Any special recomendations when using well water?

GT3Racerich

GT3Racerich

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We are in the planning stage of building a new house and the property will have well water. I have never had that before and was wondering if anything needs to be done to the water or is it safe for washing the cars. I would like to have it set up ( the garage) when new rather then start changing things. Thanks in advance, any advice is appreciated.
Rich
 
The most important thing you will need is a water softener and be prepared to spend some money if you want a good one that is easy with maintenance. Depending on the soil on your properly it could be heavy with certain deposits (calcium or iron among other things). Im in the process of moving in with some family that have this type of set up and since they or I cant afford a quality softener ive decided to wash my car exclusively with ONR (Optimum No Rinse) since it acts as a water softener when im cleaning my vehicle.
 
GT3Racerich said:
We are in the planning stage of building a new house and the property will have well water. I have never had that before and was wondering if anything needs to be done to the water or is it safe for washing the cars. I would like to have it set up ( the garage) when new rather then start changing things. Thanks in advance, any advice is appreciated.
Rich
Click to expand...

-Glad you're thinking ahead about detailing with well water. I believe it would behoove you to also think ahead about the safeness of the well water for your, and your family's: Drinking, personal hygiene, meal preparation, cooking, and home-cleaning needs.
-Getting that done and out of the way first, will go a long way in resolving any 'washing the cars' issues...IMO.

-Here's a couple of sites filled with some very important information in that regards, if you don't mind taking a peek.

Wells, Septic systems

Drinking Water Contaminants | Drinking Water Contaminants | US EPA


:)

Bob
 
You're going to want particle filtration at a minimum. The well company should be able to give you some idea of what the hardness of the water is, but as Rhetoric says, be prepared to spring for a water softener. If you're building a new house, at least have them put in the water softener loop while they're doing the plumbing even if you're not sure about the softener. If it was me and I had the cash I'd defintely work this all out as the house is being built and not after.

Dream system would be a nice large cartridge filter for the particles, and a dual-tank softener so you never run out of soft water.
 
Congrats on building a new house!

I am in the planning stages too and will be having well water. I hadn't given any thought to the water quality yet. One thing I did run across is I am guessing you will be having a septic system too? I was told not to run my garage floor drains into the septic but rather day light them. The contaminates in the run off may kill the bacteria in the system you need to break everything down. Just a thought.
 
Thanks very much for the info guys, and Bob, Thank you for the links. That information will help.
Rich
 
I own a home with a private well water supply myself. I've thoroughly researched this topic as well. It is NOT a good idea to wash your car with softened water in my experiences. I purchased a computer controlled Culligan water softener (highly regarded as one of the BEST water softeners, period) as well as the matching iron filtration unit ($$$$). What you need to think about here is the fact that you're using some variation of salt to essentially break down your water and soften it. I made the mistake of trying it once and it left a disgusting brownish film all over my artic white trans am! I was a little upset to say the least, but I could only blame myself. In all of my research and speaking with people that install and sell water purification equipment for a living, none of them suggested using softened water to wash a personal vehicle. Almost all of them suggested looking into a deionizer filtration system if I was serious about washing my cars with the well water. Maybe it's different in your case, but all of the evidence I have gathered suggested it was a poor idea.

The again, my house was built in 1951. My wife and I fell in love with a property that needed a little bit of everything and we built and installed everything to our specific needs. While I do love my home overall, the well water is a gigantic headache and insanely expensive to convert. I also had reasonable iron readings present in my existing well which was led us to purchase the iron filter too.
For those reasons, lets just say I'm a big fan of ONR!

I don't mean to scare you with any of this, I just wanted to share my experience with the topic. If you discover or find out anything different, please pm me! I've spent over $6,000 and STILL cant wash my own vehicle! However, it's around $20,000 to convert to city water and I'm simply not going to pay that so I have to deal with the circumstances!
 
Timmy G...I really don't know what to say. Myself and other members use softened water on our cars without issue. I believe, although "salt" is used to charge the resin, the actual ion transfer is actually only the sodium (or potassium, in the case of potassium chloride), so you are not putting "salt" on your car.

As far as the brownish discoloration, was this immediately after you had your softener installed? There is sometimes some brown discoloration from new resin, but this dissipates in a day or two. I'm presuming since you are on a well that you had particle filtration installed?
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Timmy G...I really don't know what to say. Myself and other members use softened water on our cars without issue. I believe, although "salt" is used to charge the resin, the actual ion transfer is actually only the sodium (or potassium, in the case of potassium chloride), so you are not putting "salt" on your car.

As far as the brownish discoloration, was this immediately after you had your softener installed? There is sometimes some brown discoloration from new resin, but this dissipates in a day or two. I'm presuming since you are on a well that you had particle filtration installed?
Click to expand...

I realize that there are people that do wash their vehicles with their well water supply. My only point I suppose was that it simply at this point isn't possible for me to do so. When I have Culligan install their new water softener and iron filter, they did not plumb the new copper piping to utilize softened water outside at the water valve. I once ran a craftsmen no kink hose straight from the kitchen sink to the driveway just to test the softened water on my car. I did a rinse, two bucket method wash, then rinse again. I dried the car with a cobra guzzler and noticed brown particles all over my car! Your theory about new resin does make sense, but at the time I tried this, we had used thousands of gallons of softened water. I've honestly given up at this point and have contemplated just spending the huge money on city water.
 
Sounds like you had a dirty hose...I mean, you don't have brown water in your kitchen sink, which is where you took the water from, right?
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Sounds like you had a dirty hose...I mean, you don't have brown water in your kitchen sink, which is where you took the water from, right?
Click to expand...

That is correct. I used a brand new craftsmen never kink 100' hose to conduct the test. I spoke with a few neighbors about it and they laughed at me and said they never wash their cars with their water because they have the same thing happen. I honestly just think our 60+ year old wells are the issue.

I've been speaking with our village about permit fees and am in the process of getting quotes for the work.
 
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