New member here, stumbled upon this great forum researching my well water situation.
First time well owner with the 4Bed/3Bath property we now live on, 2 adults 2 children. In a neighborhood just outside the city limits - all the houses in this tract are on well water off the same aquafer. Several well casings on our street are in a low spot in the yard where water pools when it rains very hard. The top 3 feet of my casing used to be metal, pitting corrosion was discovered below the mudline allowing surface water into the column. Casing extension has been repaired with collar/extension. Contractor put bleach pellets into the pitless tube and ran water in all the house faucets until we could smell bleach, held for 48+ hours. Subsequently, I tested the water and it was positive for Ecoli and coliform, dont seem to have specific data on metals, but I did test for TDS, Nitrates, Floride, Arsenic. With a common aquafer, if I have an issue, I think it is with my well and not the water source. Looking back not sure if they treated the column. I shocked the well casing walls myself by pouring bleach and recirculating with hose. Is there a service/tool that scrubs the casing or ultrasonic vibrations to break up biofilm on the pipe, or is recirculating bleach with a hose down the casing sufficient? I fear I'll have the boogey man lurking in my water complex unless I thoroughly get it cleaned initially and then maintain with good filtration/UV.
I believe I am almost ready to move forward and install a new water softener, whole house filtration, and UV light. We will add under sink RO for the kitchen sink and refrigerator.
Existing set up shown in the diagram with pressure tank (Flexlite FL28 82 gallon) and softener (Culligan Medallist Plus 30/45/60 softener/salt tank)
1" line coming from well, 2-hp pump, 80/60 square D pressure switch, 3/4" line feeding house. Drain hose from softener runs into laundry room, there is a recessed floor drain and a washer/dryer drain in the wall.
I want to gut almost everything, sanitize/reuse the pressure tank in the closet, rework the piping supply into the garage, mount filtration along the wall on roughly 7'H x 6'W x 2'D area, new softener, UV light, and then feed the piping back into the closet to connect to the house supply line.
I got a deal on a new Milwaukee PEX-A expander and tube cutter for $310 total. I got lost in the rabbit hole of dezincification with well water and brass, so I'm planning on just going with Boshart stainless steel isolation valves, SS expansion tees & elbows with glycerin filled pressure gauges.
20" Pentek big blue filter housings with pressure relief (will tap the gauge on the outlet). Viqua VH410 UV light. I havent purchased a softener yet, leaning towards a 40K gr Fleck dual tank. Not sure who to buy from to get quality resin. Saw some threads pointing to qualitywaterforless.
My flow diagram is obviously not to scale, but seems to provide serviceability for any component and eliminates any dead legs (except the small one around the UV light which I dont think is avoidable).
I dont have soldering skills, so PEX/press type of materials are needed.
Here is my list of questions if anyone cares to address some or all, or if I've made any glaring errors.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Softener
-Brand recommendations, (sticker companies/Chinese products/resin concerns)
-Use factory bypass or build 3-valve bypass shown? Without having it in hand yet, I cannot visualize what provides the best the serviceability.
-Order with a bypass and decide later to use or not? SS bypass seems to be a swinging handle vs knobs. not sure if there is a benefit one way or another.
-Polymer or stainless steel connections are offered with or without bypass
-Best type of connection recommendation to go in and out of softener to PEX-A to allow for servicing.
Pressure Tank
-Pump and tank were replaced in 2016. Not sure if they had water pressure issues, but 80/60 switch is installed. Tank has sharpie saying 40 psi on it so at some point it looks like it was increased.
-Will go with a 60/40 and evaluate.
-Replacing Tank Tee with Boshart SS package.
-Should the tank be on a stand? (This closet needs some trim work to seal it up, it gets lots of dust and spiders so I'll want to be able to vacuum/clean it more easily).
Filtration
-There is a Banjo strainer present with drain hose/iso valve. May replace with 50 micron spindown filter installed in closet, before first 20" big blue sediment filter.
-Opting for carbon filter for VOCs, pesticides nearby farming communities, etc. in addition to any chlorine that is introduced along the way with well shocks.
-2 remaining 20" big blue housings for 5 micron and 1 micron cascading filtration before UV light.
-Not sure where pressure will be become an issue with additional filtration. Can remove one or leave empty if issue arises.
Plumbing/Fittings
-PEX-A
-Stainless steel PEX-A elbows & tees, gauges, tank tee, threaded connections between filter housings, threaded to PEX off filter.
-I dont know yet what type of connection is on the current copper lines. I will have access to a Propress tool from a coworker if necessary to transition copper to PEX-A. Is there a way to avoid a brass fitting brass here and is my paranoia of brass valid (trace lead and corrosion)?
-note: i see I can eliminate a Tee after the last stage filtration and the UV light, just trying to map out how it physically will lay out.
-House supply is 3/4" feed, inlet from well through slab is 1". Is there a great benefit to running 1" piping through all the filter and softener if it restricts down to 3/4" in the end or through some component? Why get 1" NPT filter housings if you have 3/4 somewhere else?
-The UV light also has mixed connection sizes 3/4 inlet and 1" outlet I believe, so does it matter in the end?
UV Light
-Need to research a little more on tubing connections to and from UV light, no PEX connected with a certain distance from UV. Compression, propress, threaded hose etc.
Any recommendations for using a PHYN Gen2 or similar device for emergency shut off?
