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Since so many of us who have never used well water will be moving to properties on wells, is there anything we need to know? Things the realtor won't be telling? Maybe an overview of living with wells from those with real experience.
We have lived with a well as our water source for ten years. I am in rural East Pasco County (getting more developed by the day!) and most of us are on wells. Up here we (mostly) have good quality water from deep wells - although it can vary greatly from property to property. We have been lucky with our two homes, water tastes very good (although hard with minerals) and we don't need to filter it or even have it checked - I have checked with our well guys many, many times about this and they always say no problem.
Water quality can vary greatly depending where you are, so you may need filters. Wells that draw through rock (rather than sand) are what is desirable, but sometimes there is no choice but to go with the sand well, which will need filters.
Maintenance and problems over time can be the foot valve at the bottom of the well which fails, and well will not hold a prime, the tanks can break or wear out, and of course the pump. If you have power outages, your water will be out also, as the pumps are electric. Go with the submerged pump, it's a lot better than above ground.
Hope some of this has been helpful! The best part of having a well is having delicious untreated water and IT'S FREE!!!!!
I also have a well and have enjoyed it, for the most part.
You need to keep an eye on the health of your tank and pump. If the tank goes waterlogged, as many of the smaller and less expensive ones tend to do, the pump will turn on and off over and over and can burn itself out. Good pumps are very expensive, so don't scrimp on the quality of your tank.
My well tends to throw small bits of limestone and I don't have a filter for the whole house. I usually clean out the filters to my washing machine every other month, change the water filter on the refrigerator, and have had to take apart and clean the fittings in the back of the commode occasionally.
I guess I drink gravel; we'll see if that affects me in the long run. I'm sure something will.
Oh, the house I bought had an above ground pool, which I have not liked, except when we lost power during the two hurricanes that came through. Having that big supply of water was nice for flushing the toilet and washing off the daily grime.
If I had known about the sand/gravel ahead of time, I would have had a whole house filter installed. I knew I was only going to be living here for a couple of years, and didn't figure all of this out until about halfway through.
I know that sort of repeated Gypsychic, but it was meant to underline the practical concerns of living with a well.
I also have a well and have enjoyed it, for the most part.
You need to keep an eye on the health of your tank and pump. If the tank goes waterlogged, as many of the smaller and less expensive ones tend to do, the pump will turn on and off over and over and can burn itself out. Good pumps are very expensive, so don't scrimp on the quality of your tank.
My well tends to throw small bits of limestone and I don't have a filter for the whole house. I usually clean out the filters to my washing machine every other month, change the water filter on the refrigerator, and have had to take apart and clean the fittings in the back of the commode occasionally.
I guess I drink gravel; we'll see if that affects me in the long run. I'm sure something will.
Oh, the house I bought had an above ground pool, which I have not liked, except when we lost power during the two hurricanes that came through. Having that big supply of water was nice for flushing the toilet and washing off the daily grime.
If I had known about the sand/gravel ahead of time, I would have had a whole house filter installed. I knew I was only going to be living here for a couple of years, and didn't figure all of this out until about halfway through.
I know that sort of repeated Gypsychic, but it was meant to underline the practical concerns of living with a well.
I was in Scotland and staying in a B&B. There was sediment in the bottom of the glass. They told me to just not stir it up and drink slowly. I have a distilling system we use so except for washing I would be retreating the drinking water anyway. I don't drink the city water now.
Living with well water has it's good as well as it's not so good points. We've lived with a well for 30 years now and will be relocating by the end of the year to Florida or Texas. One criteria for our new house will be public water system...we just don't want to live with the hassles and unexpected expenses associated with well water. We'd also prefer to have water during power outages.
Well water quality varies greatly and can vary from house to house in the same neighborhood. If you are seeking quality water, I'd strongly suggest taking a sample of your water to a reputable water testing company or an independent laboratory. They willl be able to test your water for various suspended and dissolved impurities, bacteria, pH level, hardness, etc. They should be able to advise you on what type of water treatment system you will need, if any. Above and beyond their recommendations, I'd still suggest a whole house filtration system and a water softening system as this will give you more pure, and softened water which is better for bathing, cooking, laundry and your plumbing system, especially the hot water heater. A relatively small investment that will last years and provide much better water.
With a well, I would not suggest using it to water your lawn, and fill a pool. Lawn irrigation uses a lot of water and you may find yourself out of water until such time as your well fills again. If this happens, your water pump will attempt to draw water but will just suck up mud and sand from the bottom of your well with the end result likely being need for a new, super-expensive water pump.
During periods of drought, you'll need to be especially frugal with water use as the water aquafers will shift, go deeper, and some may just close down alltogether.
As one of the above posters indicated, during periods of electric power failure, you'll have no water for bathing, toilets, etc. Try to live without water for even one day and see what hardship that can be; imagine no water for a week or more...nasty!
On the positive side, as one of the other posters said, with well water, especially if you filter and soften it, you'll have great water at minimal expense until something breaks.
