Shallow well?

[AndyM]

Anyone here ever have a shallow well as their primary source of household water?

I've always either had town water or a drilled well, but we looked at an old farmhouse today that has a shallow well with a pump in the basement. It is very old and there is virtually no information on it, other than it appears to have served its purpose for a long time.
Any information for the "care and feeding" of such a creature, or problem areas or other things to look for?

 

[BigAl]

Anyone here ever have a shallow well as their primary source of household water?

I'm always either had town water or a drilled well, but we looked at an old farmhouse today that has a shallow well with a pump in the basement. It is very old and there is virtually no information on it, other than it appears to have served its purpose for a long time.

Basically my water supply in Idaho is a shallow well . I think it is basically taking advantage of the spring that is right behind the well . It is 48" in diameter and 20 ' deep . It use to pump to a holding cistern, up the hill , for when we loss power, but I eliminated it as the old cistern has cracked and started leaking .
I need to be careful in the late summer or we run out of water . I've since set up a supply line from the creek, Where I have "Water Rights" , and installed a filter system to supply all my needs .
A big holding tank would be critcal to insure a good reserve if you don't have much water .

There's no reason why a good well contractor/ pump company can not check the GPM flow to insure you have a good supply

 

[Av8r3400]

The house I grew up in had a 16' deep "sand point" for potable water. Basically a 3-4' section of perforated pipe with a point on the end which is driven into the ground with a 'well pounder' (like a big fence post pounder ) and hooked to a pump with a "head valve" (one way valve) to hold the prime of the pump when not running.

We never had issues with running out of water or 'bad' water. The sand point eventually clogged and we had to replace it with a new one. The new one (our lovely government, again) had to be a 'jet point' which takes water from the well, and jets it back down to the point bringing up more water. (Doesn't make sense to me either, but it was code.)

 

[AndyM]

Thanks for the info.

We currently have a drilled well, and had it installed, so we know the history of it. The owners of the house we are looking at lived there since 1950 but passed away recently, so there's not too much available to find out about it. I did notice there was a line going to a refrigerator icemaker, so the water is apparently drinkable.

There was no water softener or whole-house type filters installed that I'm used to seeing with well water, but there is a UV light installed, which I'm assuming kills any bacteria as water comes through it. I'm not familiar with those either, but apparently they get installed on systems with these types of wells?

 

[Trakternut]

You should send a water sample to your state laboratory dept. for checks on such things as ecoli and cholaform bacteria. Those are the two biggies for water quality.
It'll be tested for iron content and other minerals, too.

 

[urednecku]

The well we are using is about 20' or less. We have been using it for over 50 years. Several years ago the drought was so bad lots of wells in the county ware going dry, and the gvt. was helping people put in another well. There were 3 houses (my parents, a sister's family of 6, and my family of 5) using the well. Not to mention watering the livestock and Daddy watering his yard every day. This little well never missed a beat, & we are still using it.

OH YEA, there's lots of iron in the water, but it beats hell outta city water!

 

[Trakternut]

With that iron, it's easier to pump too. Just put a magnet on a rope and start yankin'!