Well Water Question?

Recently purchased a new/used home. Went from city water to well water. Replaced the old water filter with a new one (we couldn't get the old canister off and there was no filter in it). Without the filter in the water has a redish sediment in it. With the filter, the water is crystal clear. Now the problem! The pure white filter is catching all the sediment and within a month the water pressure is noticably less, cause the filter is getting clogged. Replace the filter and viola, good pressure again. These filters are $33 each and is going to get costly. Is it possible the well pump is to far down in the casing catching the sediment or is there something else I can do to filter the water and get the sediment out? http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/praying.gif

You need to find out if the sediment is actually sediment or iron. Are you getting red stains in your toilets? If so it is probably iron.

You may want to look into a backwashing whole house filter (looks like a water softener without the brine tank). It uses filter media, like sand, and backwashes itself clean every couple of days.

Contact a plumber or water treatment professional in your area to help you out. Any plumbing wholesalers in the area should be able to point you in the right direction as well.

9:48 AM 4/2/2011 Reply Edit

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I have a Iron filter for the same reason you need one I got it on line from Budget water filters.
It is easy to hook up and Budget will help you step buy step on the phone.
You will need the auto backwash iron filter and a chemical injection tank thet
you mix soda ash and chlorine bleach.
The soda ash is to get the PH to the right level and the chlorine is for the iron to attatch itself to so it gets traped in the filter.
It works great an I change my cartrage filter avery 6 months.
I think the system was around $700 but was well worth it, no more orange sox.


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Budgetwater.com
1-800-701-9914
Habby

it is possible that the sediment over time has settled in the well and is near the pump. how old is the well?

Here is some info.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$d...wg412

If it does end up being sediment in the well, try to find out the original depth of well. Then, either you or a hired contractor, should check the current depth of the well. Also, note the depth of pump. After that, you will know if the well is filling up with sediment or not.

Just remember that not all well water is acidic and may be more on the basic side of things. So Soda Ash won't drop the well water's pH. It' will just raise it.

Water with a high pH is due to minerals in the ground. Things like Limestone and other sedimentary rocks in the ground can increase the water's pH and mineral content.

I worked in an environmental testing lab and managed an EPA air pollution control office for years. My main interest is in water pollution. So I have been testing drinking water, surface waters, ground water and other water sources over the years. I am an Environmental Scientist by Education.

But I don't have much expertise in drilling wells. I did work for a company that would hire people to drill test wells but I didn't work in that dept. But I have tested lots of different wells around landfills and coal mines over the years. And I tested 40 something different private wells up near Terra Haute, IN for a project that a coal mine was working on.

You can test your water for iron but normally Iron is easily seen in the water as a red sediment. That's Iron that's been oxidized and it's called Iron Oxide. FeO Not sure of the valance on the Iron. Sorry.

You can filter the FeO out of the water with other sediment using a prefilter which in city drinking water would have to be replaced monthly if not sooner.

I ran a Millipore water filtration system that sold for over $3000 back in 1978 and is like the one that NASA used in the Space Program.

Water for chemistry labs has to be of pure quality in order to make standard solution for wet chemistry testing. So I had to produce Grade 1 Type water. In order to produce that type of pure water I needed to filter the water using several different techniques. From prefilters sediment removal to Bacterial Filtering. I ran the water though a Reverse Osmosis filter and then ran it though two ion exchange resin cartridges followed by an activate carbon filter. Then finally the water was run though a Millipore bacterial filter. Water that came out of the system had a very low conductivity.

Have your water tested and check it's conductivity. That's the starting point to find out what type of non organic minerals are in your water. Then have a professional water filter guy come out and give you some advice about how to treat your water.

I'd be more worried about the septic system leaching into your well's drinking water table than the iron. Iron won't kill you but fecal coliform in your drinking water could indicate the presence of more lethal bacteria in your water. You can kill most well water bacterial using chlorine bleach every so often. This is called shocking the well water. Dump some bleach into the well and let it sit for a day or so. Then chlorine will kill the bacteria and eventually dissipate. This is what we advised our clients in the past.

I have city water but it comes from deep water wells and it's very hard. It's full of calcium and magnesium. So the best way to treat it is with a water softener system. My water has a pretty high conductivity too.
http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

Thanx for the help guys! http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

Most of the time it's not iron, its tannan's from leaves etc.. 3% of the time its iron should have our water checked,,, there is cheaper filters at Lowes and they work real well, get the string ones they stop everything and are cheap... You still will have to change them often, that's the water you have....

tmbullet
Master Plumber... http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

I would put a sediment filter or "spin down" filter right after the pressure tank before it hits the main filter. Easy to clean by hooking a hose to it and flushing all the sediment out. I have a spin down, a pleated whole house filter and then a softene in that order.

http://www.waterfilter-usa.com....html

That looks like it would really help! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif
Did you just have a water filer before you installed the spin-down filter? And, if so, how many time were you changing the filter. We are once a month! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/mad.gif
When do you back flush the spin-down filter?

I looked at the web site you posted and the operation of the device looks simple enough.

Thanx

No, I always had the spin-down, main filter and then softner. You will change the filter way less. I change mine every 6-8 months. I never see a drop in pressure even after main filter is in service for 8 mo.

Thanx! Going to serious look in to getting one. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif