Sand in water system after restart

[Don Smith]

Shut system down for first time in 20 years as I was away for 4 months
Noted some silt/sand coming out when I drained the system at the end.....from bladder tank perhaps, well had been shut down
Well is a deep well, put in about 25 years ago, has always worked fine
Pressure tank is a Well Mate, from 2004
At start up a few weeks ago I noted a bit of dirty water at the start and felt it was the pipes cleaning themselves out

I ran the sprinkler for a few hours and then noted silt in the toilet bowl after flushing

This is not constant, but will stay for a few flushes

 

[Reach4]

Run the water outside for a while to wash out the sediment.

You might want to sanitize your well and plumbing if you have not done so for a while. http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing is my favorite method.

I would add a whole house filter for the house water. I like the 4.5 x 20 Pentek housings. I would start with a Pentek DGD-5005-20 filter element/cartridge, but there are a lot of filters available in that size. A 3-valve bypass around the filter is best, but I did not do that. I just keep an extra O-ring to keep things going in case an O-ring needs replacing when I replace a cartridge.

 

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[Valveman]

Yeah running the sprinklers does not get the pressure low enough and the volume high enough to clean the sand out of the well and water lines. Run the pipe wide open for a while and it should flush the sand out.