Brown water all of the sudden in the middle of winter!

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ONMOMOF4

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Hi everyone.

I have a dug well in a 16 y/o house which we've lived in for 3 years. In the last month, we've had the water turn brown on us twice (first time in 3 years). The 2nd time being about 3 hours ago.

Water is brown and appears gritty vs. iron/brown coloring. The pump in our basement seems to be working overly much too - cycing on for ~20 seconds then off for ~4 seconds for the last 1/2 hour or so.

The 1st time this happened, the brown water went away on its own fairly quickly (multiple flushes with both toilets seemed to do the trick). I've tried flushing it out this time, but to no avail.

I know this is a DIY forum, but I am utterly hopeless with this type of thing. What is the best course of action? Could the well be running dry and sucking up the silt from the bottom? Or perhaps there was ice build-up inside the well (we've had a couple of -30C weather days recently) that has now peeled off and stirred up a bunch of sediment? Or could the well be pooched and need to be flushed through and/or redug?

I don't want to call someone in without knowing where I stand and what to expect (typical reasons and $$ to fix).

TIA.
 
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Your pump cycling off and on like that indicates a real problem. It could be a hole in the pipe in the well. The well pump pumps to get to its cut-off pressure and shuts off but then the hole in the pipe quicky loses the pressure and the pump has to kick on and start again. The leak could also be a bad leak in the yard line or somewhere else. Basement? Somewhere a lot of water is going. I would turn off the electricity to the pump and watch the pressure gauge. If it falls rapidly, you've got a leak. If the pressure gauge doesn't work, open a faucet and see if the pressure goes downhill too quickly. The rusty color is sometimes caused by galvanized steel water lines freezing after a period of not freezing. The cold can shrink the steel more than normal and break loose the rust inside the pipe. I wouldn't run the pump at all if it cycles like you said. It will burn out with that kind of repetition. Then again, if a lot of water has been pouring out a burst pipe outside the well, the discolored water could be unsettled water rushing into the well bore because of the constant pumping depleting the water level in the well casing. I would turn off the pump immediately. Let it cool, then check the pressure loss after the pump kicks off. Sorry.
 

ONMOMOF4

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Turned the pump off for the night

Thanks for the reply.

I turned the pump off for the night as I suspected it may cause damage to the pump from all that cycling. This morning, I plugged it back in and it went on continuously for ~10 minutes and supported 2 flushes, then all water pressure has gone (taps are not producing at all now).

So I've unplugged the pump.

My take from your comment is that this may not be as simple as calling in a water truck to refill the well, and that I should have someone come out and check the pump lines in the well first?

Our house is a raised bungalow, so there has been no water leaking into the basement. However, we have recently (last few weeks) started parking a 6' x 10' closed trailor (~3500 lbs) on the lawn area outside that runs between the well and the house. The line into the house must be underground somewhere as I've never seen it, but I'm now wondering if the weight is pinching or compressing the feed into the house in some way?

Any suggestions on who I should call out to have a look at this instead of having it simply refilled by the local water tanker service?

Thanks!
 

Gary Slusser

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I don't think the well is 'dry' although it may be, it is more likely that you may have a freeze problem or a leak in the drop pipe or the pump is running with a worn impeller or blocked jet. You could have a fitting that is allowing air to be sucked in and that will cause no water. That can happen without any evidence of a water leak at the fitting.

The trailer shouldn't be able to damage a water line that's buried below the frost line in Canada.

The best to call is a pump guy, a well driller or only a plumber that is capable of pulling the drop pipe out of the well.
 

Ballvalve

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Short cycling and a burst of brown usually means the bladder in the pressure tank has blown. Parts could be blocking the flow to fixtures at a valve. Which can be intermittent and unpredictable.

If its the well, dumping water in it wont help.
 

ONMOMOF4

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Update:

After contacting half a dozen well drilling professionals, we were advised that there was nobody in the area with dug-well, jet pump experience that was available to help us. After some deliberation, we decided to have the well filled hoping that the cause of the pump short-cycling was due to the low water levels - essentially we had bled the well dry or close-to-dry. Turns out that our tenant had a running toilet and faucet for the last several months, and we know our toilet was prone to running as well. We hoped that it was plausible that these factors, along with it being a dry season (winter months), was the root cause.

It took a long time to prime the pump again, but it finally went. During that process, a lot of rust was dislodged from the pump. Water was flowing again but all the well silt and rust from the pump has clogged up the piping throughout the house. There is now flakes of rust and debris in all our water which is gumming up the plumbing in the faucets, toilets and showers.

The good news is that the pump is no longer short-cycling or cycling without water running. I'm told this, coupled with water pressure being good again, proves out the theory that it wasn't a leak in the foot valve as we originally had feared...??

I'm now looking for advice on how to get rid of the crud that's currently in our plumbing system? Should we attempt to flush it out - looks to be collecting and clogging at the exit sites (tap nozzle's, etc.)? I'm overly sensitive now about running the well dry, but have no idea how to clear our pipes without flushing it through.

TIA.
 

ONMOMOF4

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That's what we're going to do. Anybody have suggestions on where to install the filter? We're thinking of putting it just before the water softener.
 

Gary Slusser

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The loss of pressure in the system and pouring water into the well broke loose rust and dirt. You should have allowed things to settle and then run the water out an outside faucet until clear instead to all the fixtures, and probable septic system. I'd be careful of running a lot of water from two households into a septic system.

Most any filter you install will block up fairly quickly but install it ahead of the softener and then do a manual regeneration to get rid of dirt/rust in it now. It should have been by passed until the water ran clear.
 

ONMOMOF4

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First off, let me say how appreciative I am for all the welcome advice. It's certainly heartening to have input from everyone on something so new to us!

Here's the latest in the drama....we had installed the filter after the pump and pressure tank, but before the softener. We're emptying it daily and accumulating close to 1 cup of unusual (at least to us) tiny beads that look almost dark rustish in colour but do not react to the magnet at all. They're all shaped the same ... tiny, dark black mini-beads with a hint of rust colour. It's been over a week since we had the well filled, so would have thought the debris would have slowed down by now.

Our symptoms now include low water pressure throughout the house, continued mini-beads and today we moved the filter to before the pressure tank and softener so are now seeing silt and mini-beads that had accumulated in the pressure tank coming through our fixtures.

Wondering if we need to replace the pressure tank? We've tried flushing it with close to 125 gallons of water.

I would have also expected to see dirt come through or even rust particles, but not these tiny mini-beads. I have no idea what they are....if they were rust, you'd think they would be picked up by the strong magnet we swished through them?

We've tried to flush the pressure tank, putting ~40 pressure cycles through it and emptying it into a bucket.
 

Gary Slusser

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If there was any vacuum put of the softener when you ran out of water in the well, it could easily break the distributor tube in the softener and dump (suck out) the teeny resin beads back out of the softener into the pressure tank and down the drop pipe in the well. That can also easily collapse/crack the resin tank.

Resin will melt or burn.
 

ONMOMOF4

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Wow. I never would have considered that.

Thanks Gary.

Any suggestions on what our next step should be ? Is this when we break down and call in a professional ... well driller? plumber? water softener company? God?

We've been trying to avoid spending lots of $$ as we were intending on trying to list the house this year to sell.
 

Gary Slusser

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Bypass the softener and see if you can identify the stuff as resin. If it is, take it apart and check the distributor tube for cracks or splits, you can buy a new one for like $10-20. You can buy a new tank and resin too, or a new softener.

Getting resin out of plumbing and fixtures/appliances can be a nightmare and the best way is the use air or water to flush it out backward and then forward through the plumbing.
 
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