Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Our Water Sucks, Part XIIV

Anybody who's bored enough to have read most of this blog knows that I've been fighting excess iron in our water system since we moved in. I like to think I'm winning, but there are days I'm not so sure. I've installed a whole-house filter to catch the iron & rust particles before they clog the water softener, I've found some great (and many not-so-great) cleaning products, and learned more than I ever wanted to know about rust in wells. What still surprises me is how fast (and sneaky) rust can be. This is a typical work shirt for me. I wore it about a week ago and threw it in the wash a few days later. It was washed and dried, and then hung up. I noticed that it was looking a little dingy, but when I looked more closely, I found that there was some pretty large rust-staining on the back. Luckily I found it before wearing the shirt again - it was on the back, so I probably wouldn't have noticed until my co-workers pointed it out.




Again with my blowing kisses and smoochy-talk about Iron Out. I ran a small load of whites with Iron Out instead of detergent, and let the whites soak for about 10 minutes. Then I drained the water and ran the wash with regular detergent, resulting in a much more presentable shirt. Perfect? No, but the shirt is a few years old and I don't expect miracles. I'm going to do a little experimenting to see if I can just throw in a little Iron Out with the soap and get the same results. If so, I'll just make sure to do that when I wash lighter color clothes.