[CindyOR]

Well maintenance was discussed briefly in another thread. What kind of maintenance does a well need? How often, what to do? And is there a book that shows you or talks like a regular person on how to do this maintenance?

We live quite a ways from town and sometimes the service call fee costs us more than the service due to mileage. I know there are some things I could do for myself, if I just knew what I was suppose to do.

CindyOR

 

[Daddyof4]

I guess it depends on if you have a drilled or a bored well. The bored wells are the traditional wells that are usually 40-80 feet deep. They are usually about two feet across and the pump is usually mounted on top of the well. This is what we have.

The drilled well is usually hundreds of feet deep and the opening is about 6-8" across with the pump being submerged way down in the water. These don't run out of water too often and don't require priming (according to the engineer friend who has one). BUT they are much more expensive to service. When the pump goes out you have to pull up several hundred feet of pipe and the pumps themselves cost more.

With our bored well, the maintenance is usually to have the water tested occasionally. Here is about all we've had to do:

1. Replace the pressure switch.
2. Clean the sediment out of the pressure switch and pipes leading into the pump.
3. Replace the foot valve which requires you to pull the pipes out of the well to remove. Don't bother cleaning them as they are cheap and it is better to spend the 20 bucks and replace rather than having to do it a few months later.
4. Keep a heat lamp on it during cold snaps.

Other than that I don't have any other answers.

 

[CindyOR]

We have the drilled style. It is 425' deep. Because it is at the bottom of our property, we have a 1500 gal holding tank up at the house. That is where the filter, purifier and another pump is at - in our shop. Those things sit on top of our holding tank.

There was a manual that came with our filter, but it isn't in human speak - very tech speak and I've had a few people look it over and it stumped them too.

Mainly I just want to understand our system and be able to change out basic stuff - like the filter medium and know when I should what kind of maintenance.

CindyOR

 

[Daddyof4]

With a drilled well, there isn't much you can do to the well itself. Someone likely knows more than I do about that.

But with the above ground tank, what I would do is take the model number off the pump on the holding tank along with the type of filter it is and go to Lowe's or Home Depot or even the place where it was purchased. OR you can call the company and get advice.

Where I worked up until a couple weeks ago we had water filters to clean the cooling water on each production line which required changing pretty often.

That's all I have to offer. Someone else who has that type of setup will know more.