UV lights for well water system
- Thread starter Jackfre
- Start date
PWC Repair
Well-known member
Why? Are you afraid dangerous bacteria is in your water? I've lived on well water for the last 40 years without so much as an inline filter. What I CAN tell you is that you will need to replace that UV bulb every 12 months and make sure anything else is shielded from the light as it will fade and ruin any type of fabric or plastic.
Our property is pretty old by CA standards, meaning it shows on maps from the gold rush days. With our drought wells are getting weaker. All 5 of my neighbors houses have 2500 gal storage tanks necessitated by low well production. None had them 15 yrs ago. I have the well everyone wants in the area, but it is a 75’ dug well. The top 32’ is lined with 4’ concrete pipe installed in the 20’s we think an the lower 40’ is about 3’ diameter dirt. I have about a 500 gal reservoir in the well. A few years ago I had a new pump installed and did a water test and there was some colliform bacteria. I shot the well and have had no problem with it. We are selling the property here pretty soon and i am working on a checklist to eliminate any issues that might get in the way of the sale and a UV light would be a simple install for me…I think. I drink the water and other than the twitches I’ve developed I don’t see a probl;lm with it, it, it it….well, ya see what I mean?
beemerphile
Well-known member
Make sure the water is properly filtered first or the quartz tube will become covered and will block the UV. Maintenance is required.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I doubt you'll get a penny back on the investment. If it is testing OK, I'd leave it be
kbuhagiar
Well-known member
Fellow well owner here in Tuolumne County.
I agree that you may want to leave well enough alone (lol), as the presence of a UV light may raise more questions from potential buyers.
Just make sure you have a current well inspection report on hand (preferably less than six months old) when you put the house up on the market. And if you are on a septic, couldn't hurt to have the tank emptied and an inspection report for that, too.
Good luck!
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I have to imagine that California requires a septic inspection for sale.
rattle_snake
Well-known member
if just for a feel-good for sale then go ahead.
For homeowner, skip.
For homeowner, skip.
manwithtools
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Augus7us
Well-known member
I engineered my own water filtration system. One of the components is a UV light to kill any potential bacteria.
I live out in farm country and for the cost, its cheap insurance. Well worth it vs finding out my well has e coli the hard way.
And lol at UV ruining plastic. Yes it does. I've never seen a clear UV filter in residential filtration or saltwater aquariums. Where are you shopping?
I live out in farm country and for the cost, its cheap insurance. Well worth it vs finding out my well has e coli the hard way.
And lol at UV ruining plastic. Yes it does. I've never seen a clear UV filter in residential filtration or saltwater aquariums. Where are you shopping?
beemerphile
Well-known member
UV won't kill potential bacteria. It only kills actual bacteria.
coldh2o
Well-known member
UV won't kill potential bacteria. It only kills actual bacteria.
UV won't kill bacteria, potential or otherwise. It only renders the organism sterile and unable to infect the host.
LostCauseRanch
Well-known member
I have one at my house, seller had to install it before we could close to pass water test. It didn't pass before, passed after install. Supposed to replace the bulb every year. I went 3 years before the bulb died. Other than that I don't really think about it much.
beemerphile
Well-known member
True that. I was a bit too quick with the humor button.
paredown
Well-known member
We installed a Sterilight --precursor name to Viqua. The bulbs are expensive now, so I'm pushing out the time past the 1 year. I bought an extra glass sleeve but have not broken one yet. I did have a controller fail after about 5 years, but that could be the damned power surges we were getting--I've got an oven that took a hit as a result of those as well. I tried the aftermarket bulbs from Amazon, but after getting shipped three in a row that arrived broken (from Amazon) I gave up and went back to the OEM ones.
I installed it after our initial test showed the presence of coliform and other stuff. Not super high but concerning (we are in the burbs, not real country).
FWIW, the folks we bought the house from were required to test the water and remediate before sale--and put in a UV light that had been rescued from a junkpile, so I redid the whole setup. I have a coarse filter, greensand treatment, fine filter then the UV at the end of the chain.
I installed it after our initial test showed the presence of coliform and other stuff. Not super high but concerning (we are in the burbs, not real country).
