How to Get Rid of Rust in Pool Water

November 29, 2021

How to Get Iron Out of Pool Water without Harsh Chemicals –

Rather than paying someone to bring us pool water, we fill our swimming pool from our well. It saves us a lot of money, but it also means we have to find some way to remove the rust from our pool water. Removing the rust from our pool water has been a struggle for years until I discovered this simple and inexpensive hack that removes the rust without requiring harsh or costly chemicals.

Keep reading to find out how to remove iron from pool water!

*This post contains affiliate links. The text links for the pool and Iron Out go to Walmart, and the image links for the pool and Iron Out go to Amazon (because I couldn't get the Walmart images to works for me). You should always compare prices between the two before buying.

Our pool is a Summer Waves Elite 16′ x 48″ metal frame pool. We purchased it from Walmart last summer, and it is by far the best pool we've owned. We've had a variety of easy-set pools through the years. We had smaller ones when the kids were shorter. We had the one with the inflatable ring at one point until the cats clawed the ring trying to drink from it. This has been the easiest pool to put together and the easiest to keep clean because the pump is so much better than the others we've owned. You can find out more about this pool in 13 Reasons You Need a Summer Waves Pool Right Now.

So I'm sure you are here to find out my super secret pool cleaning hack that removes rust easily without chemicals. Last year I spend a ton of money on Metal Out and other chemicals that claimed to remove the iron from pool water. I ordered chemicals online. I bought bottles of the metal stuff at Walmart. Now I know that's not how to get rust out of pool water. My pool water continued to be brownish-greenish until I figured out this extremely simple trick to remove the rust from our pool water.

Removing iron from pool water is really quite simple. You're never going to believe it. It's cheap, cotton tube socks!

Just a Few Cheap White Socks Filter Rust in Pool Water

There's no need to buy the expensive ones. The cheap ones work just as well. This is actually a good use of your socks that don't have mates. If you have socks that have holes in the toes, you can just tie a knot in the end, and repurpose those as well. Remember our post and video The Taming of the Socks in 572 Easy Steps? We definitely have some mismatched sock issues at The House That Never Slumbers. I later posted the Taming the Socks Progress Update because I wanted to be completely honest and let everyone know all those promises I made about not letting the socks get like that again were ALL LIES. You should never trust me when I say I'm going to stop hoarding something.

I have to save all those socks because I can find good uses for some of those random socks. I can filter the rust from the pool with them. Okay, so I could have used the random socks, but I didn't. I bought new ones instead because I like to see the nice, new white sock go from bleach white to rusty. It helps me see that it's getting the job done, and I needed the new white socks to take better comparison pictures for this post.

I bought new white socks from Dollar Tree. I found a pack of two pairs for only $1. They were well worth that $1.

Use these cheap white socks to filter rust from your swimming pool water. Find out how. #summer #swimmingpool #swimming #poolmaintenance #poolcare

This photo was taken after the first few hours the pump was running this season.

How to Remove Rust from Your Swimming Pool without Chemicals - Are you having trouble removing rust from your swimming pool? Find out how you can use cheap, white socks to filter rust from your pool water. #summer #swimmingpool #poolcare #poolwater

I took this photo right after we filled the pool last year. See I told you our well water was really rusty. I was using a recycled lonely sock that time.

Cleaning the Pool Filter Often with Iron Out to Remove Rust

We also use the pool's filter system to help remove the rust. I clean the filter repeatedly because it would be way too expensive to replace the filter cartridge every single day. The filters are easy to clean.

I soak the filters and the socks in Iron Out and then rinse them really well because Iron Out isn't supposed to go in the pool water. It's made for washing clothing that you will later wear on your body, so I assume it's fine to use on the filters as long as I rinse them well just like you would clothing. If you have doubts about the safety of using Iron Out on the filter, you should use your own discretion.

See what an amazing job the Iron Out does at getting the filter cartridge clean!

Many people wonder about using iron out in swimming pool water. I do not believe that is wise. Is Iron Out for pools? NO! That's not the purpose of Iron Out, and that would be adding chemicals into the pool water where you would be soaking yourself in them instead of rinsing the substance away from the filter. It's not worth the risk.

You can find Iron Out for cleaning your pool filters at Walmart and other retailers.

Watch our video for more rust removing pool hacks!

If you want to see the exact process for attaching the sock to the filter system and cleaning the sock and filter cartridge, you can watch that on our YouTube video. Be sure to stay tuned until the very end because that's where I share the even more important easy way we filter some of the rust from the well water before it even goes into the swimming pool.