Immediately after drilling and installing the filter, it is necessary to thoroughly pump the well. If the water intake equipment was handled by professionals, they will perform primary cleaning. If you have to act on your own, before studying the question of how to clean a well with your own hands, it is worth considering several important factors. The choice of method depends on:
- Type of soil and depth of the well.
- Technical parameters: casing diameter, water source performance.
- Availability of electricity at the site, necessary tools and electric pump.
If it is necessary to obtain clean water after a long period of inactivity of a hydraulic structure, the degree of contamination and the condition of the pipe inside the structure should be determined.
Starting a water intake: how to properly pump a well after drilling
The first rule: no matter how, it is necessary to pump the well after drilling immediately after completion of the work. If the work is not carried out on time, cleaning difficulties will arise: all contaminants will settle at the bottom of the casing, and lifting the compacted layer of clay and silt will be much more difficult. Proper flushing will bring the well's flow rate to its maximum - the layer of silt will not impede the flow of water.
The washing procedure is not technically difficult, but it takes a lot of time. It takes 12 hours to completely clean shallow wells, and up to several months to pump deep wells.
Choosing a cleaning method: how best to clean a well
To determine how best to clean the well, you should analyze the depth and composition of the soil at the site:
- Shallow water intakes, with a lowering of 2–3 aquifer layers, with a predominance of sand or clay. In this case, you can both clear the well of sand and pump the source using a homemade device - a bailer, a hand pump or inexpensive submersible equipment.
- At a depth of 15 m or more, work should be entrusted to specialists. For deep wells drilled into limestone and hard rocks, you will have to use powerful centrifugal pumps and special equipment.
Features of professional training
Experts determine how to flush a well after drilling by analyzing the composition of contaminants that rises with the first portions of water to the surface. Depending on the depth of the trunk, hoses and pipes of sufficient length are prepared.
In order to pump the well as quickly and efficiently as possible, professional submersible centrifugal pumps are used. The equipment is lowered to a precisely designated depth and water is continuously taken until a stream is completely cleared of impurities.
With such equipment, pumping will be performed quickly and with a guarantee.
Important! Carrying out work on your own with powerful equipment purchased for organizing water supply is expensive. The pump may fail due to prolonged pumping of water with mechanical particles.
Video: rules of professional leveling
Professional advice on how to properly pump a well after drilling
How to clean a well from silt and sand with your own hands
Owners of plots without electricity will have to resolve the issue on their own. Owners of old water intakes that have not been used for a long time also often face a problem.
Water sources whose depth does not exceed 15 m can be pumped independently without unnecessary expenses. A minimum of equipment is required, the main thing is to stock up on time and patience.
Do-it-yourself: how to clean a well with a regular bailer and hand pump
The most economical option for solving the question of how to pump a well with your own hands is to use a conventional bailer and a hand pump to facilitate the work and speed up the process. This method is suitable for surface wells if clay or sandy soil predominates.
You can make a bailer yourself: a tip with a valve with a sharp cutting edge is welded to an ordinary thick-walled pipe. A handle or hook is attached to the top so that the pipe filled with sludge can be lifted to the surface.
A hand pump is used to facilitate the work. With its help, you can supply water inside the column and suck the contaminated sludge to the surface through a hose. Saves time and effort: you don’t have to manually lift several tens of kilograms to the surface. The pump can be used after removing the bulk of the contamination with a bailer for final cleaning.
How to clean a well with a bailer:
- A bailer is lowered to the bottom of the well. The valve opens due to water hammer, silt and sand enter the pipe body along with dirty water, and the valve closes automatically.
- Using a winch, cable, or manually, the filled device is raised to the surface and the contents are poured out.
- The procedure is repeated until the contaminants are completely removed.
Disadvantages of the method: labor intensity, duration of the procedure. Due to the small volume of the device, the cleaning process can take weeks.
Flushing with a submersible pump
How to pump sand out of a well with your own hands? The fastest way is with a submersible pump. There is no point in buying expensive imported tools for dirty work. It is enough to choose a cheap model. It is better that the water intake hole in the vibration pump is located at the bottom.
