Iron & Sulfur Removal in Gainesville, FL

Rotten egg smell in the shower. Orange rings in the toilet. If your well is doing that to your house, we can test it and fix it.

Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.

Licensed Florida Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748

Locally owned, out of Hawthorne. Free water testing. 2 year parts and labor warranty. Leaks don’t stand a chance.

The iron level where staining starts, and the secondary drinking water standard.

0. 3 mg/L

How little hydrogen sulfide it takes before you can smell it.

0. 5 ppb

What our water test costs you.

$ 0

Iron and sulfur removal in Gainesville, FL means testing your well water, then installing a chemical free air injection filter that oxidizes dissolved iron and hydrogen sulfide and traps them before they reach your taps. First Choice Plumbing tests your water free, sizes the system to the results, and installs it under Florida plumbing license CFC1430748. Call 352-377-9447.

Why does my well water smell like rotten eggs?

That smell is hydrogen sulfide gas. It comes from sulfate reducing bacteria living in the aquifer, and North Central Florida is close to a perfect home for them: warm groundwater, porous limestone, and plenty of sulfate. The Floridan Aquifer that most wells around here tap is naturally high in both sulfur and iron. It is not your housekeeping and it is not something you did wrong.

Your nose is a better instrument than you think. People can pick up hydrogen sulfide at concentrations measured in parts per billion, which is why a level that is nowhere near a health limit can still make a shower miserable. Iron works the other way. You usually see it before you smell it, as orange or reddish brown staining in toilets, tubs, sinks and laundry.

The part that wears people down is not the water. It is being told by three different companies that you need three different things, all of which cost thousands. You deserve a straight reading of your own water before anybody quotes you anything.

What does untreated iron and sulfur actually cost you?

Nothing dramatic happens on day one. That is the trap. It costs you slowly.

Iron oxidizes on every surface it touches. You get orange staining in toilets and tubs that no amount of scrubbing fully clears, and dingy laundry that eventually gets thrown out. Iron bacteria add a rusty slime that builds up inside fixtures, aerators, irrigation lines and well components. Hydrogen sulfide is corrosive to metals, and it turns copper and brass fittings dark. Both of them foul a water heater, which is why a tank on untreated well water often does not live as long as it should.

There is a household cost too, and it is the one people actually feel. Coffee tastes wrong. Guests notice. Nobody wants to run a bath. Families end up buying bottled water for a house that already has water running to every faucet in it.

None of that is an emergency. All of it is fixable, usually in one visit.

Who's actually coming to your house?

Will Harrod owns First Choice Plumbing and holds Florida plumbing license CFC1430748. He still runs the estimates himself, so the person telling you what your water needs is the person whose license is on the job.

It’s a small crew on purpose. You get the same faces, and you get an owner who is reachable instead of one collecting a check behind a curtain. That’s the whole pitch, and it’s why word of mouth is still how most of our work finds us.

Is it the well, or is it your water heater?

Before you spend a dollar on filtration, run this. It takes two minutes and it saves people real money.

1. Run a cold tap for thirty seconds.

Fill a glass. Step away from the sink and smell it.

2. Run a hot tap for a full minute.

Fill a second glass. Smell that one.

3. Compare.

If only the hot glass smells, your well is probably fine and your water heater is making the gas. If both smell, the water is coming in that way and filtration is the right conversation.

Here is why that happens.

The sacrificial anode rod inside a tank heater is usually magnesium, and magnesium plus sulfate plus warm water plus bacteria makes hydrogen sulfide. Swapping to an aluminum or powered anode rod and flushing the tank usually ends it. Gainesville Regional Utilities gives its own city customers the same guidance: check the heater, check the disposal, flush the heater annually, and consider changing the anode rod.

If that is your situation, call us and we will handle the heater instead. Water heater repair We would rather sell you an anode rod and a flush you actually need than a filter you don’t.

Not sure what you’re smelling? Send us a photo of your stains and tell us which tap it’s coming from. Contact us

How does an air injection system remove iron and sulfur?

It uses air. That is the whole trick, and it is why we like it for well houses out here.

1. Oxidize.

The tank holds a pocket of compressed air at the top. Your well water passes through that air pocket, and the dissolved iron and hydrogen sulfide react with the oxygen and change from something invisible and dissolved into solid particles and vented gas.

2. Filter.

Those particles drop into a media bed below the air pocket and get trapped there. What comes out the other side is clear, and it does not smell.

3. Backwash.

On a set schedule the system reverses flow, flushes the trapped iron out to drain, and pulls in a fresh pocket of air. No chlorine to buy, no bleach tank to fill, no chemical pump to maintain.

Heavier sulfur wells

On heavier sulfur wells we add a gas-off tank so the hydrogen sulfide has somewhere to go.

Paired with a softener

On a lot of rural properties we pair the filter with a softener because hardness and iron usually show up together.

A word on what we do not do

We are not installing UV right now, and we stay away from undersink reverse osmosis units because of the leak liability under your cabinet. If your test comes back showing you need something outside our lane, we will say so.

Which of those you need is a question the water test answers, not a question a brochure answers.

What happens when you call us about your well water

Tell us what you're seeing and smelling.

Cold tap, hot tap, stains, laundry, when it started. Two minutes on the phone with Kim narrows it down fast.

We test the water, free.

We pull a sample at your house and read what is actually in it, including iron and hydrogen sulfide. You get the numbers whether you hire us or not.

We size it, install it, and stand behind it.

One written price before anything is ordered. We install the tanks, do the plumbing to code, set the backwash schedule and show you how it runs. Two year parts and labor.

