What is this?

[mpelf]

My house is on a well and we have a very old 1/2 H.P. F & W shallow well jet pump (I think). I can't find any info online about the pump to be sure of that, but that's a question for another day. There is what appears to be some kind of filter connected to the pump discharge line about a foot above the pump. The valve before the inlet of the "filter" has been off since I have owned the property, so not sure when it was last used. The only place for water to exit the "filter" is what looks like (2) 1/4" openings, one at the top of the "filter" and one at the bottom. The opening at the top has a tube that is connected to the suction pipe near the inlet of the pump, and the opening at the bottom has a tube that is not connected to anything, but I assume it was connected to something at some point. I can't find anything online that resembles this set up. The pump and everything is operating as it should, just curious what this is as I don't know much about filters/strainers or other pump accessories.

 

[Valveman]

Maybe some kind of chemical dosing equipment.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Possibly calcite was put in to raise the pH?

 

[mpelf]

Maybe some kind of chemical dosing equipment.

Thanks for the reply. That would make sense based on how it is set up. Any idea why that would be on a pump supplying water to a house? Is that common?

 

[Fitter30]

Delete

 

[Valveman]

A lot of old cast iron pumps are still being used for potable water. Chlorine, Hydrogen peroxide, Calcite, or other things could have been added to the water as needed. Have you got a water test to see what you are working with?

 

[mpelf]

A lot of old cast iron pumps are still being used for potable water. Chlorine, Hydrogen peroxide, Calcite, or other things could have been added to the water as needed. Have you got a water test to see what you are working with?

I did an at home well water test kit that I bought on Amazon, it measured pH, manganese, hydrogen sulfide,, nitrate, nitrite, total hardness, and total alkalinity. Also had a bacteria test included which was negative. pH was fine (6.5), alkalinity was high (240ish mg/l), hardness was high (250ish mg/l), manganese was .1 mg/l, not really sure what that means. and both the nitrate and nitrite were 0 mg/l. Is there something else I should test for or do?

 

[Valveman]

If there is nothing in it that will kill you, smell and taste are the real tests.

But I can't tell what they would have been injecting. Looks like it was injecting into the inlet side of the pump. Like Fitter said it is a cast iron pump so they couldn't have been injecting anything very caustic. You can always set up injection latter if/when you decide what needs to be injected.

 

[2stupid2fixit]

The spattering of white stuff on the outside of the canister tells my useless chemistry education that you are seeing a salt evaporation. Without being able to take a sample of the dripped water where the salt has remained, It could be sodium chloride (table salt), calcium chloride, potassium chloride etc. You would need to get a total water analysis of what minerals are actually IN the pumped water now to reverse engineer the way the installer attempted to "correct" your "hard" water. It looks like a primitive water softening system with an on-demand control... my best guess is that it was setup to dump a softening salt brine (think culligan) to a specific point of use, the dosing container is quite small. I don't remember what I just read, but is your setup directly plumbed straight to a bath/shower? I use quotes like "hard water" because later, I would have to explain there is no such thing, its a human problem. Hard water is the same as powdered water. It's just that "hard" water has things like lots of calcium or iron in it. We attempt to adjust it to our liking. Anyhow that sort of dosing system should have been plumbed to only shower, bath or laundry in my opinion.

 

[mpelf]

The spattering of white stuff on the outside of the canister tells my useless chemistry education that you are seeing a salt evaporation. Without being able to take a sample of the dripped water where the salt has remained, It could be sodium chloride (table salt), calcium chloride, potassium chloride etc. You would need to get a total water analysis of what minerals are actually IN the pumped water now to reverse engineer the way the installer attempted to "correct" your "hard" water. It looks like a primitive water softening system with an on-demand control... my best guess is that it was setup to dump a softening salt brine (think culligan) to a specific point of use, the dosing container is quite small. I don't remember what I just read, but is your setup directly plumbed straight to a bath/shower? I use quotes like "hard water" because later, I would have to explain there is no such thing, its a human problem. Hard water is the same as powdered water. It's just that "hard" water has things like lots of calcium or iron in it. We attempt to adjust it to our liking. Anyhow that sort of dosing system should have been plumbed to only shower, bath or laundry in my opinion.

The set up is plumbed to the entire house. Runs into the pressure tank first obviously, then branches off to the rest of the house. Maybe the previous owner turned it on and off with that ball valve when he wanted to use it with certain things. I was hoping maybe it was a filter of some kind (though the setup and placement wouldn't make sense for that) and i could clean it and use it, but from the replies it sounds like it's definitely some kind of chemical injector. Probably would be best off to remove it and put something new in if needed. My best guess is the pump and chemical tub are probably 30 years old.

 

[Reach4]

Calcite may or may not have been the media, but the reason to have it is to make the water less acid. Acidic water is harder on metal plumbing, for one thing.