With us, it's not neccessarily rust, but the high iron content of our well and most of the water around this area. Ours is a mixture of iron and sulphur---yech! I cannot stand to drink the water, so we have a Berkey water filter for drinking/cooking.
My poor laundry has suffered the most, besides my shower. We are getting a new hot water heater. The one downstairs is ancient and I'm sure it's full of iron because when I wash diapers on hot and the water softener isn't working I can see actual clumps of red going into the wash and staining my dipes
.
I am so looking forward to getting our on-demand hot water heater installed.....once our electric is updated.