We are in love with a house that has well water. How does well water affect daily operations? Is it generally compatible with having a filtration system for drinking water? If I've never had it, will I hate it?
Post by balletofangels on Mar 1, 2015 8:35:54 GMT -5
My parents have awesome well water. Need a good filter system. They have only ever gone dry once in almost 40 years, but some people have trouble in the summer. Ask about that.
Are you blonde? Depending on how bad the water is, prepare to acquire an orange tint. Make sure your hairdresser offers Malibu treatments (also known as Pre-Art). Our water (without the softener) is basically liquid iron and I would go in about every 6 weeks to get it done. They schlop goo on your hair, put a cap on, and stick you under the dryer for 15-60 minutes. It's much better now that we have a good water softener.
I grew up with well water and our new house has it too. When we built the house, we had to dig the well. I think it's 80' deep. We also got a really good water softener from the well company. We had city water in our previous hous for 9 years and I don't notice much of a difference.
As part of your inspections on the house, you may want to do a water test with the city to make sure it's good water. Get info on how old/deep the well is and maybe have a well company look at the pump. Good luck!
Well water can really vary depending on where you are. A old friend had the most disgusting smelling sulphur water but ours is awesome. Even my picky MIL drinks it. So my advice would be to taste it.
We have two wells at our house. One for irrigation/yard sprinklers which is not treated and smells like rotten eggs when it's running. We run them very early in the mornings so it's not really an issue for us. The main drinking well is treated with a pretty significant filtration system. The water is perfect, no smell, no discoloration, etc. In addition to that whole house filtration system, we have a RO filter under our kitchen sink for drinking water which removes everything that might possibly have remained in the water. I'm very picky when it comes to water and love our drinking water. Really, call a good water company to have them discuss the best filtration system for the home if there isn't already one there. They can determine how deep your well is, test the water for impurities, etc. to know exactly what system you would need.
Also, as a home buyer, I'd definitely recommend that you have an inspection done on your well. It is typically outside of the normal home inspection so you'll need to bring in another inspector potentially. A new well drilled isn't outrageously expensive, but worth knowing if it may need to be done prior to purchase. Same goes for a septic system if your new house has one of those too .
I grew up with it, ours was fine. As long as you have a good water softener system, you shouldn't have problems. Oh, if the power goes out your water doesn't work anymore, though. When I moved in town with H, and had city water, the power was out and he used the restroom. He flushed, and I said, what did you do that for?! He didn't believe me at first that the water wouldn't refill at my folk's house.
Before the installation of an Ion exchange unit and some reverse osmosis tank thingie, we had a lot of iron which stained clothing and white bathroom fixtures if you didn't stay on top of cleaning them.
We had a specially designed heavy duty water heater which we drained regularly to prevent sediment build up.
I have blond hair and never had a problems even without the filtration. But there are shampoos you can by to address this.
One downside is that you lose water if you pump malfunctions or if you lose power which is a PITA that can be overcome with a generator.
On the plus side, I now pay $230 a quarter for water and another $130 for sewer. I'd rather have the $100 in my pocket. Plus it tasted better.
Yes, you may want to find out if the previous owners have a generator system in for back up power on the well pump. Some do, some don't, but if you're in an area with bad snow or ice storms it may be something you will want to look into. I grew up on a well system and we would fill the bathtubs before storms were predicted to come in for flushing water. Later on we got a generator which was awesome for heat also.
The well I grew up with is some of the most pristine spring water around. My parents didn't have much filtration on it at all but we did have a water softener and went through a fair amount of salt. We actually had three springs on our property and they were approached at some point by a water bottling company as being a source. My Dad didn't go for it though. My Mom brought in samples to the township once a year for testing after the spring melt since that was when it coud have been most likely impacted by ecoli or something from farmer's fields. We never had any issues.
When you come home from a week's vacation and first run the water it will stink like sulphur. This is normal and only takes about 5 minutes to flush out. It is due to settling in the pipes and the hot water tank.
Are you blonde? Depending on how bad the water is, prepare to acquire an orange tint. Make sure your hairdresser offers Malibu treatments (also known as Pre-Art). Our water (without the softener) is basically liquid iron and I would go in about every 6 weeks to get it done. They schlop goo on your hair, put a cap on, and stick you under the dryer for 15-60 minutes. It's much better now that we have a good water softener.