FWIW, the folks we bought the house from were required to test the water and remediate before sale--and put in a UV light that had been rescued from a junkpile, so I redid the whole setup. I have a coarse filter, greensand treatment, fine filter then the UV at the end of the chain.
kj_mustang
Well-known member
A lot of shallow dug, surface water wells will fail a water test for bacteria and the owners will never know it. 25 years ago when I was in real estate sales in a rural area of Virginia, pretty much every one tested would fail. I just started chlorine shocking them first and wait a couple days then test. The area I was in had very sandy soil so I guess the water including septic system discharge and or animal waste migrated through pretty easy. I think I only had one failure on a deep drilled well.
jrsavoie
Well-known member
What all does the green sand do for you?
beemerphile
Well-known member
We were in that happily ignorant number until our son was born with some immune deficiencies and he almost died from organisms in the well water. After that, I installed a whole house 3-stage filter at the well and a reverse osmosis system for the drinking water and ice maker.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Not testing a private well annually is nuts. At least for bacteria.
I did a comprehensive check every other year to confirm everything, mainly that my arsenic filter was working.
I did a comprehensive check every other year to confirm everything, mainly that my arsenic filter was working.
Wheelingit
Well-known member
I recommend and have installed quite a few UV systems over the years for my customers. The one that I recommend is the Viqua VH200 9 gallon per minute unit for normal residential loads. Have never had one fail to destroy bacteria. All tested after install. Unless you have a farm or something with extremely high flow rates, don't be tempted to get a larger one. The larger ones will heat up the water too much after sitting a while and are higher consumers of electricity. Ask me how I know. Also test the water for iron. If you have more than 0.3 ppm of iron you will have to install an iron removal system otherwise the quartz tube will become coated with iron and eventually become ineffective. And always install a dirt and sediment filter before it no matter what.
thunderalley3
Well-known member
I had giardia from drinking contaminated water in a campground. After determining what was wrong with me, it took numerous Dr visits and no answers until I was fortunate to be seen by a PA from a remote struggling country who diagnosed it immediately and started the correct treatment before verifying it with lab tests. I was in the same campground for a month, after being diagnosed they sent the health department there to do a water test and confirmed it. It was a seasonal campground and the owner would disconnect the water and leave the pipe open to drain in a cow pasture!!
I must say it was horrible, I lost almost 40 pounds and the worst part was I was 2500 miles from home driving and made the return trip with severe diarrhea. It was not fun.
I seldom will consume water that is not on a city water system. I always keep cases of water in my camper now.
Be diligent and put in a good treatment system even if there are no issues. I felt bad for the campground as they were in a great rural setting and were approved with a large water filtering system and chlorine infusers etc. but they would bypass it and run on this other well to save the cost of the chemicals. They almost lost their license to operate and are now required to pay for the county to do weekly water testing.
I must say it was horrible, I lost almost 40 pounds and the worst part was I was 2500 miles from home driving and made the return trip with severe diarrhea. It was not fun.
I seldom will consume water that is not on a city water system. I always keep cases of water in my camper now.
Be diligent and put in a good treatment system even if there are no issues. I felt bad for the campground as they were in a great rural setting and were approved with a large water filtering system and chlorine infusers etc. but they would bypass it and run on this other well to save the cost of the chemicals. They almost lost their license to operate and are now required to pay for the county to do weekly water testing.
pcmeiners
Well-known member
As to UV water treatment....
Do not think expensive name brand UV units are better than much cheaper units, unless you like paying for a label. You need to have enough UV for your pumps water flow rating
A pre-filter is generally needed as small/tiny/invisible impurities can block UV rays cutting down the germicidal effectiveness.
As to bulb life, I have a system which turns on the UV lamps a few seconds before the well pump turns on and an couple minutes after the pump turns off. During the bulb startup time water is provided by the expansion tank situated after the UV lamps. Bulbs will last a lot longer than a year. Having the UV lamps on only during water flow keeps the water from warming up. Having the bulbs turn fairly often does cut down on the effectiveness of the UV to a degree but I offset this buy having high capacity units with fast start ballasts
Do not think expensive name brand UV units are better than much cheaper units, unless you like paying for a label. You need to have enough UV for your pumps water flow rating
A pre-filter is generally needed as small/tiny/invisible impurities can block UV rays cutting down the germicidal effectiveness.
