Sand/Sediment in well water

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Travis11

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Hi all. Just yesterday I flushed a toilet and had murky dark cloudy water in the bowl. Same was in all fixtures in house except reverse osmosis water. Well is 1.5 years old installed with a single family new construction home. I noticed my sprinkler system having a pulsing pressure earlier that same day (which normally has great pressure). I have not had issues since install of well. Well is approx. 265 feet deep. I have the installers coming to have a look today. Any guesses as what is going on?
 

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New construction year and a half old, the installer needs to figure this out and make it right. Pulsing pressure makes me think the tank is waterlogged, which could also stir up the sand. But I don't even know if you have a regular pressure tank/pressure switch type system?
 

Travis11

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New construction year and a half old, the installer needs to figure this out and make it right. Pulsing pressure makes me think the tank is waterlogged, which could also stir up the sand. But I don't even know if you have a regular pressure tank/pressure switch type system?
All I know is I have a constant pressure system? Just a small tank mounted to wall where line comes in. Is hooked to an electronic adjustable pressure controller I believe.
 

Travis11

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Yeah that VFD type pump system is most likely the problem. Hope it is still under warranty?
I don't know. Waiting for well guy to get here. I just got home from work and ran thr tap water for a few minutes. Filled a glass and it appears much clearer. I also should mention they are repaving the road and actually had the house minority shaking yesterday. Not sure if this has anything to do with it but the well is only about 50 yards from where they were working.
 

Travis11

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Well, well guy never showed up. Called and told me to run hose for a few hours. It's running and I notice pressure pulsing from 38 to 44 over and over. Hose has little air pockets here and there. I can hear the water pumping inside basement, does not sound like a steady flow. Psi on the machine is set to 60. Who knows
 

Reach4

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Running out of water would usually happen after you have been drawing water for a while.
 

shane21

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I agree with Reach4 that the problem sounds a lot like the symptoms of a well running out of water. If well isn't running out of water the pulsating pressure is most likely due to the pressure tank not having the proper amount of air in it but that still wouldn't explain the discolored water.

Does the system pulsate all the time now or only after you run the water for an extended period of time?

Can you set up a controlled environment where you run the water slowly, like 3 GPM or so, before any water treatment equipment to see if the water starts to clear up after 20 mins or so of running?
 

Travis11

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I agree with Reach4 that the problem sounds a lot like the symptoms of a well running out of water. If well isn't running out of water the pulsating pressure is most likely due to the pressure tank not having the proper amount of air in it but that still wouldn't explain the discolored water.

Does the system pulsate all the time now or only after you run the water for an extended period of time?

Can you set up a controlled environment where you run the water slowly, like 3 GPM or so, before any water treatment equipment to see if the water starts to clear up after 20 mins or so of running?
Got home from work and turned faucet on for a few minutes. Water looks much better. Appears to be "normal" water. Now I only notice an issue when I turn my underground sprinklers on. Pressure is great for about 5 minutes then you can see it drops and drops. You can hear the water gurgling at the backflow preventer and the backflow preventer will sometimes pop at this time and release water. I'm having the well guy and sprinkler guy come out hopefully soon. Water pressure in the house Is normal from what I can see.
 

Travis11

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Dropped pump further down. Said common in my area lately to go deeper for water. Apparently water table has dropped. Will see
 

shane21

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Hopefully dropping it deeper in the well solves the issues long term and your aren't dealing a with a situation where you just dewater your formation when you use the sprinkler system! Did they provide any reason why they didn't install the pump deeper to begin with?
 

Travis11

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Hopefully dropping it deeper in the well solves the issues long term and your aren't dealing a with a situation where you just dewater your formation when you use the sprinkler system! Did they provide any reason why they didn't install the pump deeper to begin with?
Nope they said when the installed the water table in the area was higher almost 2 years ago. They said alot of people in my area are running into the same thing.
 

shane21

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Hmm. I will never understand why installers don't just make it a habit to install the pump as deep as they safely can in the well, or at least deep enough to eliminate the worry of a callback from a client having an issue like yours - at least in cases where the pump is hanging on polyethylene pipe and can be pulled by hand. It's literally like 10 extra minutes of work and $50-$100 more in material to just do it during the initial install when it's polyethylene. The cost to come back and do it, with additional couplings and such is two or three time more expensive.
 

Reach4

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Hmm. I will never understand why installers don't just make it a habit to install the pump as deep as they safely can in the well, or at least deep enough to eliminate the worry of a callback from a client having an issue like yours - at least in cases where the pump is hanging on polyethylene pipe and can be pulled by hand. It's literally like 10 extra minutes of work and $50-$100 more in material to just do it during the initial install when it's polyethylene. The cost to come back and do it, with additional couplings and such is two or three time more expensive.
I was under the impression that by placing the pump 20 ft above the bottom instead of 10 ft, there was more time before the space under the pump got filled with sediment.

Just yesterday I flushed a toilet and had murky dark cloudy water in the bowl. Same was in all fixtures in house except reverse osmosis water.
I don't understand why the pump beings set higher would cause the higher sediment in the water. I guess that could occur if the area was not cased and the pump was surrounded by clean rock. The frothing might erode stuff from the walls near the pump. Is there another idea about how that symptom could occur?
 

shane21

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I was under the impression that by placing the pump 20 ft above the bottom instead of 10 ft, there was more time before the space under the pump got filled with sediment.

Placing the pump a set number of feet off the bottom of the well is correct, its just a question of how far you need to place it. I can't comment on all wells across the country but around here 5-10' is the norm unless you have a well that is a bad candidate for that (which is probably less than 5%) of them. Most wells I deal with will never fill even 5' of sump below the motor setting let alone 10' or 20' but it can happen. I made sure to use the phrase "as deep as they safely can" when referring to the Travis' well because I can't claim to know anything about his specific well or that the installer did anything incorrect. I would assume though in this case, unless the installer mentioned otherwise to the Travis, that dropping the pump deeper in the well is unlikely to be an issue otherwise they probably wouldn't have done it. If my assumption is correct, and I don't know one way or the other if it is, then why didn't they just do it when they installed it initially.

I don't understand why the pump beings set higher would cause the higher sediment in the water. I guess that could occur if the area was not cased and the pump was surrounded by clean rock. The frothing might erode stuff from the walls near the pump. Is there another idea about how that symptom could occur?

I would surmise that the discoloration and sediment in the water was due to the air moving through the lines and scouring the inside of the plumbing to break that crap loose more so than coming from the well directly. Air moving in conjunction with water through pressurized plumbing is one of the most effective methods for removing mineral deposits from the inside of plumbing.
 

Travis11

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I was also curious about the water having sand/sediment the 1st night. I asked him what his thoughts were. Well he thinks the road crew working less than 40yds from the well caused the sediment in the bottom of the well to stir up. I told him that around 7pm they were compacting the road so hard the house was actually shaking. By 10pm the water was dirty. Next day water was clean. I have no clue who that is even possible. If I remember right my well is 265ft deep and they initially set the pump at 60ft deep. Not sure how much further they set it today, will have to ask.
 
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