I’m considering a house with well water (but city sewer). All I know is that it’s a capped well dug 300ft deep with a good history. And, the water is hard (heavy in iron) so a water softening agent must be added.
Can someone help me with these questions:
a) What should I know about well water? (good/bad)
b) Operational/Maintenance costs?
c) What should I be asking the present owner?
Also, can someone tell me:
a) What’s the avg. life of a typ. well pump (or motor, perhaps?)
b) Is there a filter or strainer upstream of the pump suction which needs maintenance, and if so, how often?
c) Capped well - means someone won’t fall in???
d) Water tables…does this just say how deep one would dig to find the surface of water, or does it tell how deep the water supply actually is (like an underground lake, I’d assume?)
e) What else should I know that I’m overlooking???
Pump life:
In 18 years I have replaced the motor, the pump, and then the whole unit. The last replacement was about ten years ago.
The newer pumps seem to last much longer than the earlier ones.
Additional maintenance items:
The pressure tank and associated pressure gauge and pressure controller. I have had to replace the tank once and the gauge and controller twice in 18 years.
Questions:
Radon?
In many places you will want to have a test done.
Gallons per minute?
Most areas have a minimum allowed for a residential well. I think it’s around three or four gallons per minute in this part of the world but that’s not very much. You couldn’t wash your car and run water in the house with a three gal/min well.
PH.
If it’s too acidic you will need a pH up treater - $500 at Sears.
I put a whole house filter on mine. Cost was $30 or so. The 5 micron filters need replacing every three months or so. I get them at Sears for a couple of dollars each as I recall.
I paid close to $300 to get a pretty comprehensive water test done to make sure there were no solvents or other nasty stuff present. That really should be done on a regular basis, but I haven’t had it done for about 12 years since there have been no problems in this area and other people close by have had tests done.
I dont’t think iron causes water to be hard. I believe that is due to alkaline minerals. You may or may not need to remove the iron. If it’s visible iron, a 5 micron filter may remove it. It does for my well.
I’ve got two wells on my property. One for inside and one for the hose.
I’d have a water guy test for everything under the sun. You’ll pay for it but it’s worth it. You’ll be living with this water for the next godawful number of years. Two days after closing is NOT the time to discover the bacteria in your water supply.
Beyond that, make sure you get it rated for gallons/minute (no joke there). You might also inquire about other wells sipping from the local water table and see if any new developments are going up nearby. Wells can go dry. See who else is sharing your water supply. If 1000 new places are going up nearby you could run dry. And that’s bad bad bad.
A capped well just means the top of the pipe is closed off. The well would need to be treated like you were drilling a new one. The point is probaly pluging up by now too. With a known high iron content the well’s pipe may also be almost closed off. The point is at the end of the wells pipe and is the entrance trough which the water enters via the surrounding porous rock, sand or gravel. You don’t drill into an under ground lake, or stream. It’s just porous sediments that water flows through.
You need to test the output capacity of the well. After pumping for a while you need a sample taken and a full water test done on it.
Here in Wisconsin there are problems from farm chemicals in the sandy areas, to arsenic occuring naturaly in some rock formations. People used to get good water, but as the water table dropped, rock that gives off arsenic when exposed to oxygen contaminated their wells. Now what do you do with that new $250,000 house?
The house must have used the capped well at one point, and the internal pumbing could be almost closed off with minerals. A highly acidic water is bad to use with copper piping, from a durability and health stand point. I know someone whose copper pipes were making them sick, and the pipes were eaten almost through after two years. They had to install all plastic piping.
Water can also be classified as safe to drink, but taste so bad you can’t stand it. Drinkable water can smell so bad you it gags you and is black tinted with the mineral magnesism.