Groundwater is the main source of drinking water for rural communities which contains 1-10 mg/L of Fe(II). Community prepared wooden charcoal is used to remove excess Fe(II). The present work evaluates the wooden charcoal for Fe(II) removal. The Fe(II) uptake equilibrates within 150-180 min. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model best fits the experimental data while the adsorption mechanism appears to be surface adsorption as well as intraparticle diffusion. Equilibrium data follows Freundlich isotherm. The breakthrough studies yield decreased volume of treated water at the breakthrough. The BDST analysis yields errors of 1.1-27.6% between the predicted and experimental service times. (c) 2009 Elsevier B,V. All rights reserved.