[El Scorcho]

Originally Posted by parentologist

Well water is great, IF... you don't have kids, who should be drinking fluoridated water for their teeth. Yes, you can give them fluoride drops, but they can get fluorosis of the teeth from too much fluoride in the drops, and it's hard to remember to keep getting a new prescription and keep administering it for 14 years/kid. IF... your well doesn't get contaminated by a septic system or storm runoff. Then you have a big, pain in the ___ problem, which is expensive to fix. IF... your well water isn't hard, or acidic, or contains iron. Then you have to have water treatment systems installed, which leaves you with slightly salty water which always has you thirsty and is bad for your blood pressure, and water that's a pain for showering, since you can't rinse off soap quickly. I've lived with both wells and city water - I'll take city water (which I filter) and city sewer over a well and septic any day.

1. There is naturally occurring fluoride in well water, like I have. Our youngest doesn't require any additional fluoride and our oldest chews fluoride tablets, so we don't have to worry about drops.

Getting a prescription and giving it to my kids is no harder than feeding them daily or giving their daily baths. If you can't handle that, then I would call your parenting skills into question. Missing a fluoride dose every now and then is like missing a shower/tooth brushing. It's not going to be detrimental to your child.

2. Every house I have lived in with well/septic have these systems on opposite sides of the house/property and obviously at different depths which make contamination very unlikely.

3. Also, not all water is acidic or ferrous. No one that I have ever known has had any of these problems.

I have lived with both public and well/septic and prefer the latter by far. Once again, it's all personal preference and experience. I'm just trying to keep the nonsense out of it.

[marylandmom2011]

Hi,

Just an update from a previous post I made.......just replaced the well pump for @1600.00. Have lived in current house less than two years

[hiero2]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

agreed. And, having looked at tons of homes over the years, it seems like many homes in CT with well water have some sort of water filtering or softening system and/or radon mitigation system with them. Certainly not all of them, but many.

Not sure I'll add anything significant here - but I had the same question 6 years ago on moving to MA.

I've now got a house with a well. When I was buying I had it tested, mostly concerned about arsenic at the time. I have been told, by a friend, that radon occurs with some frequency in wells in the NE. But from CN north, I don't think people usually have problems with solids or silt in the well. I think that would be less common, given the high percentage of rock vs silt and clay in the substrata.

When I had a well inspector look at mine, his comment was "good well, rock water".

Testing for arsenic and radon is not expensive at all, imo. Some places have different problems - like my mom had problems with iron in her well water. But she was in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Iron country, there.

Replacing a pump can be expensive (1-3k?). But they last for years. Not much other maintenance that I know of.

When a storm is coming, I fill a bunch of 5 gallon buckets, jic, for whatever water. We've actually needed that water only once or twice in the time I've been here.

Imo, well water is definitely better than almost any municipal. But if the well water was my Mom's - at that house in upper Mich? Nope. Not as good. Florida wells often had sulfur problems, phew! (I lived in Fla as a kid). I don't think you'll find well water in FLA any more.

Ok - so radon has been mentioned. Getting the well water tested has been mentioned (by other posters already). And now arsenic has been mentioned. Lesson? Get the water tested. Ask the testing outfit and the house inspector what might be good things to test for.

One thing I did not see mentioned, but I skipped some pages - septic. If you have a well, I think it likely you will have septic as well. I like a septic system - and I prefer it to public sewer - but it does require more maintenance than public sewer, and should be considered a cost of the water system as a whole. You don't pay monthly fees, but you do pay a small amount, perhaps annually, perhaps every two years, but at least every 5th year if you dog it, for pumping out the septic tank. You may incur expense for additional septic capacity of you add to your house. Etc. Just sayin' - something you need to realize is probably part of the package.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by marylandmom2011

Just an update from a previous post I made.......just replaced the well pump for @1600.00. Have lived in current house less than two years

How deep is your well and did you replace all of the wiring as well? I paid a little over $3000 for our 500 foot well (w/new wiring) and am curious how good/bad of a deal I got.

[the fish]

Originally Posted by markfromct

We have had both and the well has been a pain. We had to install a sediment filter and a acid neutralizer as a lot of our pipes were getting pinholes in them.. Then we found out we had Radon in our water and installed a 4k Radon mitigation device.

Oh yeah, and we didn't have a generator during that October storm, so we had to melt snow to flush the toilets for 11 days..fun.

good points

during the power outage I cooked on our gas cooktop heated the entire house with the gas fireplace and flushed with the city water that never even flinched concerning pressure

it was like a fun campout

[marylandmom2011]

Originally Posted by Scott R

How deep is your well and did you replace all of the wiring as well? I paid a little over $3000 for our 500 foot well (w/new wiring) and am curious how good/bad of a deal I got.

Our well is around 250 feet deep. The wiring did not need to be replaced just the pump (1100.00). We also have the black tubing which apparently makes the removal of the pump easier and less time consuming. The white, screw type tubing is more labor intensive (he actually told me the white is a cheaper product but it is used to drive up labor costs).

[Brian26]

Originally Posted by markfromct

I'm not sure well is cheaper then city, especially in the long rn. Like I said before, $1200 for a sediment and conditioner system, 4k for Radon mitigation. If the pump fails that's another 3k or so.

Also, if you have a leech field and that fails, that could run from 5k to 20k.

I agree. I pay around $20 a month for water through the Regional Water Authority here in Branford. They are a non-profit company as well. (About Us | Connecticut Regional Water Authority) They give out permits to use their properties and I fish and hike at Lake Saltonsall.

I have never had any issues with my water. Friends with wells seem to always have some kind of issue.

[markfromct]

Originally Posted by hiero2

Not sure I'll add anything significant here - but I had the same question 6 years ago on moving to MA.




One thing I did not see mentioned, but I skipped some pages - septic. If you have a well, I think it likely you will have septic as well. I like a septic system - and I prefer it to public sewer - but it does require more maintenance than public sewer, and should be considered a cost of the water system as a whole. You don't pay monthly fees, but you do pay a small amount, perhaps annually, perhaps every two years, but at least every 5th year if you dog it, for pumping out the septic tank. You may incur expense for additional septic capacity of you add to your house. Etc. Just sayin' - something you need to realize is probably part of the package.

Really? You realize Leach fields don't last forever right? It looks like mine is failing and will be a minimum of 20 grand to replace. I'll take public sewer any day.

[Brian26]

Originally Posted by markfromct

Really? You realize Leach fields don't last forever right? It looks like mine is failing and will be a minimum of 20 grand to replace. I'll take public sewer any day.

Crazy! Here in Branford the sewer fee is like $135 a year. Somehow its not based on water usage and just a set yearly fee.

[Lalalally]

I can't understand why anyone would prefer a septic system to city sewer?? We have a septic, and while there's nothing wrong with it at the moment, I fear the day when something is. It costs a fortune to replace.
That, plus it's a pretty gross concept in my opinion