Filling New Pool With Well Water

[btmansfi]

We're replacing the liner and some wall panels and will need to fill our roughly 40k gallon pool with water soon. Water delivery is about $350/6000 gallons so we'd be looking at close to $2400 if we had city water delivered. I'm leaning towards using our well to fill the pool. We have a water softener system, and I also installed a sediment filter before the water softener and also a screw-on hose filter afterwards. Took the water to get tested and it's pretty good. Very low (less than 0.1ppm) iron.

Is it ok to let the pump run until the well is dry, then cut it off and let the well fill back up? Or should I open the spigot maybe just halfway and let it run like that? Or run it full bore but maybe for an hour at a time, then cut it off for a bit, and repeat?

We are not living in the house right now so having water available to flush the toilet, do the dishes, etc during the fill is not an issue.

 

[PoolGate]

I would do a 5 gallon bucket fill test just to see how long you are going to need to fill the pool. Fill the bucket using a stopwatch and calculate how long 40k gallons will take. I am 29k gallons and took like 36 hours on city water with really good pressure. At the well rate, you could be looking at a week. Not to mention you might burn out your well pump. I really suggest biting the bullet and paying for water delivery.

 

[jesse-99]

FYI -- even at .1ppm iron, your pool water WILL go green when you add chlorine to that water. >.3ppm will cause staining so you should be okay, but, expect your water to go green from the iron getting oxidized by the chlorine. It can be filtered out with your main filter, or by adding polyfill to your Skimmer basket(s).

 

[duraleigh]

Iron in soluble form cannot be filtered out using your pool filter. Whether .1ppm iron will turn the water green I am not so sure, I tend to doubt it.

If the pool turns green, I think I would use the polyfill then to get out what iron I could. Your water softener will provide nice iron-free refill water so that should end your issue with iron.

 

[btmansfi]

FYI -- even at .1ppm iron, your pool water WILL go green when you add chlorine to that water. >.3ppm will cause staining so you should be okay, but, expect your water to go green from the iron getting oxidized by the chlorine. It can be filtered out with your main filter, or by adding polyfill to your Skimmer basket(s).

That's odd. We filled our last pool up with city water. I just pulled our city's water data and their iron is 0.085ppm from one source and 0.144ppm from another source. This is from 2019 data. So if there's roughly 0.1ppm iron in our city water, why did our pool not have even the faintest tint of green when we filled it?

 

[btmansfi]

Iron in soluble form cannot be filtered out using your pool filter. Whether .1ppm iron will turn the water green I am not so sure, I tend to doubt it.

If the pool turns green, I think I would use the polyfill then to get out what iron I could. Your water softener will provide nice iron-free refill water so that should end your issue with iron.

I'd be using the water from the water softener to fill it in the first place. I'm not filling it directly from the well. It'll go through a sediment filter, then the water softener, then a bobby filter at the end of a garden hose. I'll buy some polyfill just in case I run into any issues, then I guess shock it and hope the polyfill captures the iron. Thanks!

 

[btmansfi]

I'd be using the water from the water softener to fill it in the first place. I'm not filling it directly from the well. It'll go through a sediment filter, then the water softener, then a bobby filter at the end of a garden hose. I'll buy some polyfill just in case I run into any issues, then I guess shock it and hope the polyfill captures the iron. Thanks!

 

[PoolGate]

Did you run a test to see how long it will take to fill your pool using the well? I gotta believe you are looking at like 5 days + continuous running. Maybe more depending how much your filters slow down the flow. Perhaps do 1/2 water delivery and 1/2 well water.

 

[btmansfi]

Did you run a test to see how long it will take to fill your pool using the well? I gotta believe you are looking at like 5 days + continuous running. Maybe more depending how much your filters slow down the flow. Perhaps do 1/2 water delivery and 1/2 well water.

I was thinking of getting 2 truck loads of water (roughly 12k gallons) which would at least fill the deep end up, then fill the rest from the well. I'm estimating 40k gallons. It might be a little less. 8' deep and roughly 42' Grecian true L.

 

[Callipear]

We're replacing the liner and some wall panels and will need to fill our roughly 40k gallon pool with water soon. Water delivery is about $350/6000 gallons so we'd be looking at close to $2400 if we had city water delivered. I'm leaning towards using our well to fill the pool. We have a water softener system, and I also installed a sediment filter before the water softener and also a screw-on hose filter afterwards. Took the water to get tested and it's pretty good. Very low (less than 0.1ppm) iron.

Is it ok to let the pump run until the well is dry, then cut it off and let the well fill back up? Or should I open the spigot maybe just halfway and let it run like that? Or run it full bore but maybe for an hour at a time, then cut it off for a bit, and repeat?

