Maintenance of a well for water and the rules for its proper operation

To make a water well in the area is a big deal and an excellent achievement, but the problems of the house owners do not end there. Proper operation and regular maintenance of a water well will allow you to use the construction for half a century and even longer without any problems.

How to operate the well?

A normal pump well works very simply. You need to turn on the pump and get the required amount of clean drinking water. In practice, there are a number of recommendations with which you can improve the condition of the equipment.

Before starting well maintenance, you should study the water supply scheme of the house (click to enlarge)

Drillers usually provide the operating instructions for the water well they have created.

Read more about water well drilling methods in our next article:https://aquatech.tomathouse.com/en/vodosnab/kolod-skvaj/skvazhina-na-vodu.html.

These tips will also be useful to those who made such a device on their own:

• When turning on the pump for the first time, it must be done very smoothly. For this, the amount of water withdrawal is regulated by turning the valve on the head starting from the lowest value of the water intake to the recommended value. In the same way, the pump should start the first ten starts.
• The duration of the first drainage should be at least one and a half to two hours.

Tip: It is not recommended to use excessively frequent or short-term pump starts both at the beginning of operation and in the future. This can negatively affect not only the operation of pumping equipment, but also the condition of the entire well.

• With sustainable water withdrawal, the flow rate of incoming water should be determined. To do this, take a container of a certain volume (for example, a ten-liter bucket) and with the help of a stopwatch, the time of its filling is determined. It remains to divide the first value by the second to determine the amount of water coming from the well during a unit of time, for example, the number of cubic meters per hour. This indicator must be compared with the recommended and adjust the operation of the equipment.
• An important condition for the successful functioning of the well is the verification of water quality. For this, a clean sample is taken and an analysis is ordered in a special laboratory.

Please note: Shortly after the start of well operation, the initial statistical position of the water level should noticeably change and achieve a stable dynamic state. At the end of this process, the water level in the well becomes fairly constant. If there are significant fluctuations in the water level, air leaks, water flows intermittently, you must immediately stop the pump. Such a situation may indicate an incorrect construction of the structure. In this case, the operation water wells must be suspended to prevent serious damage to all equipment.You will need to carry out an independent well repair or consult a specialist.

Maintenance of water-lifting equipment

The sooner the problem is identified, the easier it is to fix it, therefore, even if the operation of the water well is carried out quite safely, it is recommended to regularly check the system. To do this, at least every six months should:

• Inspect piping and equipment for possible leaks.
• Check the pressure in the system: with the pump turned off and the intake cock open, the indicator should drop to zero.
• Using a car pressure gauge, measure the pressure in the hydraulic tank. (To do this, the device is connected to the tank’s golden valve located under the plastic cap.) Normally, the indicator should be 10% lower than when the pump is turned on.

Tip: You can pump air in the tank using an automobile compressor through the same spool.

• After that, you need to connect the pump and check its operation. The pump must shut off after the system pressure reaches the value set on the relay.
• The next step is to check the pressure in the system when there is no consumption. To do this, turn off the pump again and check the readings. The pressure level in the system should correspond to the red arrow located on pressure switch.

• • Now check the operation of the pump. To do this, open the water tap and make sure that the system pressure has risen to the level of the green arrow located on the relay, after which the pump should turn on.

It remains to close the tap and check the appropriate pressure in the system and the pump is turned off. If there are no violations in the equipment, it can be considered serviceable.

Before proceeding with the operation of the well, it must be well shaken after drilling. How to do this, read in our material:https://aquatech.tomathouse.com/en/vodosnab/kolod-skvaj/kak-raskachat-skvazhinu-posle-bureniya.html.

To restore normal operation of the well, sometimes you just need to flush it

This is an exemplary scheme for checking the operation of water intake equipment. The same principles can be used to test the operation of structures with a slightly modified configuration. Some experts recommend conducting such maintenance of wells at least every three months.

Rinse or not rinse?

Sometimes homeowners are convinced that a well needs to be flushed regularly. However, experts note that this procedure is necessary only in specific cases, for example, when silting a well. In fact, if the structure is used regularly, flushing occurs naturally.

But in situations where the well is used irregularly, for example, only in the summer period at the summer cottage, siltation can occur with a very high degree of probability. In this case, the well just needs to be pumped so that the sediment comes out with water.

In some cases, flushing the well, even with the help of an invited team, is unlikely to produce results. For example, if the quality of the water entering the house deteriorates, and the fine filters have to be replaced more often, it is likely that the filter has failed in the well, it will need to be completely replaced. Another way to diagnose this problem is to take some water to the filters and let the water settle. Soon a sandy sediment will appear at the bottom.

If such problems arise with a well that is used regularly, it is possible that the head of the well is flooded with sewage, or the casing is leaky.

If the pump in the water well is clogged, it must be cleaned or replaced.

Do not forget to regularly clean the well in order to provide the house with clean and high-quality water. You will learn about why blockages occur and how to eliminate them from our article: https://aquatech.tomathouse.com/en/vodosnab/kolod-skvaj/kak-pravilno-prochistit-skvazhinu.html.

It happens that the water remains clean, but not enough. In this situation, the filter most likely simply clogged. To restore the functioning of the well, it must be cleaned. Thus, constantly monitoring the operation of the equipment, as well as observing the quantity and quality of incoming water, you can identify the problem at an early stage and quickly eliminate it.