New member and pool owner.

[Chris Roach]

Hello,

Recently bought a house with a inground 25000 gal pool. The house has well water and was wondering if I can top off the pool for spring opening with the well water? I've heard a couple of cons on filling with a well. A. you could dry up your well and B. you could have a hard time getting the water clear due to the high iron content. Any thoughts you pool experts could share?

Thanks

Chris

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Yes, those are more or less the two major issues, though I would phrase them differently.

Some wells have a lot of iron in the water. If you have a lot of iron in your well water then you need to use sequestrant all the time to prevent iron stains. Of course you might already have iron in the pool and might need to use sequestrant anyway, or there might not be any iron in your well water. The best thing to do is to get both the well water and the pool water tested for iron. Alternatively, you can simply assume that iron isn't a problem, and then deal with it when you do get iron stains. Also, people in the area, particular pool stores, can tell you if iron is common in wells in your area.

It isn't so much a question of running the well dry, which is possible but very rare this time of year, as overtaxing the pump. You want to run water from the well in a way that allows the pump to run continuously, instead of cycling on and off constantly. The best way to do that depends on how your plumbing is setup and how large a well pump you have.

Another thing to keep in mind is that getting water from another source will cost more and won't always be any better. Areas with high iron content often have problems getting iron free water.

 

[fuzzy_dba]

...well water and was wondering if I can top off the pool for spring opening with the well water? I've heard a couple of cons on filling with a well.

We filled ours with well water and use well water to top it off. The 2 things that I check the supply water for are iron and calcium. We're fortunate in that the water has lots of calcium but very little iron . Even if it does have iron that can be dealt with. IMHO, Topping off a pool shouldn't tax the well, unless it's borderline to begin with.

Test the water (both your pool water and the well water), with a high quality drop-test kit like the TF100 and we'll can see what you have to look forward to.

What did the previous owners use to sanitize the pool?

 

[Chris Roach]

Thanks for the replies,

The previous owner had water trucked in at $3-400 a pop. That seemes kind of excess to me!
I did stop at a local pool shop and they said they never heard of pumping a well dry from filling a pool (in the area).

I asked about the iron content from the well water and they said to use liquid magnet (I think that's what he called it) to take care of that problem.

He recomended filling the pool from the hose, then running the DE for 24hrs, then bring in a sample of the water to determine exactly what I need to add.

I figure that would be the best bet, but just wanted to here others thoughts on opening the pool with well water.

Also, the pool was never opened last season, so I have alot of cleaning to do.

Thanks again.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Once you have metals in the water, and use sequesterant, sequesterant is needed - usually on a monthly basis- as a maintenace issue. It can get expensive, especially for large pools, which may be why the prior owner decided instead to truck in the water.

 

[fuzzy_dba]

...water trucked in at $3-400 a pop.
<<Seems kind of excessive to me too, UNLESS there are metals in the well water>>

...the iron content from the well water and they said to use liquid magnet...
<<After the results come in post them on the board here and the experts will tell you what's needed>>

...the pool was never opened last season, so I have alot of cleaning to do....
<<No time like the present to get started ?>>

Thanks again.

You need to get a quality test kit. I STRONGLY recommend the TF100 kit. It doesn't test for metals (except calcium, which is technically a metal) but tests for just about everything else.

Even though the pool wasn't opened last year it would be nice to have some idea what the prior owner userd as a sanitizer. It may not help, but :?: ...

 

[duraleigh]

I did stop at a local pool shop and they said they never heard of pumping a well dry from filling a pool (in the area).

Do you have any idea what capacity your well will produce? You may be similar to your neighbors but that's not always the case.

In my area of NC, most wells are around 300' deep and produce 1-3gpm (mines 280 and I get 1.5gpm) So, if you turn on my hose and get about 5gpm (normal) you can see my well will run dry in about 1.5 hours. Hardly practical for filling a pool.

Proceed cautiously with well water. Once iron is in your pool it NEVER, NEVER comes out and can (and frequently does) cause staining issues.

If your pool store guy tells you "iron magnet" will remove the iron from your water, he is incorrect.

 

[PaulR]

When I was a kid, my chemical-engineer dad had this rube goldberg for taking iron out of the fill water... the hose goes into tank A which had a pile of 1" chlorine tabs in it, outlet from tank A hooks to tank B full of sand, outlet of tank B finally allowed into the pool. I guess he was trying to induce the kind of precipitation that causes scaling/staining, but catch it in the sand filter before it got into the pool. (Tank B was not the regular filter.)
--paulr

 

[JasonLion]

Iron can be removed using a greensand filter, but they are expensive and the flow rate is fairly limited. The way they work is kind of similar to what you describe.