Wells
An overview of how a residential well system works, from the borehole to the tap, and the components that keep water flowing.
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Fixing a Waterlogged Pressure Tank
The pump kicked on at 6:10 that morning while I was standing at the utility room sink with a headlamp still on my forehead, and it kicked off again before I finished rinsing a coffee cup. That is a cycle of maybe eight seconds. A healthy system seems to run a minute or more. The…
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What a Pressure Tank Does
The pressure tank is the most misunderstood piece of equipment on a private well. Most people think it stores water. It does a little of that, but storage is not its job. Its job at my place is giving the pump a rest. Inside the tank I pulled, there was a bladder with compressed gas…
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Treating Well Water With Hydrogen Peroxide
A lot of people believe the brown bottle in the medicine cabinet will fix problem well water. It will not. Treating a well with hydrogen peroxide is real work done with a stronger solution, a metering pump, and a contact tank — or it is not done at all. Here is how I think about…
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How a Residential Well Works
The pressure gauge spun to zero before I had it threaded on all the way, and Marta said the words I hear every August: “It was fine yesterday.”” She was holding the gauge hose in one hand and a coffee in the other, standing at her hose bib in the sun. Her shallow well had…
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How to Test Well Water at Home
Most of what people do wrong with well water starts with testing the wrong thing first. The strip kit on the shelf A home strip kit is a screening tool and nothing more. The ones I keep on the shelf seem to read chlorine, hardness and pH. I learned this the same way most well…
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Private Well Parts and Operation
A neighbour down the county road asked me last month why his taps sputtered after the power came back on. He thought the pump was done. It was not. The pressure switch had a burned contact and the tank had lost its air charge years ago. Two small parts, both cheap, both overlooked because nobody…