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WELL WATER
OK, it's November, have been having a normal rainfall this fall, after a dry summer. My family of 6 is babying my well...I've got good quality water, just not enough of it during peak usage. I'm reluctant to drill deeper, too many coal seams around here that will ruin your water. I'm going to have to suck it up and spend $4-5K for a "coyote" system that will allow me to store a couple thousand gallons. Here's my question...plastic or concrete tank? The locals around here each have their opinions....
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WELL WATER
Oh yeah, forgot to add this...there goes my FEL for another year!!
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WELL WATER
Do you have the room to add in a large well water tank (like 80 to 120 gallon well pressurized water tank or perhaps 2) and then put a Pumptec on the well pump? The Pumptec will protect your well pump from burning up if the well goes dry and the 2 extra pressurized water tanks will hold about 70 gallons of usable water. The other option is to install a 1,000 or large septic tank, knock out the baffle in the tank and install a float switch system and pump to pump from the septic tank. The septic tank should be sterilized and caulked up sealed. I am working on this very project but will be using an extra 80 gallon pressurized water tank in the system of 2 wells and 2 20 gallon pressure tanks to give me a little extra surge capacity. With 3 daughters and a wife, running out of water can be a chinese fire drill I don't care to encounter often. ;O)
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WELL WATER
I vote plastic. I have two of them a 550 gal and 1250 gal one. They are relativly cheap and easy to move around when empty and come with threaded in/out connectors. make sure to get a dark one green or black not the clear ones as they will let light in and allow alge to grow.
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WELL WATER
I have a very similar problem. My well recharges at a rate of less than 1gal/min. I installed a 300 gallon plastic tank (designed specifically for this use) that sits in my basement. My well pump is on a timer that is set to draw water from the well for 60 seconds every hour to fill the 300g tank. There is a seperate pump in my basement that pulls water from the tank and pressurizes the 50gal cistern.
I have a family of 5. Normal domestic water usage is figured at about 100gal/day/person. I have 300gal in the tank, and about 200 more in the well, I have never run out. The system has worked very well for me but cost around $2500.
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WELL WATER
Blueman
I do not have a water shortage, but I use a 300 gal fiberglass tank Aeroator to get the sulfur smell out of my water. I have had the Fiberglass tank for 12 years. It is out side under the shed. Have never had a problem. I know they come in 1000 gal models.
good luck try the link below for tanks
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WELL WATER
In this age of engineered plastics I can't imagine using concrete for potable water. I know it's been used for thousands of years but my concern would be ingesting such things as caustic lime, and the fact that microbes can live in the porous walls. Concrete is fine for poop in a septic tank---but for drinking water...I dunno.
Here's another thought: My uncle had a well water shortage with pets and a family of 6. He had a basement with a sump pump that ran almost constantly. What he did was (and may not be allowable by code) was install valves at the supply to the toilets and other dedicated faucets that could use the sump water instead of the good well water. His kids were old enough to know that certain faucets were not for drinking. Excess sump water flowed to the creek. In times of little sump water, he turned the valves back to using well water.
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WELL WATER
I had a 1000 gallon tank with a spring feeding it at about 1/2 a gallon a minute. The friends we bought the house from had 6 kids and never ran out of water.
The tank was concrete cistern tank. The advantage is that it was buried and could take some weight and the water did not freeze in the winter. The disadvantage is that as EW states you had to bleach once in a while to keep the bugs at bay. I guess plastic tank you could bury would be the best idea. Alternatively you could epoxi coat the inside of the cistern.
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WELL WATER
Well, (pardon the pun) I spoke with someone in my area whose full time job is installing "Coyote" systems. He prefers plastic tanks, which are buried with the top of the tank 2 feet below ground. The one I am considering holds 1700 gallons. In the event my well can't keep up, I can have water hauled. He said the Coyote switch has a timer that he will initially set to turn my well pump on every 2 hours until either the tank is full, or the well is dry. The Coyote switch detects amperage used by the pump to know when the well is dry. He said that my well pump should last twice as long since it will not be cycling as often. Hasn't given me the estimate yet (that's coming tonight...gulp), but I'm guessing around $4500 for the entire system installed, including burying the tank. He recommended pouring a cup of bleach in the tank once every other month. I'll keep you updated...
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WELL WATER
Blueman the well pump won't be cycling as often, but won't it have to be cycling just as long to fill the tank? Also, you'll need another pump to deliver from the storage tank to the house too, so you operating costs have actually increased, no?
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
11-06-2006, 13:25 
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