Again, thank you if you made it this far!
First time well owner with the 4Bed/3Bath property we now live on, 2 adults 2 children. In a neighborhood just outside the city limits - all the houses in this tract are on well water off the same aquafer. Several well casings on our street are in a low spot in the yard where water pools when it rains very hard. The top 3 feet of my casing used to be metal, pitting corrosion was discovered below the mudline allowing surface water into the column. Casing extension has been repaired with collar/extension. Contractor put bleach pellets into the pitless tube and ran water in all the house faucets until we could smell bleach, held for 48+ hours. Subsequently, I tested the water and it was positive for Ecoli and coliform, dont seem to have specific data on metals, but I did test for TDS, Nitrates, Floride, Arsenic. With a common aquafer, if I have an issue, I think it is with my well and not the water source. Looking back not sure if they treated the column. I shocked the well casing walls myself by pouring bleach and recirculating with hose. Is there a service/tool that scrubs the casing or ultrasonic vibrations to break up biofilm on the pipe, or is recirculating bleach with a hose down the casing sufficient? I fear I'll have the boogey man lurking in my water complex unless I thoroughly get it cleaned initially and then maintain with good filtration/UV.
I believe I am almost ready to move forward and install a new water softener, whole house filtration, and UV light. We will add under sink RO for the kitchen sink and refrigerator.
Existing set up shown in the diagram with pressure tank (Flexlite FL28 82 gallon) and softener (Culligan Medallist Plus 30/45/60 softener/salt tank)
1" line coming from well, 2-hp pump, 80/60 square D pressure switch, 3/4" line feeding house. Drain hose from softener runs into laundry room, there is a recessed floor drain and a washer/dryer drain in the wall.
I want to gut almost everything, sanitize/reuse the pressure tank in the closet, rework the piping supply into the garage, mount filtration along the wall on roughly 7'H x 6'W x 2'D area, new softener, UV light, and then feed the piping back into the closet to connect to the house supply line.
I got a deal on a new Milwaukee PEX-A expander and tube cutter for $310 total. I got lost in the rabbit hole of dezincification with well water and brass, so I'm planning on just going with Boshart stainless steel isolation valves, SS expansion tees & elbows with glycerin filled pressure gauges.
20" Pentek big blue filter housings with pressure relief (will tap the gauge on the outlet). Viqua VH410 UV light. I havent purchased a softener yet, leaning towards a 40K gr Fleck dual tank. Not sure who to buy from to get quality resin. Saw some threads pointing to qualitywaterforless.
My flow diagram is obviously not to scale, but seems to provide serviceability for any component and eliminates any dead legs (except the small one around the UV light which I dont think is avoidable).
I dont have soldering skills, so PEX/press type of materials are needed.
Here is my list of questions if anyone cares to address some or all, or if I've made any glaring errors.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Softener
-Brand recommendations, (sticker companies/Chinese products/resin concerns)
-Use factory bypass or build 3-valve bypass shown? Without having it in hand yet, I cannot visualize what provides the best the serviceability.
-Order with a bypass and decide later to use or not? SS bypass seems to be a swinging handle vs knobs. not sure if there is a benefit one way or another.
-Polymer or stainless steel connections are offered with or without bypass
-Best type of connection recommendation to go in and out of softener to PEX-A to allow for servicing.
Pressure Tank
-Pump and tank were replaced in 2016. Not sure if they had water pressure issues, but 80/60 switch is installed. Tank has sharpie saying 40 psi on it so at some point it looks like it was increased.
-Will go with a 60/40 and evaluate.
-Replacing Tank Tee with Boshart SS package.
-Should the tank be on a stand? (This closet needs some trim work to seal it up, it gets lots of dust and spiders so I'll want to be able to vacuum/clean it more easily).
Filtration
-There is a Banjo strainer present with drain hose/iso valve. May replace with 50 micron spindown filter installed in closet, before first 20" big blue sediment filter.
-Opting for carbon filter for VOCs, pesticides nearby farming communities, etc. in addition to any chlorine that is introduced along the way with well shocks.
-2 remaining 20" big blue housings for 5 micron and 1 micron cascading filtration before UV light.
-Not sure where pressure will be become an issue with additional filtration. Can remove one or leave empty if issue arises.
Plumbing/Fittings
-PEX-A
-Stainless steel PEX-A elbows & tees, gauges, tank tee, threaded connections between filter housings, threaded to PEX off filter.
-I dont know yet what type of connection is on the current copper lines. I will have access to a Propress tool from a coworker if necessary to transition copper to PEX-A. Is there a way to avoid a brass fitting brass here and is my paranoia of brass valid (trace lead and corrosion)?
-note: i see I can eliminate a Tee after the last stage filtration and the UV light, just trying to map out how it physically will lay out.
-House supply is 3/4" feed, inlet from well through slab is 1". Is there a great benefit to running 1" piping through all the filter and softener if it restricts down to 3/4" in the end or through some component? Why get 1" NPT filter housings if you have 3/4 somewhere else?
-The UV light also has mixed connection sizes 3/4 inlet and 1" outlet I believe, so does it matter in the end?
UV Light
-Need to research a little more on tubing connections to and from UV light, no PEX connected with a certain distance from UV. Compression, propress, threaded hose etc.
Any recommendations for using a PHYN Gen2 or similar device for emergency shut off?
Again, thank you if you made it this far!
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