I'm a redhead so uhh, this whole otange thing wouldn't even phase me lol
The surrounding city water is pretty hard, so we intended to do a whole house water softener anyways, well or not. This house is on the low end of our budget so we can do that immediately.
So there are a lot of houses just south of you now that are on well water. Our realtors told us the only drawback is that that city will probably switch to city water in the foreseeable future... Which will mean you will be required to switch and pay to lay the pipes, etc to your house. So we decided we didn't want to have to
My house was built with all of the finest 1970s technology including whole house softener and filter on the well and dual septic systems and on demand hot water through the oil furnace. When it's all working it hums along great. Now as it approaches 40 I'm learning about all kinds of things that can go wrong.
Make sure you have someone inspect the well system thoroughly. It turns out we'd been running for a year with a broken pressure tank and next to nothing in the softener. It took about $1300 to get it all fixed but so worth it. We also signed up for an annual well test. Our water is better than ever since we had it serviced.
Also yes, losing power is bad on a well. Fill up the tub before a big storm so you can flush if needed and grab some bottles of water. I keep gallon jugs that I fill up before big storms and throw in the fridge. So far we've survived.
Are you blonde? Depending on how bad the water is, prepare to acquire an orange tint. Make sure your hairdresser offers Malibu treatments (also known as Pre-Art). Our water (without the softener) is basically liquid iron and I would go in about every 6 weeks to get it done. They schlop goo on your hair, put a cap on, and stick you under the dryer for 15-60 minutes. It's much better now that we have a good water softener.
I'm a redhead so uhh, this whole otange thing wouldn't even phase me lol
I still have it done once or twice a year since we got a better water softener, just to get rid of any mineral deposits. It's pretty inexpensive -- my hairdresser only charges $15 for it.
I much prefer our well water to town water. I grew up on it, and our new house has it. It tastes better, IMO. We have a filtration system. Our water is on the hard side, but the town water at our old house was actually harder and caused a lot of mineral deposits and other issues.
Other than college its all I've had. I can't taste a difference now. Use salt with red out in your filtration system. Costco sells it for 5.50 for 40 lbs. We have never had a well go dry, but we live by lake Erie and have a great watershed. Ours is about 250 feet deep.
Also, as a home buyer, I'd definitely recommend that you have an inspection done on your well. It is typically outside of the normal home inspection so you'll need to bring in another inspector potentially. A new well drilled isn't outrageously expensive, but worth knowing if it may need to be done prior to purchase. Same goes for a septic system if your new house has one of those too .
Good luck!
That all depends--obviously you have not followed my well issues on MM. FML
Our well(s) is/are on a mountain spring--amazingly good water without any filtering needed. There is actually a rider attached to the home that we can't bottle the water to sell. That is the plus side.
The down sides:
No running water if the power is out. Can be planned for and not too bad if the power outtage doesn't last for days. A dying well sucks. And drilling a new well can get very expensive, very quickly depending on how hard it is to find water/place to drill/etc.
I would suggest that in addition to all the inspections, you find out how deep your well is, as well as how deep the neighbors around you had to go--this might at least give a general idea of costs if you do need a new one in the future. My situation was really on the very bad end of the spectrum, don't let it scare you away:).
Post by thedutchgirl on Mar 1, 2015 11:48:25 GMT -5
There was someone on MM a while ago who owned a house where the well had gone dry and there was no other water on the property. Make sure your look into whether the well has gone dry and if it does whether there is another source. As I recall they were contemplating foreclosure because the property was basically useless.
ETA: Yes, Velvetshady! I see she's also posted with thoughts.
Post by themysteriouswife on Mar 1, 2015 12:53:03 GMT -5
Again it varies on the location and natural minerals in the area. FIL has a well and uses a filtration system. It smells horrible if he doesn't. His friend a city over uses well without a system and it's the freshest tasting water I've ever had.
Good inspectors can tell you what needs to be dobs. Spend the extra money now for an inspection. A dry well or bad filter can set you back a lot of time and money. It cost $5000 to replace the pump and filter on FIL's property.
My parents have well water. I love it. It tastes like nothing.
H has an issue with well water though. It gives him bowel issues.
I'd get it tested. Water can very so much from place to place. Also ask about the history (has the pump ever needed replaced? Has it ever gone dry?)
Oh I forgot about the poop issues! Yes, if your body isn't acustom to well water it could cause diarrhea. We have to watch how much water we let DD consume at FILs.