Well water treatment

[samhill]

Wondering if anyone on here has dealt with the "Puretech Environmental " company in Winnipeg. We had a rep give a demo and sre considering their water conditioner, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet treatment system. The demo was impressive but a lot of basic info was left out. Runs out about $11k.

[the big wheel]

What did you think about the taste of the water?

[samhill]

Taste wasn't part of the demo.
Have contacted the company, expect to hear from them today.
See how it goes.
Thanks for comeback.

[sumdumguy]

After 2011, water treatment became a necessity at the farm. Neighbours bought treatment unit from travelling salesman. We bought one on internet for farm house at a fraction of the cost. We installed it easily. A lot of these companies make their money on accessories (filters, canisters) specific to their own units and the maintenance becomes an issue.

[WiltonRanch]

After 2011, water treatment became a necessity at the farm. Neighbours bought treatment unit from travelling salesman. We bought one on internet for farm house at a fraction of the cost. We installed it easily. A lot of these companies make their money on accessories (filters, canisters) specific to their own units and the maintenance becomes an issue.

Tell me about it. Have had an Aztec for 10!years. Works alright but majorly overpriced compared to what my plumber could have set up I later found out. Not to mention their constant phoning to sell overpriced filter beds which are a pain in the ass to change and which don’t need changing as often as they recommend Better to talk to a reputable plumber than the traveling salesman fwiw

[farmaholic]

Some good comments here. I think it depends on what problem you're trying to solve. One size(system type) does not fit all. Our system isn't perfect but is the best we've had up to this point. Lagoons can take alot of water that is used to "make" good water...maybe not as easy as a closed septic system. Think of all the issues. Polishing water to perfection just to flush down the toilet may not be necessary either. How much water does the household use...build to suit and any system requires maintenance....time and money.

Don't rush this!!!!!!!!!!!

[Klause]

My parents spent $15,000 on an iron filter, a softener, and a RO under the sink for drinking water.


It was a culligan system and a traveling salesman did it.

Here, we had an existing spring fed well, but no treatment system, and no pump. The water has lots of iron in it...

We put in a submersible pump, two pressure tanks, a 10 micron prefilter, a 5 micron filter, a 1 micron filter, UV treatment, and a softener from Home Depot - did all the work (including soldering all the copper pipes because I don't trust pex) and it cost us just under $6,000.

I can get my consumables from peavy mart, rona, home depot, or anywhere, and we spend about $300 a year between the UV bulb, filter elements, and salt.

Buyer beware... just say'in

[samhill]

Thanks for info, we will give local plumber a chance before we go ahead. He's been in business a long time here.

[grassfarmer]

Depends on your plumber too I guess. There is a 3rd generation one around here that doesn't seem to know very much. We drilled a new well and it was testing very high for total coliforms (@20,000 but zero e-coli) he swore it was so high in coliforms there was no way to treat it and no prospect of it ever being drinkable for humans. A little over a year later it tested at zero coliforms - and we did nothing to it other than pump it for watering cows .

[Jay-mo]

We have hard water with iron.
I have a Kinetico softener. It is completely mechanical and is a double tank setup. From initial install to first major problem lasted 15 years. Put a rebuilt head on it a year ago for $400 and hopefully good for another 15 years. Secret of low/no maintenance is with the double tanks. With the dual tank it regenerates itself with softened water. It keeps the control head from plugging up with iron.

[WiltonRanch]

We have hard water with iron.
I have a Kinetico softener. It is completely mechanical and is a double tank setup. From initial install to first major problem lasted 15 years. Put a rebuilt head on it a year ago for $400 and hopefully good for another 15 years. Secret of low/no maintenance is with the double tanks. With the dual tank it regenerates itself with softened water. It keeps the control head from plugging up with iron.

Good point the Aztec is a single tank. Now my bloody luck it’ll plug after I read this damnit!

[farmaholic]

We use chlorination to precipitate iron and manganese out. A liquid chlorination system. The whole system is a closed system pressurized with the submersible pump in a 190 foot well. Diluted Hypochorite(12% undiluted) is injected into the raw water line after the pressure tank before it enters two holding tanks, one is 190 and the other 120 US gallons(into the bottom of the first tank then out the top to the bottom of the second tank and then out the top to the filters.... this way you are always drawing off the top of the tanks away from the precipitate which will help keep the filters cleaner). Most of the precipitate comes out in the first tank and a bit in the second, tank bottoms are purged every once in awhile to remove the precipitate. From the second tank the water enters a sand filter, then a carbon filter,(these are not "small" filters the carbon filter takes one cubic foot or carbon medium plus the rest of the bed, both filters are the same size) then for soft water it goes to the softener. "Hard" water is drawn off the system before it reaches the softener and the only tap in the house on hard water is the drinking water tap. Everything else goes through the softener.... toilet water too.

