I have a question i hope someone will be able to answer for me. i have well water at my home and for the past 3 months my water has been going off for as long as 30 minutes at a time. eventually it does come back on. but when it does you can hear the water gurgling through the hot water heater and the water pipes. i have no idea what the problem is. we do have a well and a pump. so does anyone have any ideas on what the problem might be and how it could be fixed. thank you so much for any help you can offer.
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Do you know how dep the well is, and far far down: your pump is, if it’s a submersible pump, or – how far down your foot valve is if the pump is above ground? There are at least 2 possibilities, 1. the water level in the area has dropped below your reach, or 2, your well casing (if it’s cased all the way down, has become plugged up in the little holes in the casing where new water comes in as you pump water out. The gurgling you hear is air in the water lines that was forced in when the water lever dropped below the water pick-up (pump or foot valve). Do you have a pressure tank that the water gets pumped into from the well? There isn’t much that you can do by yourself, if there is room in the well below your water pick-up point, you might be able to lower the pump or foot valve further down in the well to have a larger reservoir of water above the pick up so when you pump water out, you’ll get more before dropping the level down below the eater surface in the well. I think you need a well guy.
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Sounds like your water level may be dropping. It pumps out, and then takes a little while to rise again. You’ll probably want to call a professional to check the water level and the pump, to be sure.
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Your water table, like everyone else’s, has dropped due to industrial pumping, and overuse from increasing
population. When usage on your water table is up, the water drops down, and allows air into the pump. Then, when you begin pumping, after the well has filled back with decreased usage, that air is forced into your system, causing the gurgling.
There are two solutions.
1) Have the present well deepened.
2) Drill a new, deeper well.
Most drillers will not deepen a well. They insist on drilling a new one.
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Is this the same reasoning behind brown well water? One of my outside spiquets is connected to city water, the other to well. Towards the end of the summer last year, under drought conditions, the well water turned brown. I’ve used this well for around 15 years now and have never seen mud/dirt in the water, and most of our summers see periods of drought. Could there be a reason other than overuse? How involved in the process of diverting the spiquet from well to city water supply?
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When brown water comes out of a water line, it is usually coming through old, rusted water piping. Over
time the flow of water wears the zinc from the inside of the pipe, and the pipe begins to rust. When enough
rusting has occurred, the rust begins to dissolve in the water. This is worst when there is rapid or interupted flow.
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I don’t really know about the brown water, but if I had those options, I’d connect the two water supplies together and with 2 or 3 valves, you could shut off or turn on either of them. Now you’d have back-up in case the city water ever has a problem, and maybe have the option of using the well water for irrigation or whatever. I havn’t drawn out a plan, but it should be really simple.
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I would advise caution on ED’s suggestion. If not done correctly you could have well water backflowing into the city system. The best prevention for this and what is probably required by your city is to install a check valve or backflow preventer on the end of uor city supply before the spiquet.