dave0h20
New Member
My house is currently on municipal water, and I am contemplating switching over to well. One of my biggest deciding factors is if switching to well will be financially worth it, and if I will be satisfied with my well water which I know will need some kind of conditioning. Last year I spent approximately $600 on municipal water. The rates go up regularly, so this annual cost will continue to grow. On average, I use around 3500 gallons of water per month. Now here is some info on my well:
180' deep well, currently operating as a shallow well hookup (I have a high water table)
1.5hp MacDonald shallow well pump
Flow rate is around 29/gal per minute...yes I know thats really high and more water than I will ever need
ph 7.6
iron 0.3 (not sure what type of iron or if there is iron bacteria. I get rust stains and the water has a yellow tinge to it)
manganese unknown at this time
TDS 200
General Hardness 214.8
Carbonate Hardness 196.9
phosphates: 0
nitrates: 0
nitrites: 0
My biggest problems with my well water are a rotten egg smell which is mild to moderate compared to some well water i've smelled. Also rust staining on my sidewalks and around hose bibs (currently use the well for irrigation only.) I know the hardness would definitely need to be addressed if I were to switch my house to well water. I've looked at several iron filter backwashing systems that claim to have very low annual operating costs. I know I will also need a softening system and I'm not sure what annual operating cost will be on that. One other factor that I have thought about is electricity cost for operating the pump. I don't think it will be very high, and I also have a 1.0 hp goulds shallow well pump I could put on since the 1.5hp Macdonald is producing more water than I could ever dream of. A finally, a major reason why I would like to switch over to well water is because I absolutely despise the water authority and would almost rather invest in a good system and provide my household its own water than buy it from them. Thank you for reading and I really appreciate any thoughts on cost effectiveness of switching to well and treating it. Also any suggestions on systems that might work well for my situation. One last thing...any suggestions on any labs that do good comprehensive testing on well water. Thank you
180' deep well, currently operating as a shallow well hookup (I have a high water table)
1.5hp MacDonald shallow well pump
Flow rate is around 29/gal per minute...yes I know thats really high and more water than I will ever need
ph 7.6
iron 0.3 (not sure what type of iron or if there is iron bacteria. I get rust stains and the water has a yellow tinge to it)
manganese unknown at this time
TDS 200
General Hardness 214.8
Carbonate Hardness 196.9
phosphates: 0
nitrates: 0
nitrites: 0
My biggest problems with my well water are a rotten egg smell which is mild to moderate compared to some well water i've smelled. Also rust staining on my sidewalks and around hose bibs (currently use the well for irrigation only.) I know the hardness would definitely need to be addressed if I were to switch my house to well water. I've looked at several iron filter backwashing systems that claim to have very low annual operating costs. I know I will also need a softening system and I'm not sure what annual operating cost will be on that. One other factor that I have thought about is electricity cost for operating the pump. I don't think it will be very high, and I also have a 1.0 hp goulds shallow well pump I could put on since the 1.5hp Macdonald is producing more water than I could ever dream of. A finally, a major reason why I would like to switch over to well water is because I absolutely despise the water authority and would almost rather invest in a good system and provide my household its own water than buy it from them. Thank you for reading and I really appreciate any thoughts on cost effectiveness of switching to well and treating it. Also any suggestions on systems that might work well for my situation. One last thing...any suggestions on any labs that do good comprehensive testing on well water. Thank you