Hello,
The system was professionally installed about 17 years ago.
2 Points 25Ft shallow wells PVC
New red Lion 1HP 23GPM shallow well pump 40/60 switch
Wx-101 2Gal pressure tank
12 Zone sprinkler system
Note: We have high iron in our well water. It turns the sidewalks a rusty brown color.
I'm having pressure issues that started about 2 years ago on my shallow well for my irrigation system. Before the issues the pressure was around 35-40 psi continuous to most of my zones with 3-4 rotating heads and 18 GPM.
The issue I'm having is low pressure or lack of high GPM. The pressure is running at 19 psi of pressure during a run to my larger zones of 4-5 heads and it seems to be getting worse. The heads run on those zones but the water spray is not strong at all. Now if the system is running and I pause it and let the pump run up to it's stop pressure cut off of 60 Psi and right away run the zone again the pressure will run at 30 PSI for about 20 seconds and slowly decrease to 19 psi again. I thought it was the pump so I replaced it with a pump that has a higher flow rate, but it didn't make a huge difference. All this was happening before I attempted the next fix on my list, see below.
Next I dug down a foot and found the line to the points. The line T's to 2 points 3 feet apart.
I cut the line and added an access point because there wasn't one. I poured down almost a 1/2 gallon of Nuwell 100 and followed that with about 5 gallons of fresh water into the wells. I let it sit for 2 hours and then hooked up an air hose to the access point I installed. I didn't send the air hose down the well. I created an access only for the air hose attachment. This way I can pressurize the wells in a closed system. It pressurized to 20PSI and held. I kept it like that for an hour. Then I released the pressure and a yellow foam rushed out of the access hole. This is what Nuwell is supposed to do. It turns red when dissolved in water and then a yellow foam when it activates with the iron and minerals on the well point.
I then added about 5 gallons of fresh water and re-pressurized the wells again. After an hour same thing happened with the yellow foam. I added 2 gallons of water and closed the access point. Left it overnight into the next day, so roughly 24 hours. I slowly removed the plug at the access point because there was a lot of pressure form the reaction of the Nuwell. I pumped out about 100 gallons of well water with my jet pump to a hose and into a bucket so I could measure how much water I pumped out. The water started out as yellow foamy color and slowly cleared up. I added baking soda to the water coming out of the well to neutralize the acid. Everything looked like it was working great until I hooked it up to my my sprinkler system and ran a zone with 3 heads. Pressure issues again...
New Issue - before I would get good pressure (30 psi) for about a 20 sec. and then it would drop to 19psi and hold. Now I get extremely good pressure (45 psi) for about 20 seconds and then the pump drops to 20psi for 10 seconds. After the initial drop it drops to almost zero and back up to 20 and it does this continuously (20 back to zero, back to 20 back to 0 and so on). The heads pop up and then drop back down with the pressure fluctuation. It does this continuously back and forth. I can hear the water coming up to the pump, but it seams like the wells are not producing enough water to keep the system running at a decent pressure. I tried multiple zones and had the same issue. So I went from 19psi continuous to a seesaw affect after the treatment.
I did notice before the Nuwell treatment that the insides of the PVC lines have a thick coat of what looks like red minerals. Maybe Iron or Iron Bacteria.
The system holds pressure when it's not in use. It held 60PSI all night. The pressure switch is working and the small 2 gallon tank is pressurized to 38psi, 2psi below cut in.
Should I repeat the process with the Nuwell? Did I do something wrong?
The system was professionally installed about 17 years ago.
2 Points 25Ft shallow wells PVC
New red Lion 1HP 23GPM shallow well pump 40/60 switch
Wx-101 2Gal pressure tank
12 Zone sprinkler system
Note: We have high iron in our well water. It turns the sidewalks a rusty brown color.
I'm having pressure issues that started about 2 years ago on my shallow well for my irrigation system. Before the issues the pressure was around 35-40 psi continuous to most of my zones with 3-4 rotating heads and 18 GPM.
The issue I'm having is low pressure or lack of high GPM. The pressure is running at 19 psi of pressure during a run to my larger zones of 4-5 heads and it seems to be getting worse. The heads run on those zones but the water spray is not strong at all. Now if the system is running and I pause it and let the pump run up to it's stop pressure cut off of 60 Psi and right away run the zone again the pressure will run at 30 PSI for about 20 seconds and slowly decrease to 19 psi again. I thought it was the pump so I replaced it with a pump that has a higher flow rate, but it didn't make a huge difference. All this was happening before I attempted the next fix on my list, see below.
Next I dug down a foot and found the line to the points. The line T's to 2 points 3 feet apart.
I cut the line and added an access point because there wasn't one. I poured down almost a 1/2 gallon of Nuwell 100 and followed that with about 5 gallons of fresh water into the wells. I let it sit for 2 hours and then hooked up an air hose to the access point I installed. I didn't send the air hose down the well. I created an access only for the air hose attachment. This way I can pressurize the wells in a closed system. It pressurized to 20PSI and held. I kept it like that for an hour. Then I released the pressure and a yellow foam rushed out of the access hole. This is what Nuwell is supposed to do. It turns red when dissolved in water and then a yellow foam when it activates with the iron and minerals on the well point.
I then added about 5 gallons of fresh water and re-pressurized the wells again. After an hour same thing happened with the yellow foam. I added 2 gallons of water and closed the access point. Left it overnight into the next day, so roughly 24 hours. I slowly removed the plug at the access point because there was a lot of pressure form the reaction of the Nuwell. I pumped out about 100 gallons of well water with my jet pump to a hose and into a bucket so I could measure how much water I pumped out. The water started out as yellow foamy color and slowly cleared up. I added baking soda to the water coming out of the well to neutralize the acid. Everything looked like it was working great until I hooked it up to my my sprinkler system and ran a zone with 3 heads. Pressure issues again...
New Issue - before I would get good pressure (30 psi) for about a 20 sec. and then it would drop to 19psi and hold. Now I get extremely good pressure (45 psi) for about 20 seconds and then the pump drops to 20psi for 10 seconds. After the initial drop it drops to almost zero and back up to 20 and it does this continuously (20 back to zero, back to 20 back to 0 and so on). The heads pop up and then drop back down with the pressure fluctuation. It does this continuously back and forth. I can hear the water coming up to the pump, but it seams like the wells are not producing enough water to keep the system running at a decent pressure. I tried multiple zones and had the same issue. So I went from 19psi continuous to a seesaw affect after the treatment.
I did notice before the Nuwell treatment that the insides of the PVC lines have a thick coat of what looks like red minerals. Maybe Iron or Iron Bacteria.
The system holds pressure when it's not in use. It held 60PSI all night. The pressure switch is working and the small 2 gallon tank is pressurized to 38psi, 2psi below cut in.
Should I repeat the process with the Nuwell? Did I do something wrong?