We have running water again

[lizziegrace]

the new pump kept getting clogged with silt from removing the old pump. Once that resolved, we had brown, sputtering water in the house. The water has finally cleared up and the pressure on the first floor is like normal. Pressure on the second floor is not there yet. Hopefully it will resolve this weekend.

I did 9 loads of laundry at a laundromat today. It's a lot more expensive than I remember...

Thanks to all who answered my questions. My landlord is a city kid and he knows about as much as I do.

[lamp_shade]

1. Is it still 2 quarters to wash and 1 quarter to dry?

:hi:

[lizziegrace]

3. Hehe!

Try minimum of $1.50 to wash (I used the high capacity washers for $2.75) and a quarter in the dryer got you 6 minutes of drying time.

:hi:

[ejpoeta]

2. we had to replace the water pump this past summer. when i say we i mean

my hubby. the thought of having to go to a laundromat makes me cringe. yuck! but it beats beating clothes on a rock. i am glad you got it fixed.

[lizziegrace]

4. Me too

at one point yesterday, the guy from the well company said the well was dry. I thought I was going to pass out...

[ejpoeta]

5. i don't blame you. i don't trust those repair people. we weren't intending to

have to replace the pump, but they were doing something else there and my brother in law 'wiggled' something and it broke. but it led us to find that we had a serious problem with our pump. and we had all that dirt and stuff coming out of the tap after it was replaced. yech.

[lizziegrace]

6. Isn't that disgusting?

I don't cook or drink the well water. We're surrounded by farm fields and I'm sure the pesticides and chemicals in the well would make us sick. Not to mention, I have family members in the Monongahela Valley south of Pittsburgh who have died from all kinds of rare cancers because the plants spewed chemicals into the air and contaminated the water. Call me paranoid, but I have reason to be.

The water is clear and the pressure is still not close to adequate. A booster pump might be the next step.

My old house:

[ejpoeta]

7. we have a bladder pump i think. not sure what it's called

to give us pressure. I know they ran town water down the road but not as far as us. We believe it's because the dairy farm poisoned all the wells near the farm. But I bet the taxpayer and those people who got the city water ended up paying for it. I wish they would run it down here though. We have a water softener and an RO unit to make our water drinkable. There is a lot of iron in our water. so the culligan man said anyway. I grew up with well water, but this stuff untreated is not drinkable.

[bvar22]

8. Hi, Lizzie.

Followed your problem on the edge of my seat.
We are dependent on our well here (Ouachita Mtns, Arkansas), and I have a deep fear of something going wrong with it. I didn't realize HOW strong that fear was until one day, water didn't come out of the faucet. It was near panic provoking.
Luckily, it was just the power being out at the well (which is on a different line than our house).
Everything that makes living here worthwhile depends on that well.

We use it to irrigate Summer crops on our hillside.
During the Summer dry months we run it wide open all day.
Without the well, everything would have dried up and blown away this Summer.

We have been lucky.
So far, no problems.

I'm glad to see that your problem has been resolved.
:hi:

[lizziegrace]

9. LOVE your garden!

I watered mine only twice this year because it was so dry and I was afraid I'd drain the well.

I learned a few things on this 5 day odyssey to get running water again.

First, turn off the both the inflow and outflow valves to your hot water tank until the water problem is resolved and the cold water runs clear. I have a 60 gallon hot water tank and it would have taken forever to clear the tank. Not to mention all the silt collecting at the bottom.

Then start at the beginning. Check all the electrical lines and make sure there's power to the well pump. In my case, there was power to the well house and to the pump, but the pump wouldn't cycle. And don't believe the guy from the well company who says your well is dry. It really wasn't...

Once the new pump was in place, all the silt stirred up kept clogging it. A nylon knee-high is now secured over the intake of the pump, so I'm told.

If there's pressure to the inline filters (the ones that filter the water coming in from the well) but no pressure anywhere in the house, either the filter is clogged and/or the wrong filter is installed. Found out both the hard way. Just because a filter was in there before the pump failed doesn't mean it was the correct filter. I have no idea how we had water... Oh, and replace any and all gaskets when you replace the filters. Otherwise, they leak all over the basement. I know this for a fact. I have the smelly laundry piled on the basement floor to prove it.

To re-pressurize the lines, start in the basement (I ran my washer through a cold water cycle) and move up. The kitchen and a half bath on the first floor were next. The upstairs bath was last. And be prepared to give it some time. Took a while to get the air out of the lines and the water will be nasty for a while. Change the filter again once the water is clear. I can guarantee you it will clog up.

Open up the valves again on your hot water tank once everything's normal.


:hi:


If you have any questions, PM me.

[lizziegrace]

10. Would rain barrels and drip irrigation hoses be an option for you:

I'm going to try that this year. Always have the hose dripping in the flower beds whenever the rain barrels are full.

[bvar22]

11. Those are both really good suggestions.

Thanks!
:hi: