Hi Folks,
New to the forum, glad I found it! Sure seems like great stuff with CSV & Psidekick, once I can afford a new well. There sure is a lot of great knowledge and people on here and I would really be thankful if you could give me some advice, good or bad.
Background: I am in central Florida, and recently began getting a huge amount of sand in my water. The home was built in ’67, has a 335’ well with an AO Smith C48K2FC11 [R1072] 3/4HP 3450 RPM, 230V, 7.4 amp vertical pump mounted on a 2.5" OD galvanized pipe in a small pump house in the carport with the pipe going through the cement straight down. No water or air leaks. Pressure is good, and the pump seems to cycle fine 20 on / 40 off (well, normally, being as it doesn't have a csv!). Pump doesn't run if no water is being used. I guess the well, motor and pump are original.
Situation: A few weeks ago we got a lightning hit during a storm before dawn. I thought power was out all over but noticed the lamp at the road was on which is rented from the utility company. Checked the breaker box and all breakers were tripped. Breaker box is inside house right in front of the well and pump. Reset them and everything seemed fine. A couple weeks ago my wife noticed a lot of sand/sediment in the bathroom shower upstairs, so began using the one I shave/shower in as it is filtered with a 20" big blue filter I installed for our laundry and hot water last year, which is also prior to my bathroom. I figured maybe something broke loose and it would clear in the other bathroom. Sunday I turned on a hose located outside of her bathroom and had a huge amount of sand come out. I ran it for about 30 minutes and started checking in a 5 gal bucket, and it seemed to get about 1/2 cup of coarse sand for each bucket.
Monday I flushed the toilet in that bathroom and noticed it wasn't filling up. Looked in the tank and it had sand in it. Shut off the water, pulled the flush valve, cleaned the tank, flushed the line feeding the tank, installed new flush valve and still got a little sand in the tank. Tried to wash my hands in the lavatory, nothing; pulled aerator and flushed the line of lots of sand. Tried the tub to rinse out tools & towels, no water from tub spout. Shower works but a lot of sand. Weird just a trickle from the tub spout hot or cold but shower still works / sprays.
Called insurance company and they said call a well guy or plumber and have them look at it and if they could certify it was due to lightning or surge they'd try to get it covered. Had a well guy come out and he said probably more due to age than lightning. He gave me a quote for a new 4" well, tank, pump for $8K if I ran the pipe and electric 85' to the new well location myself. We are extremely hurting financially and unable to pay for it at this time in any way we can imagine. (I'll just leave it at that.) So I started looking on the internet and found this site. I've read a lot of posts regarding sand in water but am fearful it doesn't look good for our well. I called the well guy back and asked about fixing the casing and he said since the pump doesn't run when the water is off he believes sand is coming from below the pump. He said there would be two (2) 21' pieces to re-sleeve it, but he'd hate to charge me $1k to do it and it last for only 2 or 3 months and be bad again.
So my questions are: is it feasible I could resleeve something that small somehow? Or could I put in a sand trap until I could afford a new well, which will probably be 6 months or possibly longer? Is this well done for? We're in quite a pickle financially right now, and I feel like I'm grasping at straws.
Thank you for your time and insight. I really appreciate it.
- Chuck
New to the forum, glad I found it! Sure seems like great stuff with CSV & Psidekick, once I can afford a new well. There sure is a lot of great knowledge and people on here and I would really be thankful if you could give me some advice, good or bad.
Background: I am in central Florida, and recently began getting a huge amount of sand in my water. The home was built in ’67, has a 335’ well with an AO Smith C48K2FC11 [R1072] 3/4HP 3450 RPM, 230V, 7.4 amp vertical pump mounted on a 2.5" OD galvanized pipe in a small pump house in the carport with the pipe going through the cement straight down. No water or air leaks. Pressure is good, and the pump seems to cycle fine 20 on / 40 off (well, normally, being as it doesn't have a csv!). Pump doesn't run if no water is being used. I guess the well, motor and pump are original.
Situation: A few weeks ago we got a lightning hit during a storm before dawn. I thought power was out all over but noticed the lamp at the road was on which is rented from the utility company. Checked the breaker box and all breakers were tripped. Breaker box is inside house right in front of the well and pump. Reset them and everything seemed fine. A couple weeks ago my wife noticed a lot of sand/sediment in the bathroom shower upstairs, so began using the one I shave/shower in as it is filtered with a 20" big blue filter I installed for our laundry and hot water last year, which is also prior to my bathroom. I figured maybe something broke loose and it would clear in the other bathroom. Sunday I turned on a hose located outside of her bathroom and had a huge amount of sand come out. I ran it for about 30 minutes and started checking in a 5 gal bucket, and it seemed to get about 1/2 cup of coarse sand for each bucket.
Monday I flushed the toilet in that bathroom and noticed it wasn't filling up. Looked in the tank and it had sand in it. Shut off the water, pulled the flush valve, cleaned the tank, flushed the line feeding the tank, installed new flush valve and still got a little sand in the tank. Tried to wash my hands in the lavatory, nothing; pulled aerator and flushed the line of lots of sand. Tried the tub to rinse out tools & towels, no water from tub spout. Shower works but a lot of sand. Weird just a trickle from the tub spout hot or cold but shower still works / sprays.
Called insurance company and they said call a well guy or plumber and have them look at it and if they could certify it was due to lightning or surge they'd try to get it covered. Had a well guy come out and he said probably more due to age than lightning. He gave me a quote for a new 4" well, tank, pump for $8K if I ran the pipe and electric 85' to the new well location myself. We are extremely hurting financially and unable to pay for it at this time in any way we can imagine. (I'll just leave it at that.) So I started looking on the internet and found this site. I've read a lot of posts regarding sand in water but am fearful it doesn't look good for our well. I called the well guy back and asked about fixing the casing and he said since the pump doesn't run when the water is off he believes sand is coming from below the pump. He said there would be two (2) 21' pieces to re-sleeve it, but he'd hate to charge me $1k to do it and it last for only 2 or 3 months and be bad again.
So my questions are: is it feasible I could resleeve something that small somehow? Or could I put in a sand trap until I could afford a new well, which will probably be 6 months or possibly longer? Is this well done for? We're in quite a pickle financially right now, and I feel like I'm grasping at straws.
Thank you for your time and insight. I really appreciate it.
- Chuck
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