Water Well?

[Waxman]

I have been tossing around the idea of drilling an artesian well on my carwash property. I know there is a good vein out back because my old detail shop next door had a well we used for 13+ years.

Even if the whole project cost $10k, the payback would not take very long.

Does anyone see any potential problems or snags with this idea and have you used a well yourself in conjunction with city water connection?

Thanks!

 

[Randy]

Up here there are a lot of restrictions on where you drilling a well. There?s no way you can drill a well in the city limits and you can?t be connected to city water if you are also connected to a well, they have to be physically separated. One of my houses has a well and when it became contaminated we connected the house to city water. When we did that we had to disconnect the well from the house, the only thing the well is used for now is irrigation. I?ve thought about drilling a well a few times, I?d only have to drill down about 50-75 feet to hit water.

 

[washnvac]

I have requested a couple of times to install wells at different locations. I think it is silly for me to use chlorinated and flourodated water to wash cars. And ofcourse, I have to have a carbon filter to remove the chlorine for the reverse osmosis. What a waste! But everytime, the municipality shot it down--no well.

 

[easywash]

Water Well

In North Vancouver we have a 108Ft well that generates 35GPM and we have a 35,000 Liter holding tank.

We have City water into the building and system can switch between City and Water with the flick of a handle.

You will need a backflow preventer to stop any cross contamination of sources.

All in all I save about $3500 a month in water and sewer fees.

My total installation cost including Green Sand filters was about $25K

Worth EVERY PENNY

 

[bigleo48]

Easywash,

Where does you process water go? Into city sanitary sewer? If so then how does the city calculate your sewer bill?

That's the issue with me, not allowed to drill for well as there is no effluent meter.

Big

 

[easywash]

Well Water

We go into the sanitary sewer with no issues and no meter

I know of at least two other carwashes with similar setups to mine in my area.

 

[Waxman]

Bigleo

Why can't you install a sewer meter? City won't read it?

 

[Waxman]

At what GPM would a well without a holding tank make sense for a 2/1 on city water?

Could one make up the difference of no holding tank by supplementing with city water?

 

[easywash]

Well Calculations

Waxman it would really depend on what your water draw for the 2/1 is... you would need to calculate that first and work backwards from there.

Mixing City and Well water would require solenoid mixing valves that would be triggered based on water flow or lack of...

We have a well flow rate of 35GPM sustained which does not meet our peak demand load. We have a 35,000L holding tank which fills overnight and and draws down during the day.

We've had mechanical issues that have caused problems be we've yet to ever run out of water due to a "lack of water". Knock on wood.

 

[Washmee]

My wash is located in a township, so I was able to drill a well. It produces over 100 gal/min. It was worth every penny I paid for it and the softners required.

 

[welldriller]

well water

i am car wash owner welldriller it is very smart to drill well and u can drill in city limits .no cross connections of city water and well water and it can be metered with a water meter tells how much u are putting in sewer
also geothermal heating for floor heat smart move. thank u welldriller

 

[Jim L.]

I’ve had a well since day one. It probably saves me $500/mo. on a slow month and over a $1,000/mo. on a good month. I run on the well as a primary source and keep city water as an automated back up.

 

[Waxman]

Is there one pump that stands out among others for reliability and efficiency?

 

[Jim L.]

I have no idea as to the brand of the pump.

My well uses a 1.5 hp submersible pump, bladder tank and a pressure switch. I had to replace the pump once...the first one lasted 4 years and the current one is 7.

 

[ted mcmeekin]

How many bays and do you have a softenor?

Ted

 

[ted mcmeekin]

Sorry--also how did you set up swap over to city water?

Ted

 

[Waxman]

2+1. yes softener.

I would use the well to supplement city water; keep em both connected.

 

[Jim L.]

My wash is a 7/1 and yes it does have a water softener.

Both the well and city water feed the plumbing system. The well feed flows past a pressure switch and through a check valve before tying into the plumbing. The city water feed contains a solenoid valve controlled by the pressure switch. The water pressure from the well keeps the solenoid valve closed. If that pressure goes below 5 psi the solenoid valve opens. It is a crude system, but it has worked for me for a long time.

 

[torquewrench]

our wash is in the middle of the no where. We have no city water or sewage. I could not even imagine having to pay water bills like you guys do.We have a 6 inch well but I don't know the gpm.We also have a reclaim system.Zero water discharge is all we were allowed.We would be BROKE if we had to pay a $3,000 water bill a month.

 

[Waxman]

MA DEP is now determining whether a cross-connection problem may exist. Seems like there should be a way to insure it isn't a problem. Also, we determined that the well would be private and not public ( a private well is allowed for business, public is not).

The main concern is the presence of a restroom. I have one, but it is in my detail shop, which is a separate building with a separate water connection. This means the well would be for carwash only and therfore categorized as 'private'.

The impetus behind this latest round of due diligence was the arrival of last quarter's water/sewer bill.