As I said the system isn't perfect and there is a little slippage of manganese because manganese is fairly hard to remove. Chlorine is a strong oxidizer and that is why it works pretty good on our water. We had tried a greensand filter but because of the combined levels of iron and manganese the filter was overwhelmed. An air injection system supposedly doesn't work well on manganese.

If I remember correctly our water is about 60 grains hard.

We have no livestock to worry about.

Do your City Cousins still think water is "free" on the farm....LOL.

I joke around thinking that the old well hand pumps had bird shit on the top of them from birds perching on them.... I'm sure the odd turd made it into the well..... nobody died around here from that. Now who would have ever thought you would see as much water in a pop cooler as different flavors of pop? Or that people would be hauling water around in 20 liter jugs because the municipally treated water from the tap wasn't good enough to drink "for no apparent reason". Or communities that decided to go reverse osmosis(RO) for the whole town because of too much arsenic or uranium..... in amounts so small it is hard to believe anything could possibly go wrong. I've been drinking water off the same aquifer as my hometown that went RO and I don't think I'm being poisoned from arsenic or glowing in the dark from the uranium either.

Explore all your options before committing to anything.

We had an pellet chlorinator on an old steel cased well...... I think it ****ed that well up, couldn't get the pump out of it! We had to drill a new well with a plastic casing.... Don't do that to a steel cased well!

[Jay-mo]

Good point the Aztec is a single tank. Now my bloody luck it’ll plug after I read this damnit!

Your doing pretty good if you have had 10 years of trouble free operation. Anyone I know around here with just a cheap softener has to have them ripped apart and clean all the iron crap out every year or so.

[hobbyfrmr]

Chlorine is a strong oxidizer and corrosive to existing organic residue on old pipes. This dissolves the old crud that has collected inside your copper pipes then you get pin hole leaks in old copper in your home.

There is some kind of water fear roaming around rural Sask. I was on town council where the water has been consistent and tested for the last 50 years. The water treatment plant operator has to test daily and document. Monthly water reports are presented to town council and provincial regulators.
I understand the facility is very near its depreciated lifespan.
There has always been ammonia in the water. World Health Organization and Health Canada documents claim there are no health risks associated to ammonia in water. Regulator says ammonia antagonizes/masks chlorine and disinfection may not be satisfactory.
First solutions was to reach "break point". Add more chlorine until there is enough to offset the "masking" effect of ammonia. We gradually increased and monitored this action until we were adding up to 4X more chlorine to the water than we normally would. First, people started to complain about the smell in their homes. Near the peak chlorine, my fixtures at home near the toilet had a faint green tinge.
Then the one inch water service lines to the homes started leaking. Each excavation the copper line had pinholes on them like a lawn sprinkler. Then the oldest homes started with pinhole leaks in the house. Then the newest homes with the cheapest/lightest copper started pinholes.

Just be aware that this maybe a problem with treatment systems.

Regulators want ammonia removed from public water. Ergo town needs a new water treatment plant.
We have the 2 greensand filters then chlorinate filtered water when going out to public.

My research suggested zeolite filter medium in the filters would solve the ammonia problem . Zeolite is A common filter medium in water softeners.
Another application for zeolite is fish tank filters. Fish are extremely sensitive to ammonia and die quickly. Ergo the zeolite filter.
Our town reservoir is basically a huge fish tank. It has been about 5 years ago so I forgot the math, but the research I presented suggested that all we had to do was replace about 20% of one filter medium with zeolite to capture and remove the ammonia .
When I left council, the regulators and engineering companies were having meetings with all these little towns and villages encouraging new build R/O plants. Frequently with R/O systems you require more lagoon capacity which....of course....needs to be engineered.
I did have a chance to present my findings at that meeting. The engineers said they would look at it then continued with the R/O presentation. I never did go looking for validation of my information. I do continue to see articles about how different industries use zeolite to treat contaminated wastewater before they release back into nature.
I apologize for the hijack but this has always stuck with me because I sensed (probably falsely) some kind of unackowledged alignment between regulator and engineering company. This maybe false because, as a councillor I was defensive and not receptive about imposing a $450,000 water treatment plant for 125 homes when the answer may be quite simple.

I think Zeolite it the cats meow for water treatment.

I just did a fast and rough read on this article and I think this is what I am trying to describe.

Page 19 - #6 and beyond.

https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/41947.pdf

[blackpowder]

Interesting posts. Thanx.

Just heard on radio. Californians paying >$30/gal for 'raw' water! Hilarious.