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Regular cleaning will ensure safe water and a long life of your well

Do you need a water system for your new house, but the municipal water supply is nowhere near? In that case, all you have to do is create your own water source and build a quality well on your lot. Every well needs to be taken care of to serve you as long as possible and provide you with safe water. How to do it?

Dug or drilled well - which one to choose?

First you need to decide what kind of well you will build. Nowadays, wells are more often drilled, even if you have shallow groundwater on the land.

You can drain it more easily and a dug well will suffice, but such water can often be harmful to you. The quality of shallow water is lower mainly due to the presence of nitrates from fertilizers or pollutants from the surrounding septic tanks and other surface dirt. In the case of a dug or surface well, in addition, you will not get rid of this low-quality water completely, even during a deeper excavation, because it will leak. Another disadvantage of a surface well is that shallow groundwater depends a lot on the amount of precipitation and its volume fluctuates, which is why drilling wells are recommended with more and more frequent periods of drought.

Drilled wells, on the other hand, can effectively separate deep water soils from shallow ones, ensuring better water quality without harmful substances. The walls of the drilled well are lined with casing, which is perforated only at the point of water inlet. Thanks to this, you pump water only from the most suitable layer of soil. There is usually more water pumped from the deep layers and its amount is stable, so the borehole practically cannot dry out if you take care of it properly.

However, you will only be able to take full advantage of the benefits of your drilled well if you take good care of it, repair damaged areas and, above all, clean it regularly.

Reasons to clean your drilled well

Proper and regular care of the borehole is absolutely the key to maintaining high water quality, but also to prolong the life of your borehole pump. When the borehole becomes clogged it also clogs the water supply, which can lead to a reduction in the yield of water source, and even to the diversion of the spring and its drying out.

Water from a contaminated borehole can be cloudy and unsafe. Although it may not be obvious at first glance, it contains a lot of microorganisms and soil contaminants that can be harmful to your health. In addition, higher amounts of solid particles in the water cause irreversible damage to the pump.

When to clean your drilled well

The well must be cleaned immediately if you notice reduced water quality (it is cloudy or stinks), or once you've been noticing a lower water pressure for a longer period of time. This means that sedimentation is already clogging the water supply. New boreholes must be cleaned before using water for the first time. Also clean the well in case of floods or high water levels. If you have doubts about the quality of the water, you can have a water analysis done.

Regular routine cleanses are also very important, which will save you many health problems and unnecessary financial costs for future repairs or even for a new well. A certain degree of pollution is common even for the least risky wells.

Water naturally transfers solid particles from the soil into the well, which form sediment. Due to the content of formed iron and manganese, soil microorganisms and other impurities the quality of water is reduced and your pump becomes clogged. Especially in the case of very soft soils, this contamination can become a big problem. Therefore, it is necessary to perform preventive routine cleaning of the well at least once every 5 years.

How to clean your well

There are basically two ways to clean a well - by pressure or by a pump. Pressure cleaning is usually only performed by professionals. A compressor blows water or air to the bottom of the well, where it breaks down sludge with pressure and moves it up to the surface. If you have poor-quality plastic borehole lining, choose pressure cleaning with a so-called injector, which cleans it with a lower pressure. High pressure could permanently damage the well and lead to even greater and permanent pollution.

Pump cleaning is a far more gentle solution, which does not damage the construction of your well and does not create any pressure. It can be performed by a professional, but you can also handle it yourself. The procedure is as follows:

  1. Remove the borehole pump.
  2. Use a high-quality pump to drain all water from the well.
  3. Use a special metal brush to manually remove all dirt from the borehole. For a smaller diameter borehole, special nozzles can be used.
  4. Repair any cracks and other damage to the well with cement grout.
  5. Disinfect the well with bleach or sodium hypochlorite and drain all water containing disinfectant (must be done several times).
  6. Clean and disinfect the borehole pump and place it back to the borehole.

Wait at least 48 hours before using the well for drinking water, as it may still contain solid particles and disinfectant residue, until the released sedimentation drops to the bottom again. In any case, before using water for the first time, do an analysis that will tell you clearly and precisely whether the water is already safe.

Borehole cleaning pumps

There are several types of submersible borehole cleaning pumps available on the market, the most common being vibrating and drainage.

You can use screw pumps or much cheaper vibration pumps to drain clean or slightly cloudy water. Vibration pumps are very simple to operate, and everyone can use them. They are light and have low energy consumption.

In case of very dirty water with an admixture of mechanical particles, it is recommended to use a submesible drainage pump, which is specially designed so the mechanical particles from the water do not damage it. However, these pumps have a diameter of 165 mm and more, and therefore simply do not fit into most wells. In such cases, it is recommended to use a vibratory pump, which is damaged due to sediments, but due to the low acquisition costs of this pump, it is still the cheapest option for cleaning the well.

When selecting a vibration pump, take the maximum head, diameter and flow rate into account. These parameters must match the parameters of your well.

Borehole pumps