Our promises: upfront pricing before the work starts. We patch every hole we cut. If a smaller system does the job, we’ll tell you. If the answer is your water heater, we’ll say that too.

The difference is in the details

Get your water tested first, then decide. No cost, no pressure. Financing through Wisetack is available on jobs from about $500. Financing

What matters	First Choice Plumbing	Typical water treatment dealer
Who does the work	A Florida licensed plumbing contractor, CFC1430748, with the owner still running estimates	A commissioned salesperson, then a subcontracted installer you meet on install day
Testing	Free water test first, then a system sized to the numbers	A test performed at the kitchen table by the person selling the package
Chemicals	Air injection, chemical free, nothing for you to buy and refill	Chlorine or peroxide injection with an ongoing chemical bill
If the real problem is your water heater	We tell you, and we fix the heater instead	Filtration gets quoted anyway
The plumbing around the equipment	Done by plumbers, to code, on the same ticket	Often out of scope, or handed to whoever is available
Warranty	2 year parts and labor from us, with the manufacturer warranty on top	Manufacturer warranty only, labor billed separately
Pricing posture	Upfront, in writing, before anything is ordered	A same-day discount that expires when the salesperson leaves
Who answers later	Kim picks up, and the same crew comes back out	A call center in another state

What changes after it's installed

The shower stops smelling. That is the first thing everyone notices, usually the same evening.

Then the slower wins show up. Toilets stay clean between cleanings. Whites come out of the wash white. Coffee and ice taste like coffee and ice. The bottled water habit quietly stops, because there is no reason for it anymore. Your water heater and your fixtures stop taking a beating they were never designed to take.

You end up with a house where nobody thinks about the water at all. That is the goal.

Iron and sulfur questions we get every week

Is sulfur in well water dangerous to drink?

At the levels most Florida wells carry, hydrogen sulfide is a taste and odor problem, not an acute health problem. You will smell it long before it reaches a level anyone worries about. The bigger concerns are corrosion of your plumbing and the fact that a rotten egg smell can sit alongside bacteria issues, which is exactly why we test rather than guess.

Will a water softener remove iron and sulfur?

A softener is built for hardness, not for iron and sulfur, and asking it to do that job will foul the resin and shorten its life. A softener can handle a small amount of dissolved iron, but the rotten egg smell and heavier iron need an oxidizing filter ahead of it. On most wells around here we install both, in that order. Water softeners

Why does only my hot water smell like rotten eggs?

That points at the water heater, not the well. The magnesium anode rod inside a tank heater reacts with sulfate and bacteria in warm water and produces hydrogen sulfide. Flushing the tank and swapping to an aluminum or powered anode rod usually ends it. We can handle that instead of selling you filtration. Water heater repair

How much does iron and sulfur removal cost in Gainesville?

It depends on what your test says, how many tanks the water needs, and where your equipment sits. We give you one written price before anything is ordered, and no price gets quoted before we test. Financing through Wisetack is available on jobs from about $500. Financing

Do you really test the water for free?

Yes. We pull a sample at your house and read it, and you get the results whether you buy anything or not. We would rather you know what is in your water than sign something on a first visit. Water testing

How often should a private well be tested?

Florida health guidance for private wells is bacteria every year and a broader chemistry panel every two to five years, and any time the taste, smell or color changes. Private wells are not regulated the way city water is, so that testing is on you as the owner. It is also the cheapest insurance there is on a well.

Does an air injection system need chemicals or salt?

The iron and sulfur filter itself uses air, so there are no chemicals to buy and nothing to refill. If we pair it with a softener, that softener uses salt. We will show you what to add and how often before we leave.

Do I need a permit for a water treatment install?

Florida requires a permit to alter, repair or replace a plumbing system, and which office issues it depends on where you live. Unincorporated Alachua County goes through the county Growth Management building division, while the City of Gainesville and the other municipalities permit through their own offices. We handle that side of it and we pull what the job calls for.

Air injection iron and sulfur filters.

Chemical free oxidizing filters sized to your test results, with a gas-off tank on the heavier sulfur wells. This is the workhorse on most rural properties we serve.

Water softeners paired to the filter.

Hardness rides along with iron on most wells around here. We set the softener behind the filter so it is not fighting iron it was never built to handle.

Free water testing.

We test before we quote, every time. It is free and there is no obligation attached to it.

Whole home well water systems.

If the test shows more than one thing going on, we design the full train instead of stacking one-off gear on top of itself.

Where do we install iron and sulfur systems?

Most of this work is out where the wells are. We run it out of Hawthorne, so east and south Alachua County is home turf, and we go well past it.

We also work farm and horse properties: hose bibs, waterers, ag water lines and the filtration that keeps them from plugging up. Farm plumbing If your property is on a well and a septic system, we handle both sides of that. Septic services

Not sure if you’re in range? Call and ask. We’ll tell you straight if you’re outside what we cover.

You shouldn't have to hold your breath in your own shower.

Let’s find out what’s actually in your water, then fix that and nothing more. The test is free, the price is written down before we order anything, and the work carries a two year parts and labor warranty. Book your free water test

Licensed plumbing contractor CFC1430748 | Locally owned, out of Hawthorne, FL | Leaks don’t stand a chance.

Tell us what's going on and we'll take it from there

You get a real person, a $69 visit, a flat price before we start, and a company that patches what it cuts and answers the phone when you call back. If a smaller fix is the right call, we’ll tell you that too.

First Choice Plumbing is a locally owned, owner led plumbing company working Gainesville, Hawthorne and Greater Alachua County. Leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drains, trenchless lining, well water filtration and septic. We find it, we fix it, we guarantee it.

Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748

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