need advice about well

[Quail_Antwerp]

My FIL had a holding tank for his well. Occassionally they have to pump air into it because it looses air pressure that is needed to push the water to the house.

I am not sure about sludge build up, but I will ask!

 

[enjoy the ride]

Wow- what differences we have. I personally have 2 2500 gallon tanks and wish I had more.
I live in a place that has a small dam in a creek about 2000 feet from my house, goes into 2 10,000 gallon tanks with a third 10,000 tank as a fire fighting reserve.
The water is then piped to various 11 households who use it.
So don't be afraid of tanks- more is better-lol.
If you well is not pretty sediment free, it will accumulate at the bottem but you simply get a pole or something ( I have heard of children being dropped into the tank for this) at a point the water is not to the top and stir it all up, then using your installed faucet at the bottom (they need to install this) use the sludged up water to water your lawn or garden.
You can sanitize this system by putting in a small amount of bleach in the tank as it fills (read the amount to use carefully- I over did it once) and let it run through your pipes to sanitize them too. Once a year should be enough for that- probably in the winter when there is lots of water.

There are some real advantages to storing water like this:
1) pump goes out- no panic, you have enough water to get thingsd fixed without having no water.
2) in case, well fails due to drought, same thing
3) in case of electric outage, if you're gravity fed, same thing
4) in case of fire- a lttle extra is a good thing.

Quail antwerp- I think that the air thing is a pressure tank, not a storage tank. I have pressure tanks too and sometimes when they are failing or have a valve leak, they do need to be air charged. A leak in the pipes sometimes will act to lose pressure too but that recharges when the pump is on.


PSS- Make sure they installers put a water level gauge on the outside of the tank- this is simply tee'd off the bottom faucet (see above) with a small shut off itself and is taped to the side of the tank - I have a small fish cork bobber thing in mine so I can see the level from far away.

PSSS- Do you freeze there? If not why not outside on the shady side of the garage or something- Depending on the basement, draining it would seem to be a problem as would a leak (which I admit I hace never had at the tank.) Also, if it's higher than the house, gravity fed will work. Do you already have a pressure tank?

 

[patandchickens]

What enjoy the ride said. THere are two DIFFERENT things being talked about here, pressure tanks and storage tanks, not to be confused.

Have you talked with a well contractor about the possibility of trying to get your well going faster. I am under the impression there are a variety of ways it can be done (depending partly on your well type and local geology) although none is guaranteed. The reason I mention it is because if your well is socking up with sand/silt, down at the level of the point or in the rock around it, the process may continue to the point where a holding tank doesn't help (unless you have water trucked in - which if it came to that, having a holding tank already in place would be helpful).

It depends on whether it is just you or the whole area. If the whole local aquifer is going down, then a new well or big holding tank might be most sensible, of course.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[FarmerChick]

Pat made a great point.

Do you know WHY your well is running slower now? Could it stop??????? If so no holding tank will help then? Just be sure to ask tons of questions before the money is spent in one direction or the other.

best of luck to ya!!

 

[miss_thenorth]

We don't have a well, but we do have a holding tank. We have one buried in the ground and it is 3300 gallons. We take a 450 gallon tank into town and fill it up at the bulk water station. We keep the buried tank topped up, so every other day or so, we go into town to fill up the 450 gallons tank.

450 gallons usually lasts us about 3 days. That includes flushing of toilets, laundry, showers, dishes, and horses and chickens water.

We must be careful in the winter with the 450 gallon tank--if any water is left in there, it will freeze and won't be able to use it. the underground one--no problems. As far as sludge on the bottom, I'm sure there is some--just try not to drain your tank empty--always leave a few inches in the bottom, and the sludge should stay put.

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

We have something like this for our chickens It helps a lot and gives the wells a break.

 

[dacjohns]

A storage tank sounds like a great idea. I'm sure you know that you will need a means of pressurizing the water in your water line to the house.

You could add additional storage for captured rain water.

You might be able to use gray water for gardening.

 

[inchworm]

We have a pressure tank - about 30 gallons. We have been told it is undersized for the house. The storage tank would be just that - a storage tank to help the well keep up with household demand. It seems to be an issue of regeneration of the well. we have trouble getting through a load of laundry - the water tends to run out on the rinse cycle. I can usually safely do about 3-4 loads of laundry a week, but we'll run out if I try to do 5 loads a week. Once we run out of water, I turn the well off and the water comes back in about 2 hours.

I think when we run out of water, the well gets damaged. Once it's damaged, we run out of water more easily and the process continues to snowball. I think to a degree, our problems have worsened over the past year due to such damage. Last year was also a drought year for us which put a heavy load on the well. We also now have 2 children that we didn't have 10 years ago which means increased demand, especially as they get older. Our problems also got worse after they built a new house across the street. They are lower down than we are and I wonder if they are draining us, though their well is probably about 300 feet away from ours. And finally, we are on a mountain side and water here is patchy. I know they had to put in a community well for some houses about a mile down the road.

We have 3 options for this well: First is this storage tank for 2k; Second is fracturing (sp?) for 2k. In fracturing, they put explosives down the well to open the cracks into the well. However, it may close off the well. There is no guarentee. The third is to dig a new for at least 10k with no guarentees.

This storage tank system is designed so that the well pump shuts off when the well is low. When there is water, the pump comes back on and pumps it into the stoarge tank. The household draws down from the storage tank. Once it is setup, the storage tank will have sufficient water in it to serve as a buffer and the well pump will slowly refill it when it is able.

Long post, I know

Thanks for any advice. I don't know who to trust when making this decision.

Inchy

 

[FarmerChick]

trust your gut instinct Inchy
you kinda are leaning toward one fix I am sure...don't let things overwhelm ya. I get like that on big $ problems.

Pick one that your gut tells you is probably your best choice after hearing all the info.....
you can't go wrong!!! After all life is a crapshoot, and we go along for the ride!

 

[patandchickens]

From what you say, the storage tank sounds sensible to me, then. And you know, if (heaven forbid) it does not sufficiently solve the well problem, it would allow you to truck water in and have somewhere to put it (for which reason I could see an argument for getting the largest size storage tank the budget will permit).

A cheaper thing some people might try first would be to get a larger pressure tank (a bigger one will run the well pump less often, which a) will extend the life of the pump b/c of fewer on/off cycles, and b) will give the well more time to regenerate in between pumping). I could imagine it helping, but I could also easily imagine it not helping, so I dunno.

Good luck with your decision,

Pat