Seldom used well with fine metalic-looking sediment

[Jim Goodman]

When we bought our property, it had a free-standing 3-car garage with a 1 BR apartment over it. This building has its own well. We subsequently built a new house on another part of the property and it has its own well. This garage apartment has not been used for about 9 years, other than the outside hose bibs occasionally to powerwash equipment. 5 years ago we the original well pump went bad and we had a new well pump installed. There is no water treatment currently other than a single cartridge sediment filter between the pressure tank in the garage, and the supply line to the apartment

OK, that's the background. So, I'm getting ready to get this apartment set up as a guest house and want to get the water up to speed. Since the well pump was installed 5 years ago, the usage of water has been very limited. I run water to make sure the traps stay filled and the occasional pressure washing of some equipment when the water is running continuously for 20-30 minutes, and that's it. The pressure tank is 22 years old and is still working, but I intend to replace it while I'm doing this other work, because I expect it doesn't have much time left, despite its limited usage.

QUESTION #1 - Will the diaphragm fatigue over time even with it not being used, or might this pressure tank still have life left in it. Other than my nephew and the previous owner living in the apartment for a total of about 3 years, the apartment and consequently, the water system have basically been unused. Will the pressure tank diaphragm still fail because of age, despite the limited use?

Since the replacement of the well pump, there has been a sediment buildup in the bottom of the sediment filter. The sediment looks metallic.....almost like a very fine glitter. QUESTION #2 - Does anyone know what that sediment might be? It builds up in the filter pretty fast. Despite the limited use of the water system, I'll accumulate 1/2" of glitter- sediment in the bowl of the filter after a couple of hours of water use.

I put a cycle stop valve on my main house water system and it has worked great. I want to put one on the garage apartment water system. I'm concerned about this glitter-like sediment plugging it up. QUESTION # 3 - Do you think I need to put some sort of sediment filter between the well and the cycle stop valve? If so, what type of filter? I'd like something that is very easy to purge so I don't have to remove a cartridge and wash out the bowl of the filter each time. Is there a filter like that? I've read comments about a "spin-down" filter, but I don't understand how they work. Would that type of filter be appropriate? Also, I want to replace the cartridge filter with a backwash filter. I don't want to deal with a bigger cartridge system. Would a backwash sediment filter handle the fine glitter-type sediment I mentioned or is that sediment too coarse for it to be removed by a backwash filter?

Thanks

 

[Valveman]

I would be concerned what the glitter substance is? It might be your pump coming apart. Is it really metal? Is it magnetic?

You should also pump the well out and see if you can get rid of the sediment. Pumping wide open for hours or even days is sometimes needed to develop a well with sediment problems. If you can't pump it clean a filter is the next option. You would need to know the size of the sediment particles so you can get a spin down or some other filter with the right mess screen to catch it without being too small and plugging up too often.

 

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[Jim Goodman]

I would be concerned what the glitter substance is? It might be your pump coming apart. Is it really metal? Is it magnetic?

You should also pump the well out and see if you can get rid of the sediment. Pumping wide open for hours or even days is sometimes needed to develop a well with sediment problems. If you can't pump it clean a filter is the next option. You would need to know the size of the sediment particles so you can get a spin down or some other filter with the right mess screen to catch it without being too small and plugging up too often.

Thank you, Cary. I'll check to see if it's magnetic when I accumulate some again. I'm guessing I should install the CSV before I run the pump for a long time, correct? The pump has had very little use since it was installed in October of 2016. It is a Myers 2NFL102-5-P4. In that 5 years, the pump has run a total of probably 5 hours. I looked up the well report and the well is 505' deep and the casing depth is 75'. The yield was 2 GPM, according to the well report, and the static water level was 40'. It's a 4" diameter well. The original well pump was in there from 1998 - 2016 and it had seized up. The original owner was a single guy and he lived in the apartment over the garage for a couple of years. Then my nephew and his wife lived in it for a couple of years, so those 4 years was the only time the pump got regular use. After my nephew moved out in 2012, the original pump got very limited use until I found it seized in 2016. I do make sure the new pump turns on every few months, but as I said, it probably has a cumulative run time of only about 5 hours. I'll run it enough in the next few days to try to get enough of the glittery sediment to see if it's attracted to a magnet and I'll take and post a photo or two if I'm able to accumulate some of it. You helped me a lot a couple of years ago with a problem I had with my main house well pump, and I learned a lot in that process. This garage apartment well pump was installed before I understood anything about how a well pump should be installed, so I frankly don't know if there is a screen on this one or not. I found my paperwork from when the new pump was installed, and it said the pump was set at 480'. With the depth of the well at 505' per the well report, I don't know if the 480' depth of the well pump is too close to the bottom of the well that it would cause the pump to be sucking up sediment all the time.

If the sediment is a continuing problem, should a spin-down or whatever type of filter is appropriate for the sediment size, be installed BEFORE the pressure tank; in other words, between the well and pressure tank? I ask that because I wonder if the sediment would plug up the pressure switch if there isn't a filter between the pump and the nipple that supplies the pressure tank. Or should the sediment filter be installed between the pressure tank and the WH/house supply? I am going to install at the minimum, a backwash sediment filter between the pressure tank and the WH/house supply, but I'm presuming the glitter-like sediment that I saw in my current small cartridge filter is too coarse for a backwash filter and that in addition to the backwash filter, I will need a spin-down or other type of filter to capture the coarser sediment.

 

[Valveman]

5 hours of pumping is nothing. But if your well only makes 2 GPM you will need to do it in stages. 500' of standing well water is about 750 gallons stored. if you have a 10 GPM pump it will take at least an hour to pump the well down. So, you may need to run the pump an hour, let it recover for 4-5 hours, and run it an hour again. Using a Cycle Sensor to protect the pump from running dry it would do this automatically. The Cycle Sensor shuts the pump off when the well is dry, and has a restart timer that can be set from 1 minute to 5 hours to restart the pump. I have a weak well that I pump out this way for 2-3 days at a time, just to get the chlorine out after shocking the well.

With that much submergence, you can also raise the pump a stick or three, which also sometimes helps with the sediment. But I would try pumping the well out first.

All filters should go after the pressure tank/pressure switch and CSV, as a plugged filter can melt the pump if it is not able to reach cut off pressure to the switch. You just need to turn the pressure switch up from 40/60 to 50/70 and set the CSV for 60 PSI constant to make up for the 10 PSI or so you will lose going through the filters.

 

[Jim Goodman]

5 hours of pumping is nothing. But if your well only makes 2 GPM you will need to do it in stages. 500' of standing well water is about 750 gallons stored. if you have a 10 GPM pump it will take at least an hour to pump the well down. So, you may need to run the pump an hour, let it recover for 4-5 hours, and run it an hour again. Using a Cycle Sensor to protect the pump from running dry it would do this automatically. The Cycle Sensor shuts the pump off when the well is dry, and has a restart timer that can be set from 1 minute to 5 hours to restart the pump. I have a weak well that I pump out this way for 2-3 days at a time, just to get the chlorine out after shocking the well.

With that much submergence, you can also raise the pump a stick or three, which also sometimes helps with the sediment. But I would try pumping the well out first.

All filters should go after the pressure tank/pressure switch and CSV, as a plugged filter can melt the pump if it is not able to reach cut off pressure to the switch. You just need to turn the pressure switch up from 40/60 to 50/70 and set the CSV for 60 PSI constant to make up for the 10 PSI or so you will lose going through the filters.

Thank you, Cary, and thanks for explaining why the filter should be after the pressure tank. I do have a Cycle Sensor on my main house well and I'll order that too when I order the CSV for the garage well.