[Jim from C-Town]

If you have that much iron in your water, you are going to need an expensive water softener designed to remove large amounts of iron. A $3,000 unit sounds about right for a model to remove that kind of iron.

All the damage being done to the pipes, dishwasher, clothes washer and water heater requires a quality piece of equipment. Not to mention the cost if a loose piece of iron destroys just one load of clothes, how much money can be put into a washer in one washing?

Based on your descriptions you basically have a calcium and iron source with a little bit of water mixed in.

Smarten up and bight the bullet, it is always better to buy a quality product once than a piece of crap over and over again.

[Fightin Whitey]

We get terribly hard water from our well.

The trunks of the trees in my yard are rust-colored, our black basalt garden stones now look like fools’ gold, even the lawn has an orange tint at times.

Inside the house we have one of the big Culligan systems and it was a couple grand plus. And we have to keep on top of it, keep it cleaned and so on, but it really has saved us on fixtures, pipes, clothes, etc.

We also have a really good & reliable Culligan store nearby, which helps.