Inexpensive vibration pump model
For pumping you will need:
- Hoses that significantly exceed the depth of the source bore.
- Pump.
- Weight (metal bolt, blank with fastening).
- Cable or rope.
A cable is attached to the pump, which must be strong enough to lift the equipment if the pump gets sucked into the sand. It is better to use a thin and strong steel cable. After lowering the pump, a hose is lowered in parallel, which will supply water. The pressure will wash away and lift contaminants from the bottom.
To soften and loosen the sludge, you can lower the load to the bottom of the well before the pump is immersed. During cleaning, it is necessary to periodically lift the equipment and pump clean water - the pump will not break, overheat or become clogged.
Pay attention! It is very important to accurately determine the immersion depth in order to purify the water from the well as best as possible. A pump that is too low can suck up sand that has accumulated at the bottom, while a pump that is too high will result in muddy debris not being removed. The optimal height is from 50 to 70 cm from the bottom of the casing.
Cleaning with two pumps: how to flush a well yourself
An express method for pumping a well: a surface pump continuously pumps water, at the same time silt rises from the bottom, and a submersible pump pumps water to the surface. This method is the fastest.
Diagram of the correct location and connection of equipment
You will need:
- Two pumps: one for supply, the other for intake of contaminated water.
- Capacity, minimum 150 – 200 l.
- Hoses.
First, a deep pump is connected to fill the pipe with water. Then they connect an external one, the pressure washes away the dirt. The process occurs almost automatically. It is necessary to monitor the water level in the barrel and periodically turn off the pumps to avoid overheating.
Difficulties in pumping a well
The main problems that arise during pumping are related to the incorrect choice of method and failure to follow simple rules. If the well is old and has not been used, it is better to entrust the diagnosis of its condition to specialists. Too intense pressure can damage the walls: in this case, you will have to repair the equipment and hammer in a new pipe.
Haste is another reason why the source cannot be washed. In areas with alumina, the process can take months because contaminated water easily penetrates back into the aquifer. It is important to discharge the pumped water over a long distance, so cleaning will take less time.
Deep water intakes should only be serviced by professionals. The procedure must be carried out regularly - the source will be reliably protected from silting.
When the water in the tap loses transparency and sediment forms at the bottom of the container, many owners of country houses begin to think about how to clean the well with their own hands to remove particles of ground silt, sand and clay.
Very often, the well is the only source of drinking water at the dacha, and if it is not cleaned in time, you may be left without the much-needed liquid.
Of course, the easiest way to clean a water well from clay, silt and sand is to use the services of appropriate specialists. However, you will have to pay a lot of money for this.
It should be noted that with the right approach and a responsible attitude to the matter, you can perform the necessary cleaning of a well at your dacha yourself.
In general, preventive well maintenance should be performed regularly.
But if water comes out of the tap under low pressure, and in addition, various impurities from silt, clay or sand are noticeable in it, then this indicates that the time has come to think about thoroughly cleaning the well.
Before clearing a silted well, you should carefully study the various cleaning methods that you can implement with your own hands, then choose the most optimal one.
Main causes of clogging
A well in a country house, from which water is obtained for irrigation and drinking, requires constant monitoring and regular maintenance.
If you identify its contamination in the early stages, then eliminating the main cause with your own hands will be quite simple.
If the water supply from the tap stops altogether, fixing the problem yourself will be problematic and not always possible.
Measures to clean the water source should be taken when the first signs are identified that will indicate its clogging.
This can be determined by the presence of ground sand, silt or clay in the water.
If the water from the tap flows in a rather weak stream, and the tap makes an unpleasant snorting sound and it is not water that is constantly flowing, but air and sand, then this also indicates that the drilled source is clogged and the need to take urgent measures.
You should not put off cleaning the well until later, as it will continue to clog and it will soon become impossible to clean it yourself.
Even the best-drilled well tends to become clogged over time. There may be several reasons for this. One of the most common is inconsistent water intake.
Most often, summer residents encounter it, most of whom permanently live on their property only in the summer.
They take water from it when they are on their site, which means they use the well irregularly, which leads to the accumulation of sand, silt and other debris at the bottom of the well.
