Plenty of homes around the Orlando outskirts — parts of Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Sanford, and the rural edges in between — run on private wells. Here's the thing nobody tells new well owners: unlike city water, which a utility tests on a strict schedule, your well water is tested exactly as often as you arrange it. Which, for most people, is never.
Start with what you can see, smell, and feel.
Your senses are a legitimate first screening. Rotten-egg smell? That's sulfur (hydrogen sulfide) — extremely common in Florida wells and the #1 well-water complaint in Central Florida. Orange or brown stains in sinks, tubs, and toilets? Iron. Gritty water or cloudy glasses? Sediment. Spots, film, and crusty fixtures? Hardness — well water in this region is often harder than city water, since it sits in the same limestone aquifer. Slippery or slimy feel? Possible iron bacteria. None of these are diagnoses, but each one points the testing in the right direction.
The in-home screening: hardness, iron, sediment, pH.
Our free in-home water test measures the practical stuff on the spot — hardness in grains per gallon, visible iron and sediment, pH, and anything your nose already told you about sulfur. That covers the problems that drive equipment decisions: what size softener, whether you need an iron filter or sulfur treatment, what sediment pre-filtration looks like. For most well owners, this is the test that actually changes what you buy. Here's how well-water treatment systems are put together.
The honest limit: an in-home screening is not a lab analysis. If you want to know about bacteria (coliform/E. coli), nitrates, or anything health-related, that needs a certified laboratory test — a proper sample, chain of custody, the works. We'll tell you straight up when your situation calls for a lab instead of us. New wells, wells after flooding or nearby construction, and any change in taste or smell that comes on suddenly are all good reasons to go the lab route.
How often should you test a well?
A reasonable rhythm: a full check when you buy the home, again any time something changes (smell, color, taste, pressure, nearby land use), and on a regular schedule after that — many well owners do an annual screening and a lab bacteria test every year or two. Wells aren't static; mineral levels drift, and Florida's wet season can shift things. "Tested fine in 2019" is not a water quality plan.
Renting with a well? Read this.
If you rent a home on well water, the testing responsibility usually sits with the landlord — but the consequences of untested water land on you. It's worth asking your landlord when the well was last tested and what's on the property for treatment. And if the water's staining everything and smelling like eggs, a point-of-use filter at the kitchen sink is a renter-friendly step that doesn't touch the plumbing.
Get your baseline.
Whether you just bought, just moved in, or have lived on the well for a decade without ever testing it — start with a baseline. The free in-home test takes about 30 minutes and tells you exactly where your well stands on hardness, iron, sediment, and sulfur. If anything we see suggests you need a certified lab, we'll say so.
What's in your water? Nobody has tested your well but you. Schedule your free in-home water test and find out. Get your $100 gift card for dinner just for having your water tested — take your family to dinner! Or learn more at orlandowaterfiltrationpros.com.