller in Alabama thought he was getting silt from the well until he looked closer: "it's almost powdery ... like flour." That was manganese, which is usually black or gray.

1. Let a glass sit. Fill a clear glass from the cold tap and leave it on the counter. If it comes out clear and dark specks form as it stands, that is dissolved manganese. If it comes out dark and the specks settle, they turned solid before they reached the tap, the way sand and sediment do.
2. Rub a few specks. A black powder on your fingers points to manganese. Specks that smear and leave a mark like pencil lead point to rubber. Hard grains the size of coffee grounds point to carbon from a filter.
3. Check hot against cold. Specks only in the hot water come from the water heater's rubber parts, its flexible hoses or the diaphragm in its expansion tank, not from the well. Specks at only one faucet point at that faucet's washer.

If the black water also smells, you may have two things at once. The same caller in Alabama had both: manganese at 1.05 ppm and hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg gas, at 1 ppm. One Katalox Light filter takes out iron, manganese and sulfur in the same tank; that pairing is on iron and sulfur filters for well water.

What each stain color means

The color of a stain usually names the cause: orange is iron, black is manganese, blue-green is copper from acidic water, white is hardness, yellow is tannins, and pink is bacteria from the air, not the water. The chart works for a well or a city home. On city water, brown water that shows up suddenly at every cold faucet and doesn't clear after a few minutes points to the city's mains.

One warning for orange and black stains: don't scrub them with chlorine bleach. Bleach reacts with iron and can set the stain for good.

Why is my faucet water brown or yellow?

Brown or yellow water from a well faucet is usually iron, tannins or sediment stirred up in the well, and a glass left on the counter tells you which. A caller in North Carolina described hers as "a slight, maybe brown, like yellowish-brown." A lot of times that's tannins in the water.

What is the black slime in my faucet?

Black slime in a faucet tip is usually manganese bacteria or mold growing on a damp screen; rubbery black bits instead of slime are a washer breaking down. Where it shows up tells you which.

1. On every faucet and in the toilet tank, on a well. Bacteria that feed on manganese leave a black-brown slime in toilet tanks and can clog pipes, sometimes with a musty or swampy smell. The fix starts with a test for manganese and iron; iron bacteria in well water covers getting rid of the bacteria.
2. On one faucet, fuzzy or stringy. Mold from the air growing on the damp aerator screen. It isn't in your water. Unscrew the aerator and clean it in a mild bleach solution; the screen is worth cleaning a few times a year and replacing once a year.
3. Rubbery black bits at one faucet, maybe with a drip. The faucet's washer or gasket is breaking down. Replace the washer.

Where is the rotten egg smell coming from?

A rotten egg smell in well water is usually hydrogen sulfide, but check the hot water and the drain first, because both can make the same smell.

1. Only the hot taps smell. The water heater is usually making it. See hot water smells like rotten eggs.
2. Hot and cold, at every faucet. Hydrogen sulfide is usually coming from the well. The way we get rid of it is a Katalox Light filter, or a carbon filter for lower levels. See rotten egg smell in well water.
3. Only at one sink. It may be the drain. Fill a glass, step away from the sink and smell the glass. If the water in the glass doesn't smell, the drain does.

Is there sand in your toilet tank?

Grit that clogs your faucets and fixtures is a sure sign of sediment, and the toilet tank is the easiest place to see it. Take the lid off the back of the toilet and look in the bottom of the tank. If sediment has settled there, you need a sediment filter after your pressure tank. Where the sand comes from and what size filter catches it are on sand and sediment in well water.

Which stain should worry you most?

Blue-green is the stain to act on first, because it means the water is taking copper off your pipes. Your water is acidic, and blue-green stains are the result of dissolved copper in the water. Left untreated, this leads to pinhole leaks in your pipes. The fix is an acid neutralizer filled with calcite media. It raises the pH to a safe, neutral level. The steps are on how to fix acidic well water.

Black is next. Unlike iron, manganese is also a health question, so it's worth knowing your number; iron and manganese in well water has the EPA's levels. A stain points you at a cause; only a lab test confirms it.

Stains, specks or a smell

Not sure which one you have?

Text Aidan what you're seeing, or your test numbers if you have them. He'll tell you what it usually is and whether it needs treatment.

Text Aidan443-277-2204 Call800-460-5810Aidan

8 AM to 5 PM Eastern, seven days a week. A real person, not a call center.

What to do before buying any treatment

Get your water tested before you buy anything, because no one filter fixes everything that's wrong with water. You need several different filters for several different problems, and the test tells you which ones. Our lab test checks 53 contaminants from one sample for $199; you mail it to the lab in a prepaid envelope, the results come back by email in about 5 business days, and then you can call us and we'll go over them with you.

Once you have numbers, three pages take it from there: what filter you need for well water matches each problem to the one system that fixes it, the correct order for well water treatment shows what goes first, and how much well water treatment costs has today's prices.

No lab report yet? Certified lab test, $199

One sample names the cause

One certified lab test, mailed to you, run by an accredited lab, reports manganese, iron, pH, hardness and copper from the same sample. If you already have a lab report, skip this.

Get the certified well water test

What buyers wrote after fixing it

These are verified purchases, each from a buyer who wrote about the stain, color or smell they had before.

Frequently asked questions