Well issues...

willness33

willness33

Here for the memes
Joined
May 3, 2005
Location
Alexis,NC
Back story. I bought this house this time last year. The previous owner removed a siphon pump and installed a submersible sometime before I bought the house. The well is 190ft with 25gpm according to the plate on the casing. It was drilled in 1974. I have no issues running out of water. The problem is that the harder I run the well (washing cars, watering plants, multiple showers) the redder the water gets. I have an inline filter and have to change the cartridges about every 2-3 weeks. The filters clog that fast and cause the pump to short cycle. The filter is between the head and pressure tank. I will move it to the other side of the tank to fix the short cycle issue, but that's just a bandaid.

My plan is to pull the pump up about 10' or so depending on the static water level in the shaft. I will measure total dept and length of the pipe to make sure the pump isn't sitting on the bottom. Also, it seems that there may be no torque arrestor on the pump as everytime it cycles, the pipe sticking out of the head swings around wildly. I have a new torque arrestor to put on.

So, to any well people, do you think I can get clear water by raising the pump and proplerly installing the torque arrestor?
 
As far as I know, the only thing that will cause the red water is either mud or rust
If mud, then raising from the bottom and the torque arrester will help, If it's rust, then your pump is on it's last leg. Somewhere it has cycled off and on a lot and burned the pump up. This happened to me when my check valve failed.
 
It's mud. The pump has maybe only 2 years of use and doesn't cycle too much. It holds pressure as long as no water is running anywhere. I'm hoping raising the pump works. If not, I'm drilling a new well and that's not cheap. I'm tired of not-clear water.
 
I live in a small subdivision with a community well, had similar issues with muddy/rusty red water. No one really wanted to do anythign about it, so we finally installed a $2k filtration system. Before that, I had the little filter from HD/Lowes and would replace a 10 micron element after a few weeks. To be honest, I'm not sure what/how this system works, but it is great. It looks like a big welding gas tank, probably full of the activated charcoal, but it never needs maintancen. Every night it flushes itself clean. There is never the pressure drop, I used to run the old filters until we couldnt stand it. It was a steep price to pay, but cheaper than a new well, which we also considered. I can look thru our paperwork to see exaclty what we installed.
 
RenegadeT said:
I live in a small subdivision with a community well, had similar issues with muddy/rusty red water. No one really wanted to do anythign about it, so we finally installed a $2k filtration system. Before that, I had the little filter from HD/Lowes and would replace a 10 micron element after a few weeks. To be honest, I'm not sure what/how this system works, but it is great. It looks like a big welding gas tank, probably full of the activated charcoal, but it never needs maintancen. Every night it flushes itself clean. There is never the pressure drop, I used to run the old filters until we couldnt stand it. It was a steep price to pay, but cheaper than a new well, which we also considered. I can look thru our paperwork to see exaclty what we installed.
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Interesting. Yeah, I'm interested in looking up the system you use. If I can't make this thing work, I may go that route instead of drilling.
 
willness33 said:
=. The problem is that the harder I run the well (washing cars, watering plants, multiple showers) the redder the water gets.
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Washing cars?Or Making Snow??Man you should have seen my water bill this year!!!I think Renegade maybe talking about the Easywater system.It's supposed to require no maintenance and last forever.Here's a link.
http://www.easywater.com/nomoresalt.aspx
 
thats not what we got, but that is kind if intresting, for softening.
We got 2 tanks installed, one carbon filter, one softener. Both have Fleck 5600 control heads . The system looks simple, wife called someone from the Yellow Pages, he dropped a few names that we actually knew, and just had the guy install it. The filter was what we really wanted and were concerned about. He added the softener to help reduce the iron and manganese. We also have a giant plastic tub where we add the softener salt.
We're really happy with it, because it was pretty miserable with sh!tty water, and an unhappy wife :lol:.
 