We used our well for 13 of the 15 years we've been here - we didn't really have a choice most of that time. We had a lot of iron in our water but we also had a very elaborate filtration system...had 3 or 4 tanks and a chlorinator. Lots of maintenance to it and cost us a few hundred dollars a year to maintain. Had to be backflushed monthly. After one of the hurricanes in '04, of course we were without water until power was restored. Our next door neighbor who was on a public water supply had water the entire time. So, before our next maintenance job, we forked out the money to hook up with the water company. Fortunately our water bill is very low and is actually quite a lot cheaper than what it cost to maintain our system. (It was a Culligan system, but not the salt system.)
Living with well water has it's good as well as it's not so good points. We've lived with a well for 30 years now and will be relocating by the end of the year to Florida or Texas. One criteria for our new house will be public water system...we just don't want to live with the hassles and unexpected expenses associated with well water. We'd also prefer to have water during power outages.
Well water quality varies greatly and can vary from house to house in the same neighborhood. If you are seeking quality water, I'd strongly suggest taking a sample of your water to a reputable water testing company or an independent laboratory. They willl be able to test your water for various suspended and dissolved impurities, bacteria, pH level, hardness, etc. They should be able to advise you on what type of water treatment system you will need, if any. Above and beyond their recommendations, I'd still suggest a whole house filtration system and a water softening system as this will give you more pure, and softened water which is better for bathing, cooking, laundry and your plumbing system, especially the hot water heater. A relatively small investment that will last years and provide much better water.
With a well, I would not suggest using it to water your lawn, and fill a pool. Lawn irrigation uses a lot of water and you may find yourself out of water until such time as your well fills again. If this happens, your water pump will attempt to draw water but will just suck up mud and sand from the bottom of your well with the end result likely being need for a new, super-expensive water pump.
During periods of drought, you'll need to be especially frugal with water use as the water aquafers will shift, go deeper, and some may just close down alltogether.
As one of the above posters indicated, during periods of electric power failure, you'll have no water for bathing, toilets, etc. Try to live without water for even one day and see what hardship that can be; imagine no water for a week or more...nasty!
On the positive side, as one of the other posters said, with well water, especially if you filter and soften it, you'll have great water at minimal expense until something breaks.
Invest in a Diesel generator and you'll be fine. I lived briefly in a rural area and had a well. The casing collapsed but I rigged up a mini-well drill and made a new one. I have no problem with having a well provided the water table is reliable and there's no big wells nearby sucking it down.
We used our well for 13 of the 15 years we've been here - we didn't really have a choice most of that time. We had a lot of iron in our water but we also had a very elaborate filtration system...had 3 or 4 tanks and a chlorinator. Lots of maintenance to it and cost us a few hundred dollars a year to maintain. Had to be backflushed monthly. After one of the hurricanes in '04, of course we were without water until power was restored. Our next door neighbor who was on a public water supply had water the entire time. So, before our next maintenance job, we forked out the money to hook up with the water company. Fortunately our water bill is very low and is actually quite a lot cheaper than what it cost to maintain our system. (It was a Culligan system, but not the salt system.)
You could use a small generator to run the water when needed, correct? I am sure it is going to take getting used to for someone who is used to it just being there when you want it. Although in the city it does come with some cost. We pay $2.00 sewer charge for every $1.00 of water making for a total of $3. If the water bill is $15.00 the sewer is another $30.00 making it $45.00 plus taxes and our garbage I pay about $110.00 a month. for water garbage and sewer. I am looking forward to the well.
I plan on also building some sort of gravity feed cistern (sp?) for other water uses. We also want some kind of self electric generation such as a wind generator or solar. Honestly some of what I want to do would be impractical for many people and not even cost effective but we are retired and it will be fun to do a house that is kind of a lab for this kind of stuff. I find it interesting.
I feel oddly out of place here, but I want to mention that we were living with a well when Hurricane Charley blew through, and we didn't have a generator so we were doubly miserable after the disaster and the horrors that come with a hurricane. Since our area was out of power for five days, we were also without running water (no showers or baths, no tap water to wash dishes or clean house with, no water for pets to drink, and no toilet flushing). Running water after a hurricane that wipes out power goes a long way. Trust me. Luckily, we had stocked up on bottles of drinking water, and when we ran out of the drinking water (which, yes, we did share with our pets, of course!), someone we knew who was living in the city limits who was not on a well took our bottles home and refilled them. We had bathing suits and plastic bags filled with soap and shampoo hanging on the doors leading outside, and luckily, it rained briefly every morning after Charley, and we "showered" in the rain with our bathing suits on. The day it didn't rain, we used every bottle of water that the good samaritan had filled for us to "shower" with. We don't ever want a well again after that, but that's just personal choice after that one experience.
FedUp - we had the same experience, only it was after both Frances and Jeanne. We had collected rainwater, so we bathed outside in our bathing suits. We had to go about 3-4 days each time.
Unfortunately I have no choice to hook up to city water here, we are all on wells. I really do need to get a generator in case this happens again, but we tend to procrastinate!
Other than that I am happy - back in Sarasota they used to charge us about $115.00 a mo. for water/sewer/garbage and that was for just the TWO of us, not even a dishwasher!
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Living with a well
