Anyone have know why when I add bleach to my water it turns brown? Only does it sometimes, other times its fine. The last time it lasted for months, but its ok now.

I've seen this as well. It has something to do with some impurities in the water. when it happens again, you might want to have the water tested.

When you add bleach (chlorine) to water that has any kind of iron particulates in it, the water will turn varying shades from dark yellow to brown. The iron/rust can come from well water or from the insides of an aging hot water tank.

I lived w/this problem from my well for years before we installed an iron filtration system on our water intake and a separate rust filter. However, I still had occasional problems w/slight browning or yellowing twice after that. Both those times, were tracked back to (yep, you guessed it) two consecutive, aging water heaters. In anticipation of future water heaters going on me and for environmental reasons as well, I mostly stopped using bleach. Now, I only use a capful or two when I do towels...and that's it. Otherwise, I found baking soda to the wash water and a capful of white vinegar and/or lemon juice to the rinse water help freshen and brighten things up better and safer than the bleach.

I'm no geologist, just a homeowner living w/this for over 25 years. But if the problem is coming directly from the well water, and it's happening sporadically, it's got to do w/the turgidity (speed, calmness, agitation, rising & falling, etc.) of the water table or acquifer into which your line is tapped.

Thanks for the info, but I know its not the water heater because its the cold also. I think it has more to do with the iron in the water. I had not realized it till this summer when I put some bleach in a chest cooler to take to the shore and when I used the hose to fill it and it turned brown.

we had a contaminated well do to pasture run off, they came and put a concentrated bleach down the well pipe, then we had to flush the water for several hours, but when we first cranked on the faucettes, the water was realy realy realy nasty looking, it even killed the earth worms out by the water spiget, eventualy after several hours the water returned clear again and tested safe

We had a home with a well many years ago. All the wells in the town were tested for a bacteria level. It was found to be high.

We had to add bleach to bring the level down and flush it with water; then it was retested. The level was fine after that.

If your house was built before WWII, or in many cases the during the two decades after, it almost certainly was plumbed with steel pipe and therefore, there WILL be dissolved iron in the water.

Dissolved iron + an oxidizer = iron oxide, AKA rust.