We are not living in the house right now so having water available to flush the toilet, do the dishes, etc during the fill is not an issue.

I am on well water. And filled halfway (about 10K continuously) a couple of years ago. It took about 2 days to fill, but I ran the hose at half pressure. If your well goes dry, it may never recover. I nearly ran my well dry...the water reduced significantly toward the end. I am in SE PA and water is abundant here, so my well soon replenished, but still it was risky. 40K gallons is a well-destroying amount of water. Drilling a new well will be much more expensive that $2400, so I'd buy the water if I were you.

 

[duraleigh]

I'd be using the water from the water softener to fill it in the first place.

It's VERY unlikely your water softener will have the capacity. Normally they have enough "horsepower" to maintain and manage your CH and iron in a refill capacity but not enough to fill a whole pool.

Again, I do not think you will have issues to begin with............I would fill normally and then add FC slowly. I would not count on your whole house softener to do that much work.

 

[btmansfi]

It's VERY unlikely your water softener will have the capacity. Normally they have enough "horsepower" to maintain and manage your CH and iron in a refill capacity but not enough to fill a whole pool.

Again, I do not think you will have issues to begin with............I would fill normally and then add FC slowly. I would not count on your whole house softener to do that much work.

So bypass the water softener but still run it through the sediment filter and the bobby filter at the end of the hose? I'm also going to put a CuLator in the pump basket and polyfill in the skimmer baskets, at least initially.

 

[PoolGate]

So bypass the water softener but still run it through the sediment filter and the bobby filter at the end of the hose? I'm also going to put a CuLator in the pump basket and polyfill in the skimmer baskets, at least initially.

I think I would bypass all filters. Just let it all go into the pool and filter/clean the pool after it is full. With a 3-5+ day fill you are going to x10 that if your filters get clogged.

 

[duraleigh]

I would be most concerned of running the well dry rather than filtering the water.

My well was permanently marked as to the date, the depth and the GPM. That GPM allowed me to calculate how long I could draw water without running dry. I had very difficult soil and got 3 GPM so I could only run about 3 hours and then let it recover for 4 hours. I hope you have a LOT more flow than that!

 

[jesse-99]

That's odd. We filled our last pool up with city water. I just pulled our city's water data and their iron is 0.085ppm from one source and 0.144ppm from another source. This is from 2019 data. So if there's roughly 0.1ppm iron in our city water, why did our pool not have even the faintest tint of green when we filled it?

Hmm not sure. Did you add chlorine? (it was change immediately but within a couple hours). Unless you use a sequestrant, then it won't go green even with iron in the water. It's also possible there just wasn't iron in the fill water. (without actually testing it yourself, you don't really know what you got/get).

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I vote with the “buy the water” crowd. Running a well dry is a really bad idea. Not only can you kill the pump but you can also flood the well bore with sediment laden water as you draw down the water level. That can clog the pump or make the well unusable. Like others have said, you’re going to really hate looking at a well-drillers bill with a 1/4 full pool of water in the backdrop.

Question - is there a city fire hydrant nearby? Back in the olden days, when the rocks were still soft, fire departments were allowed to help people out with filling a pool from a hydrant. You still had to pay for the water and sometimes the hourly wage of the fire fighters helping you out, but the pool could be filled quickly and you wouldn’t wreck your well doing it. Worth a shot asking if there’s a hydrant nearby …

 

[PoolGate]

I vote with the “buy the water” crowd. Running a well dry is a really bad idea. Not only can you kill the pump but you can also flood the well bore with sediment laden water as you draw down the water level. That can clog the pump or make the well unusable. Like others have said, you’re going to really hate looking at a well-drillers bill with a 1/4 full pool of water in the backdrop.

Question - is there a city fire hydrant nearby? Back in the olden days, when the rocks were still soft, fire departments were allowed to help people out with filling a pool from a hydrant. You still had to pay for the water and sometimes the hourly wage of the fire fighters helping you out, but the pool could be filled quickly and you wouldn’t wreck your well doing it. Worth a shot asking if there’s a hydrant nearby …

When you buy water they fill from the hydrants. They have a special permit and meter they attach when they fill the water trucks. I agree though, it's worth a call to the fire station to ask.

 

[btmansfi]

Update - got 3 trucks of water, so 18,000 gallons, today. I started filling up from the well yesterday morning. I'd let it run for a few hours, then cut it off for an hour, then repeat. I'm guessing we're 75% of the way there. Should be full tomorrow afternoon.

 

[duraleigh]

Nice work! You will not regret that decision. Now, your water softener can handle the refills and I suggest you use it.

 

[blakeusa]

Good idea to get water. You would really stress your well running 30k+ gallons