Artesian low flow - Help

[Sammyhydro11]

I would recommend pumping this well first before attempting any kind of acid treatment. There might not even be a screen on the end of that pipe to surge.I also don't think its a wise idea on my part to recommend use of acid to someone that has no experience with it.

Willy,
try pumping that well with a trash pump or hand pump.

SAM

 

[Leejosepho]

I also don't think its a wise idea on my part to recommend use of acid to someone that has no experience with it.

Agreed, and since even having it around at all can be dangerous, I would be hesitant about using straight liquid myself. On a job site many years ago, I once reached for a drink from my gallon (milk) jug of water and nearly took a big gulp from the masons' muratic-acid jug that looked identical to mine. However, these pellets we are talking about "won't irritate dry skin" and are actually quite safe to use as long as they go in dry via dry hands and waterproof gloves and common-sense eye protection and remain in the well until the end of the entire process. At that point, the chemically-altered and well-diluted solution would have to be ingested to cause any great harm. Also, the info sheet says this kind of treatment "will not result in a violation of federal standards on water purity".

Also, I just remembered something in reference to SpeedBump's comment:

The well I treated several years ago was a shallow 1-1/4", and I did have a little trouble with the pellets not having enough room or water or whatever to keep from sticking together in a soft clog after I had dumped quite a few at one time. To resolve that dilemma, I slowed my dump rate quite a bit and used a smaller piece of pipe to keep them from clumping again.

If I might ask: How would using a pump to try to draw water from the well possibly clear it if it is clogged? The partially-plugged well I treated several years ago already had a pump on it when/while it slowed.

 

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[Sammyhydro11]

This well never having a pump on it,probably has alot of silt plugging whatever opening the water is traveling through. Its most likely loose material becuase there has never been any serious pumping action packing the silt against a screen or slowly building up in a seem.I'll bet just pumping it alone will break loose that material. That's my guess and wont know unless you try it.

SAM

 

[Speedbump]

Finding out if it has a screen or not would be my first priority.

I treated a lot of 4" wells many years ago with Nu-Well. If I couldn't get the well to drink water, pouring ten gallons of Nu-well didn't have any effect. The well must be able to drink some water to put the solution out into the material around the screen which is also plugged with iron, sulphur, hardness etc. That is why I recommend keeping a flow of water past the tablets to not only get the solution out past the screen, but to keep dissolving the tablets.

Think of these tablets as salt pellets. One gallon of water will dissolve 2.5 lbs of salt (don't quote me on the exact amount, this is an example). Same with the Nu-Well tablets. Once the solution gets to a saturation point, no more pellets are going to dissolve until more water is induced.

bob...

 

[Willy]

Leejosepho, thanks for digging up instruction information and providing your insight on using the Nu-Well tablets. This morning I found a supplier that would ship.

RA Mort Supply
(800) 245-4172
(269) 926-6107
Fax (269) 926-2260
info@ramortsupply.com
Jim Sharma

I'll have to wait and see if it makes it. Thanks for checking at your end and offer a shipping route.

I think I have the concept for the tablets. You have to move the water back and forth across the screen to disolve the tablets and to get the acid to work all the way through and around the screen.

So this is my approach.

• Evacuate some of the water in the pipe to allow the tablets to be dropped in.
• Cap the top of the well and allow time for them to settle to the bottom - 24 hours.
• Next day "surge" the water back and forth through the screen with a hand or trash pump.
• Use water from cistern to pump back down pipe and push silt etc away from bottom of pipe.

Anything else?

 

[Speedbump]

You want the water to run down the well not up. Surging means pulling the water up a ways and letting it drop or pushing it down hard. Then repeat. It won't take the tablets 24 hours to get to the bottom. Maybe 3 minutes. Don't put them in fast (like leejosepho said) or they will clump together and bridge somewhere in the casing before the screen.

Silt will not be pushed down out of the way, there is nowhere for it to go in a screened well. It would have to be pumped up and out of the well. I'm not sure where silt would come from anyway in a well that has been flowing for years.

bob...

 

[Bob NH]

http://www.wcponline.com/PDF/1201improvingwells.pdf

You can get some idea by Googling "acid well cleaning".

If you use acid, you need to get the acid down to the point where the inlet is plugged. A small plastic line down to the level of the plugged area will allow you do deposit the liquid acid to where it will work.

You might clean out a lot of stuff by injecting a high flow of water down the well through a pipe and let it come up and carry stuff out of the well.

 

[Leejosepho]

I think I have the concept for the tablets. You have to move the water back and forth across the screen to disolve the tablets and to get the acid to work all the way through and around the screen.

Yes, that is essentially correct. Consider again some (and actually all) of what SpeedBump has said:

The well must be able to drink some water to put the solution out into the material around the screen which is also plugged with iron, sulphur, hardness etc. ...
Once the solution gets to a saturation point, no more pellets are going to dissolve until more water is induced.

If you have any flow at all coming out now, that means your well will be able to "drink some water" if you force some in against its natural pressure and flow. So, you need to first evacuate as much as 10 or 15 minutes of "free time" (before the casing again fills), if possible, for introducing the pellets. Then after the pellets are in and the well is capped and everything sits for a few hours (or even overnight), you need to be able to force some clean water into the well and attempt to surge it down and back up for a while.

Are you very handy at "making things happen"?

Later this evening or tomorrow I can try to write this out in more detail if necessary, but if I was doing that work on your well, I would cap your well (when it is time) with a tee configured to do everything you need to do ...

Rig your regular water pump and pressure tank to force a few gallons of your cinstern water through a check valve going into a tee on the top of your well, then stop that flow and open a valve at the other port of that tee to release about the same amount of water from the well casing. The water you let back out will be the water you first forced in, so you will only need to use common-sense precautions there. But in doing that, you will be agitating and surging the acid and whatever at the bottom of your well ... and after going to all this work to set everything up, I would do that like every 15 minutes for 3 or 4 hours before opening the valve at the tee for the final time to see whether your well is going to again produce and flush itself.

Also, what Bob said about sticking something like a long 1" pipe (open on the end) to the bottom of your well to then "inject a high flow of water" would be a great way to give your well a good flush to remove all the little chunks of scale from the bottom after it has been cleared. Looking back, I now see (from the sediment in my filter housing) that I should have also done that myself a couple of months or so ago. I have never actually seen that done, but I believe that is the "jetting" you should probably not do until after the acid has been naturally pushed back up and out of your well.

 

[Leejosepho]

... sticking something like a long 1" pipe (open on the end) to the bottom of your well to then "inject a high flow of water" ...

Oops! Forget about that final part on your own! I just realized any pump you or I might easily access is not going to have anywhere near enough pressure to push water that far down through an injection pipe. Someone such as a well driller would have to do that with a high-pressure setup. However, and since you had mentioned your well normally producing something similar to the flow of a garden hose, any pressure greater than that (such as with your own 40-50 psi pump) should be able to force water down from the top of your well to help agitate it, even if somewhat slowly ... right, guys?

 

[Speedbump]

Sure a jet pump can do that as long as he has a supply of water to be pumped.

I think it would be just as easy to pump the flowing well with the original pump to clear it up. If the acid works, he should be able to flow water at the pumps full capacity. That should pull any silt, minerals or whatever is in the bottom up and out.

bob...

 

[Leejosepho]

Okay, Willy, you should be good to go ...

Keep us posted, eh?!