Well sediment

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cfpinz

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Our well is about 7 years old, never given any trouble in that time. In the past couple weeks we have been getting a lot of sediment into the house and cattle waterers, little fine pieces of rock that were ground up when the well was drilled it appears. Keeps clogging up valves. I've got a filter to install in the house but it won't take care of the cow fountain. Sediment will be bad one day and not so much the next, comes in spells. Been dry for the past two years but we've had a relatively normal fall. Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
Does the well turn on and off more frequent than it should? I had a check valve that failed. Pump would run and fill the tank, cut off and let the water run back down the well. Stired it up pretty good.

I remember as a kid, another fairly new well kept producing sand. Best I remember they blew the well (flushed it) again. Seems like they either added another piece of casing or lowered the pump another joint of pipe. Not to sure about that. I suspect with 7 years of good service it is a problem with the check valve.
 
I doubt that it is sediment. More than likely it is pulling sand from the bottom. This sand will ruin every valve it comes in contact with over time.
I had the same problem. The well driller came out and blew the well. This supposedly blowes the sand out. After checking around I found out that this particular driller made his own sand screens at the bottom of the well. Never did get the problem resolved. But did get onto a community water system.
I did talk to another driller that said to use a sediment tank to remove the sand. The problem is that eventually the well motor will burn up way before it's normal lifespan is up, which mine did.
I would call the guy who installed it.
 
I use a holding tank. Pump water to the house with a seperate booster pump. About every 5 years or so I use a 2 inch flex hose in the tank to syphon. Pull all the iron sulfide and lime off of the bottom. No sand.

15 years is what I get out of the submersible pump. By then all stages of the pump get clogged with iron or lime.

When I pump water onto the lawn I go direct from the well and not through the tank. It does the grass good.
 
We installed a sandtrap/filter between the prssure tank and the manifold that feeds all of the water to the different areas. I clean it out about once a month and haven;t had any problems since.
 
Pressure tank doesn't leak down, except when the valve on the waterer is plugged open. The sediment coming out looks like the fine particles created when the driller went thru the rock drilling the well. We don't have sand here to my knowledge. Feel like the problem is in the well, I just don't know enough about them to fix it, and I'm not very keen on the driller.
 
As far as the cow waterers go.. the sediment will just go to the bottom. Clean out your tanks or whatever you have, during the summer, and it will be fine.
 
We went to the filter/trap mainly because the waterers wouldn;t shut off. There would be just in grit to leave them trickling. It ended up being an advantage the house since none of the spigots or the toilets get clogged up
 
dun":2ni95tw9 said:
We went to the filter/trap mainly because the waterers wouldn;t shut off. There would be just in grit to leave them trickling. It ended up being an advantage the house since none of the spigots or the toilets get clogged up

That's exactly what's going on here, I get tired of strolling out into the pasture at 3am to purge the valve when it's 20 degrees. If I put in a filter to service the whole 9 yards I'll have to trench another line to the house from the well to backfeed the outside users, sounds like a spring project.
 
cfpinz":3hexw8pg said:
dun":3hexw8pg said:
We went to the filter/trap mainly because the waterers wouldn;t shut off. There would be just in grit to leave them trickling. It ended up being an advantage the house since none of the spigots or the toilets get clogged up

That's exactly what's going on here, I get tired of strolling out into the pasture at 3am to purge the valve when it's 20 degrees. If I put in a filter to service the whole 9 yards I'll have to trench another line to the house from the well to backfeed the outside users, sounds like a spring project.
Do you have multiple pressure tanks? Ours goes into a manifold that feeds 4 lines that go to 4 different parts of the farm.
 
Probably something different but we sometimes have that happen here after an extended drought. Sides of well will cave in and make a larger pocket of water. Will pull grit until it settles. To speed it up, we turn a spigot on full blast and let it run for a while. This seems to help.
 
novatech":2duy9j9r said:
I doubt that it is sediment. More than likely it is pulling sand from the bottom. This sand will ruin every valve it comes in contact with over time.
I had the same problem. The well driller came out and blew the well. This supposedly blowes the sand out. After checking around I found out that this particular driller made his own sand screens at the bottom of the well. Never did get the problem resolved. But did get onto a community water system.
I did talk to another driller that said to use a sediment tank to remove the sand. The problem is that eventually the well motor will burn up way before it's normal lifespan is up, which mine did.
I would call the guy who installed it.

I've had two submersibles wear out due to "baby sand". Blowing out the well is the only solution.
 
Jogeephus":3amexpxd said:
Probably something different but we sometimes have that happen here after an extended drought. Sides of well will cave in and make a larger pocket of water. Will pull grit until it settles. To speed it up, we turn a spigot on full blast and let it run for a while. This seems to help.

My parents' well will do that, sides will cave in and turn the water muddy for a couple days.

We only have one pressure tank.

Talked to the well driller tonight, he recommends putting the submersible pump into a sock and screen setup to keep the trash out of the pump. Might try that this weekend if it gets above freezing.
 

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