Well issues

[water ski]

I have a 330 ft well. ph is 6.5-7. Hardness, 36g/gal. Iron, 10-15ppm. TDS 1800ppm. My flow rate is 5.5 gal. p. m. I have 120 gallons stored in the well pipe and in 22 minutes I can run it all out as the well recovery rate is only 1/2 gal. p.m.. I schocked the well recently ( the above figures are from after shocking, the iron content was much higher before it was shocked.) and the water comes out of the faucet clear and then over time in a cup turns a little rusty whereas before shocking it came out rusty immediately. Is it possible the 300 ft. of pipe is rusty on the inside and contributing to the iron problem? If so, is there stainless steel pipe or pvc pipe that can be used? Is there a solution to using this well and cleaning up the water? One bid I recieved was for a Sanitizer Plus with zeolite at a cost of just under $5,000.

[Gary Slusser]

I have a 330 ft well. ph is 6.5-7. Hardness, 36g/gal. Iron, 10-15ppm. TDS 1800ppm. My flow rate is 5.5 gal. p. m. I have 120 gallons stored in the well pipe and in 22 minutes I can run it all out as the well recovery rate is only 1/2 gal. p.m.. I schocked the well recently ( the above figures are from after shocking, the iron content was much higher before it was shocked.) and the water comes out of the faucet clear and then over time in a cup turns a little rusty whereas before shocking it came out rusty immediately. Is it possible the 300 ft. of pipe is rusty on the inside and contributing to the iron problem? If so, is there stainless steel pipe or pvc pipe that can be used? Is there a solution to using this well and cleaning up the water? One bid I recieved was for a Sanitizer Plus with zeolite at a cost of just under $5,000.

Are you asking about SS or PVC well casing or the drop pipe down the well? I never heard of SS but yes, PVC is used a lot.

I question your 10-15 ppm of iron, who tested the water? A Sanitizer makes a small amount of chlorine during regeneration which sanitizes the resin bed and in your case it isn't resin, it's Water Right's Zeolite. That softener is not what I'd suggest for your water and if I were you and thinking of buying it, first I'd talk to Water Right to see if they agree with me. No softener alone is going to treat your water. So you'll need an oxidizer/disinfectant system like my inline pellet chlorinator, mixing tank and a backwashed carbon filter or, if you do not have any IRB or other bacteria, an iron filter before a softener.

Is there any odor in this water; hot, cold or both?

What flow rate are you talking about, to run the well 'dry'? What type, sub or jet and what size (hp and gpm) pump do you have?

[water ski]

Gary, Thank you for your response. I am really new at this so I'll try my best to answer your questions. I had the water tested at Sears, Fleet Farm, Home Depot and *******. My hot water heater quit working 5 years ago. I do not detect odor in the cold water. I believe I have a 1/2 hp submersible grundmans pump. I can find out for sure on monday. My flow rate starts out at 5.5 gal per minute but once the pump kicks on (if I let the water run for 22 minutes) the flow rate slows down at the end of 22 minutes untill it just trickles out at a 1/2 gallon per minute. Does your system need much water to backwash?

[Gary Slusser]

Sorry to say that with that little volume of water and low gpm flow rate you can't backwash most filters or regenerate most softeners.

[water ski]

Would there be a way to store some water and then be able to use your system?

[Gary Slusser]

Yes you can get like a 300 gal storage tank and a pump and a CSV and small pressure tank to do that. The CSV gets you constant pressure and allows the use of a very small pressure tank which keeps the cost to do that down.

Then you control the well pump with a float switch to refill that tank as needed. And then you can backwash or regenerate any size or type of water treatment equipment that you would need.