retroedaddy said:
Washing cars?Or Making Snow??
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Yeah. THe snowmaking sure was hard on filters,lol
RenegadeT said:
thats not what we got, but that is kind if intresting, for softening.
We got 2 tanks installed, one carbon filter, one softener. Both have Fleck 5600 control heads . The system looks simple, wife called someone from the Yellow Pages, he dropped a few names that we actually knew, and just had the guy install it. The filter was what we really wanted and were concerned about. He added the softener to help reduce the iron and manganese. We also have a giant plastic tub where we add the softener salt.
We're really happy with it, because it was pretty miserable with sh!tty water, and an unhappy wife :lol:.
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After doing a ton of reading today, I'm not sure if it's a muddy water issue or a ferric iron issue or possibly both. Here's what I'm looking into if raising the pump/torque arrestor doesn't work. http://www.cleanwaterstore.com/sediment-filters-backwashing.html I'm currently using a 25 micron filter, which seems to work, but only for about a week or two. Then the water gets nasty again.
 
If you have a local plumbing supply around take a sample of the water to them. They can send it off and tell you what you need. I sell a master filter system. I wish you were closer I would help you out. Here is the link to the master page http://www.masterwater.com/main/default.asp . I would still try raising the pump and adding the arrestors. After that get the water tested.
 
hkyfinest said:
If you have a local plumbing supply around take a sample of the water to them. They can send it off and tell you what you need. I sell a master filter system. I wish you were closer I would help you out. Here is the link to the master page http://www.masterwater.com/main/default.asp . I would still try raising the pump and adding the arrestors. After that get the water tested.
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Hickory is only about 35-40 minutes from me.
 
Figured I'd update this in case anyone was interested. 2 weeks ago, I pulled the pump and there was NO torque arrestor on the pipe. The housing on the pump was all scratched from it banging around in the shaft. I installed a torque arrestor 4' above the pump and installed wire standoffs on the pipe. I shocked the well, reinstalled the pump and flushed mud for about 6 hours. I noticed the pipe was wet for about 40' above the pump so I have a pretty good water column to draw off of. Within several days, my water was the clearest it had ever been, but I'm still running a 25 micron filter inline.

Yesterday, I pulled the pump up 5' from where it was just for the sake of doing it. I flushed the well again for several hours until the water ran clear with no inline filter. I put a new drop in cartridge back in so I could do laundry without worrying about turning up dirty water. Still running perfectly clear right now.

Now, if I end up plugging this filter in less than 6 weeks, the water will be tested to see what's causing the turbidity and I will pop for an auto-backflushing media filter. Fingers are crossed that I may have resolved the issue. If not, the backflushing filter will the the permanent fix.
 
Iron gives you your red tint, which you already figured out. Heavy metals are something to be careful about tho, especially if you're ingesting the water. I'd have it tested regardless of the turbidity.
From my experiences as a hydrologist...
 
Fireaxe said:
Iron gives you your red tint, which you already figured out. Heavy metals are something to be careful about tho, especially if you're ingesting the water. I'd have it tested regardless of the turbidity.
From my experiences as a hydrologist...
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I had a water test done last year when I bought the house and they "told" me it was ok, just not clear. I should've asked for the actual test results. Thanks for the tip. I'll get the water tested for some piece of mind.:beer: What is the acceptable level for ferric iron?
 
Yeah, get the results. An acceptable level for Iron is 0.3mg/l. However I would disagree that not clear is "ok." For example- NYC's water supply is unfiltered and brought to the city from reservoirs a few hundred miles away. Turbidity is a big deal so when you opened a tap downtown that water is crystal clear. Water from your well should be clear.
for some light reading-
http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/index.cfm#Organic
 
Where is a good source for independent water testing?
I would love to get a thorough report of our water...it is hard as hell and Im not sure what all is in it...but we refuse to drink it.
 
Ron said:
Where is a good source for independent water testing?
I would love to get a thorough report of our water...it is hard as hell and Im not sure what all is in it...but we refuse to drink it.
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Your local county health dept would be a good place to stat. I found a well driller in CLT that sends out water samples for testing. Of course they also sell complete water treatment systems.:rolleyes: I've seen online testing places but they run in the $200 range for tests. They send you containers, you fill em up, mail them in and you get your results.
 
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