No filter for well & sediment in water

10 years ago

We moved into our new home 4 weeks ago. We noticed our water pressure in the master shower was slowly decreasing. We happened to run into the guy who drilled our well and he said we should 'change the filter'. We looked and discovered there is no filter. The plumber never installed one coming off the well. We later called the well guy and told him there was no filter and he said he always suggests a filter but obviously it's up to the builder/plumber to install. He told us to unscrew the shower head and rinse it out bc there may be sediment in there. It turns out there was -dark, fine sand in the showerhead. It works fine now since we cleaned it out. I remember giving my 4-yr old a bath one day and seeing dark black sand at the bottom of the tub but I thought maybe it was just from him-lol! It gives me the creeps bc obviously we are all drinking this stuff too. Is it customary to have a small amt of sediment in well water? Do most people with a well have a well filter? This is the first time I've ever had a well so I have no idea. Approx how much will it cost for us to have a filter installed? We did get a basic report that the water was potable (from the health dept) but I'm wondering if I should have a private company retest it. Am I overreacting?

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Comments (4)

Annie Deighnaugh
10 years ago
In the old house, we had a shallow spring fed well and it was great water and easy, if a little hard. Now we have a deeper well, but have had to install all kinds of water treatment stuff to filter out sediment and soften the water. Not fun but necessary. Sorry I don't know the pricing...all I know was it was necessary.
lucy0214
10 years ago
We did not have sediment but our well was sulfar and we didnt detect it till move in. A private company came out and tested it and installed some kind of filter under the house by the pump. It costs us $1500 and worth it!
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bus_driver
10 years ago
Don't confuse sand and potability. Sand does not necessarily have bacteria nor harmful chemicals. Some wells will have sand for a year or two as the drilling residue is cleared out. Others will have it permanently. I have one that has produced sand for over 30 years. Washable filer cleaned every 30 days. That's the way it is.
LE
10 years ago
We've had our well for 15 years or so, but don't live on the property, so haven't used it as much. It still pumps a little "sand" (flat particles in our case) after all that time. So we have a filter and a softener and something else for the hydrogen sulfide. There are regulations based on health that do not necessarily result in good aesthetics when it comes to water quality! Like busdriver said.

It's all very location dependent. I'm pretty sure the filter part was the least cost equipment in our little well house, though. Just be glad if you don't have to buy all that other stuff!