As to bulb life, I have a system which turns on the UV lamps a few seconds before the well pump turns on and an couple minutes after the pump turns off. During the bulb startup time water is provided by the expansion tank situated after the UV lamps. Bulbs will last a lot longer than a year. Having the UV lamps on only during water flow keeps the water from warming up. Having the bulbs turn fairly often does cut down on the effectiveness of the UV to a degree but I offset this buy having high capacity units with fast start ballasts
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coldh2o
Well-known member
And we wonder why real estate agents get a bad rap...
That’s exactly what builders do for new homes. They don’t test them first to see if they need treatment, they shock the hell out of it first to insure they do not need treatment. I worked for a couple different builders at different times and they all do it that way.
coldh2o
Well-known member
You shock a new well to disinfect the casing and equipment. Shocking does not remove the need for treatment of poor quality water.
I was born near a nuclear power plant. I always wondered why I never needed a nightlight in my room as a kid
Anyways, 30 years with a well, living 1/2 mile as the crow flies from a former landfill. We've only tested our water a couple times because there was a rumor going around that other houses nearby had water issues from the landfill 15-ish years ago. Ours came up fine, so we let it be. No filters or anything....just straight from the well to the pressure tank.
The county ran a water line up our road 4-5 years ago, so we are now hooked up to that.
I want to get our well back going so we can use it to water plants or wash the vehicles. The city water is very hard, and leaves bad deposits on the cars when washing. You have to squeegee the windows and dry the rest before it dries, or you'll be sorry.
Our well water was perfect. No drying needed. No water spots.
jrsavoie
Well-known member
Tinner welder here. Braidwood, LaSalle and that one in between - Dresden?
When I was doing the exposure interview I checked everything.
Grew up in a farm - back when ddt was still available.
Worked and welded since I was 13. Did what farm kids did back in those days as a kid.
Started welding when I was 12. Had a mini bike and broke it. Dad said, "I don't have time to fix it - you break it, you fix it."
He showed me oxy- acetylene, brazing and stick.
.
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walta
Well-known member
Being as you have failed the bacteria once I would test monthly until I had a stack of clear tests that convinced me the one failure was a fluke.
Yes I would buy the light if the well failed another test and try to find and fix the leaking septic system.
Walta
paredown
Well-known member
When we tested, we had a high concentration of maganese and iron--so it is the treatment for that. The annoying part is the staining, and slight stink if you don't treat for it. I need to retest and redo now though--I was putting it off while we were unable to replace any of the components and I may switch to the Pro-Ox mentioned below--mainly because the Pot Perm stains anything you get it on a nasty purple...
In the Hudson Valley, we're all sitting on glaciated rock, so the chances of iron and maganese are pretty high, along with fine stone particles (<1 micron)--so you tend to get streaking on dishwashing etc. The other problem we have is the area is adding a lot of new (and large) houses where they chop down all the trees, plant acres of lawn which they proceed to water incessantly. Since the town water well field draws from the same aquifer, we tend to get sub-optimal water in the summer...
About Greensand Filters
Greensand filters treat well water by removing iron, manganese, and sulfur odors through a proven oxidation and filtration process.
www.cleanwaterstore.com
kj_mustang
Well-known member
In those days if you had a failed water test, the local heath department would tell you to dump a gallon of bleach in the well and run all the faucets until you smelled chlorine. Then let it sit for several hours with no usage. You were free to use the water after that. Repeat as needed in the future. This was way before UV light systems were common. Filter systems will not remove bacteria so chlorine was the only option then.
We also have a 9gpm sterilight system. I think it is what they now call a viqua 200. We replace the bulb annually as the bulb performance degrades over time. If you wait until it dies, the odds of it allowing bacteria to survive on the way through is much higher. We also have a series of prefilters for sediment, arsenic and a GAC system. The UV system is inexpensive insurance against the time lag between bacterial intrusion and testing/remediation. Our UV system is 6 years old with the only maintenance so far being the bulb replacement. I do keep a full parts kit just in case.