Our well was drilled in 2003.
840 ft. deep
Pump set at 560 ft.
4.5 inch PVC casing
1.5inch PVC schedule 120 pipe
Lab tested the well - Pure water, PH 8.2 no iron – just good drinking water.
Only issue in the past was hydrogen sulfide smell under high usage during summer watering season. We chlorinate the well a couple times a year. Testing for bacterial show negative results.

Over the years we have had a couple tanks fail, start capacitor, pressure switch and this last time we had a broken PVC pipe a few feet above the pump. On recommendation from the service company the PVC was changed to 1.5 inch galvanized pipe because of the PVC crack.

Since the well was repaired we have had terrible problems with Iron in the water.
If we open a hose and flush about 100 gallons then no iron is detected. After a couple days and the iron is back.

We bought a lab iron kit and we can watch the iron climb from 0 – 0.6 scale on the kit. The water starts smelling, has a greenish haze and the taste is bad. Flush about 100 gallons through the system (3-4 pump cycles) and all is good.

Until we put the steel pipe in we haven’t seen this iron problem. I would assume that for many years steel galvanized pipe has been use with water with no problems.

It’s $7000 to change the pipe back to PVC and that’s a lots not knowing for sure that will fix this problem. To top this off the local guy is trying to sell us an $5000 Iron filter system.

I am at wits end on what to do.
Any advice?

 

Google "backflush iron filter" and you should find one for less than $1500. Install it yourself or have a plumber do it. I have had one on a well for about 5 years and it works well. Depending on water usage, it must backflush from once a day to about once a week. It will dump a significant amount of water during backflush so you will have to have a place for that to go.

 

I'm sorry to hear of all the trouble you've had with this well. Up here, a 10 year old well would still be considered "new". There must be major regional differences in well drilling materials and techniques that I was not aware of.

I'm in Real Estate, and most all of the properties I deal with have on-site potable water and sewage disposal systems. I've sold well over 1000 dwellings; but dealt with hundreds of others.

For drilled wells, we normally see a 6" Cast Iron Pipe Casing, and an EDPM (or Black Polyethylene Plastic) water line, often drawn from one continuous coil with no couplings or unions, from the pump up to the well head. Despite our colder weather, I've never heard of the EDPM cracking, and despite what might be hundreds of feet of Iron Pipe Casing, little or no Iron in the water once the system has been in operation for a few days.

With your permission, I may just pass your symptoms by one of my local Well Drillers and see if they have ever heard of such problems as you're encountering. Why do you suppose you have a pH reading so alkaline as 8.2 ?

And what were you told was the cause of your Pressure Tanks meeting such early deaths ?

 

I have had a local lab run full test on the system when it was installed. Full test was just less than $500. Our aquifer is called Wilcox. We have checked PH several times and it consistently checks 8.1/8.2

The first pressure tank had a broken bladder. The second one we just replaced was done because we thought it had a broken bladder – it turned out the tank was good. We were obviously didn’t need to replace it, at one point we thought it was source of the iron.

I would be happy for any input. I am going to talk with some other well service company’s next week in the next county to see if they have any assistance. Appreciate your feedback.

 

Do not, repeat do not, buy the $5000 iron filter. That is outrageous but unfortunately par for the course in the water treatment snake oil market. I have several issues with our well water including lots of iron, iron bacteria (not hazardous but can clog pipes) and acid water (pH about 6). I got an acid neutralizer, chemical feed pump (to kill the iron bacteria) and a backwashing iron filter all for about $2500, another $500 for the plumber to install it all.

If you just need the iron filter you can get it for 1000 to 1500 depending on the size/number of people in your house. There are many sources online, I got mine from 'budgetwater' and was very happy with their service. They will not try to upsell you. An iron filter is really just a tank with media that chelates the iron (am I remembering my high school chemistry correctly?). As mentioned above, it will need a drain as it needs to backflush once or twice a week (basically wash the media and discharge the effluent, which is not harmful to septics in the way a softener can be). Good luck!

 

I suspect that the installation of the galvanized pipe in the well has caused the iron in your water. You said that there was no problem with iron prior to the installation so it leads me to believe that with a pH of over 8.0 is causing the pipe to corrode. If allowed to continue the pipe will start leaking in the future.

There are special applications for deep wells that need a "plastic" pipe instead of galvanized iron pipe. Installation of torque arresters will keep the pump from twisting and stop "plastic pipe" failure.

Water problems, Water pollutants, Water pollution, Water impurities, Bad Water, The Water Company (A division of Porta Via Water Company, LLC) Toll Free 877-262-5191, International 316-262-5191

This link will give you a good idea of what your water is doing.