Anyone on well water? (Wells: houses, water heater, to buy)

[Mark S.]

If so, what's your experience with it?

How is the water quality?

Is it high maintenance?

How conservative do you have to be to keep the well from going dry?

I have relatives in the Pacific Northwest (the rainiest area of the country), and they had to super careful about showering and doing too many loads of laundry in a day. It wasn't unusual for the water to drop down to a trickle until they waited several hours for the well to refill. Did they just have an ancient system, or is this pretty typical for homes on well water?

[nalabama]

No, it’s not at all typical for homes on well water. If you have a good well and maintain the pump and pressure tank system you should not experience the problems that your relatives had. I have had two houses with wells and one with a cistern, all of which met all my needs.

[kevin5098]

I have a dug/shallow well. Water quality is good. Manganese levels are a little high, but potable. The jet pump system is very reliable. Even in drought periods the well has not run dry, and I use a lot of water for my animals (12-15 goats, llama, poultry). I am fortunate that the water table is normally fairly high.

[AustinB]

My well is fin. 130 ft. deep, 20+ gpm. Water is a little hard, but otherwise is fine. I've had to replace 1 pressure tank in 25 years, so no maintenance.

[Mark S.]

Thanks, all!

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

If so, what's your experience with it?

How is the water quality?

Is it high maintenance?

How conservative do you have to be to keep the well from going dry?

I have relatives in the Pacific Northwest (the rainiest area of the country), and they had to super careful about showering and doing too many loads of laundry in a day. It wasn't unusual for the water to drop down to a trickle until they waited several hours for the well to refill. Did they just have an ancient system, or is this pretty typical for homes on well water?

You just can't compare some individual private well in the PNW to another individual well across the continent! Wells can be as individual as the property they're located on. Quality, maintenance of the mechanics (depends on what components that well requires...type of pump, pressure tank, etc), discharge/recharge rates. In most if not all states wells need to be tested as part of a property sale. Testing results should be part of realty listing information. Usually includes recharge/discharge rate and potability. The water can easily be tested for hardness and other particulates before you make the decision to buy. Just because a well happens to be old doesn't mean it can't recharge well. There are wells that have been gushers for generations. There are wells that flow poorly during some seasons every year and vice versa.

[YorktownGal]

Make sure it's a private well with land around you. My sister and her neighbors each had their own well, but her neighbors were worried about the water table. They micromanaged everyone's water use - no watering grass, no washing cars, no power washing houses. My feeling is you don't want to live that close to people anyway.

Have a backup generator because when you lose electricity, the well stops working.

Make sure that your septic water and well water doesn't commingle.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

They micromanaged everyone's water use - no watering grass, no washing cars, no power washing houses.

Wow. If I had neighbors like that, I'd shower buck naked in the yard twice a day till they minded their own business.

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

My feeling is you don't want to live that close to people anyway.

Correct.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

If so, what's your experience with it?

We have owned multiple homes that have had private wells.

We like well water.

... How is the water quality?

Is it high maintenance?

How conservative do you have to be to keep the well from going dry?

water quality depends on the area where the well is located.

Most wells will run for decades without requiring any maintenance. We had one well that the installer had messed up the installation, 8 years later, it became a nightmare for us to diagnose the problem. But over one summer it got fixed, and that well works great today.

I have lived in areas where wells go dry. The most shallow aquifers go dry first. In an area with a lot of private wells, the house with a 40' well will run dry before any of the deep wells.

When we lived in Northern California, it seemed like clockwork that the shallower wells went dry in order. The locals could pretty much predict when each well was going to be dry.

... I have relatives in the Pacific Northwest (the rainiest area of the country), and they had to super careful about showering and doing too many loads of laundry in a day. It wasn't unusual for the water to drop down to a trickle until they waited several hours for the well to refill. Did they just have an ancient system, or is this pretty typical for homes on well water?

There are regions that are drought-prone. Regardless of how many inches of rain an area gets, if the aquifers go dry, all the wells will be dry.

There is a map I found one time, 'Municipal water stress' was the phrase they were using. Nationwide most municipalities have been dealing with severe water stress [the term used by city planners to describe city protocols when city wells go dry].

Fortunately Maine does not have that problem.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

One way to keep yourwell pump from cycling too often, is to place an old hot water heater beside your small pressure tank. That tank will allow your water pump to cycle very slowly. Saves on power and your water pressure does not vary much at all. If the power fails, you will have 20 or 30 flushes before your power comes back on.