In addition, debris and sand clog the filter due to irregular water intake, which also negatively affects the water and its pressure.
Another common cause of well contamination is the ingress of debris from outside, for example, when sand or soil from the collapsing edges of the well enters the water at the bottom.
In addition, possible soil movements and errors during its installation can lead to clogging of the well.
For example, if you install a filter with a diameter that is smaller than the diameter of the pipe itself, then the water will not be completely pumped out from the bottom, and this will soon lead to silting of the filter.
Cleaning with a compressor
Immediately after the hole for the well is drilled and before its operation, it is necessary to clean it, as shown in the video below.
This is due to the fact that initially various debris and sand will enter the pipe along with the water, which will make the liquid unsuitable for consumption.
The process of first flushing a well takes about ten hours; to do it yourself, you will need to acquire a compressor and several pieces of pipes.
The pipes should be tightly connected to each other and lowered to the very bottom of the well, while there should be free space between them and the well opening itself.
This pipe structure must be carefully reinforced so that it does not vibrate under pressure.
After this, the compressor is pumped up to the maximum possible pressure and all the accumulated air from it is carefully released into the pipe.
This pumping is carried out several times until the water from the pipe flows without silt and sand.
During pumping by the compressor unit, the air entering the pipe will throw out all the muddy water containing silt and sand through the space between the pipes.
In some cases, it may not be possible to purify water in a drilled source using air.
To do this, you need to connect the compressor to a container filled with water and, under maximum pressure, supply it directly into the well itself.
Cleaning with water should be repeated several times, until sand and other debris stop coming out of the well along with the water.
This method of cleaning with water and air makes it possible to effectively clean the well from silt and sand located at the bottom, but does not help with the formation of various deposits in the filter.
Other cleaning methods
You can clean the well in a simpler and more accurate way if you use a special submersible pump.
In this case, all the dirt from the well will not be scattered around the yard, since it can be directed to a specific place.
Before starting work, a strong cable should be firmly attached to the pump.
After this, you can proceed directly to purifying the water in the well. To do this, start the pump near the bottom.
In the process of cleaning a well using this method, it is necessary to carefully monitor the operation of the pump and not miss the moment of complete pumping of the well.
You can also clean the well with an ordinary vibration pump, but you will have to remove and wash the unit several times to remove debris, silt and sand.
If the use of pumps failed to cope with the problem, and after cleaning the well, water comes out with low pressure with dirty impurities, then most likely you will have to clean the filters yourself.
In this case, cleaning can be done using battery acid. First, you need to pump out all the water from the bottom of the drilled water source.
Further cleaning is carried out by pouring acid, which must stand in the internal space for at least two days.
After this, you should completely pump out all the water from the drilled well several times. Next, for a month, the incoming water should not be used for drinking or cooking.
You can also clean a drilled water source manually, for which you need to acquire a special cylinder, which is called a bailer.
This cleaning method is described in detail in the video below.
The bailer is sharply lowered several times and raised inside the pipe near the very bottom, after which it is raised to the surface and thoroughly cleaned of debris and sand.
This procedure is repeated until the water becomes completely clear. This cleaning method is quite labor-intensive, but effective.
To ensure that the well becomes clogged as little as possible, even during its construction it is recommended to carefully select the pump and filters, and also ensure that they are compatible with the diameter of the pipes used.
You need to make it a rule to regularly clean the drilled source of drinking water at your dacha. This will help avoid severe blockages when the work cannot be completed independently.
In many private homes, a well is the only way to obtain drinking water. Its operation does not cause much trouble, but it does clog from time to time. This is influenced by several reasons, and how to eliminate them effectively and quickly is described in the article.
Gradually, any well becomes dirty; to remove the blockage, you need to find out why this happened. The reduction of tap water and the supply of contaminated water occur due to several reasons, the main of which are:
- Irregular water intake . The well is not used constantly, and during periods of inactivity during the cold period, sediment consisting of sand, silt and pieces of rust from pipes accumulates at the bottom of the well.
- Environmental pollution . They can enter the system due to poor-quality installation work, incorrect installation of the filter, or wear of parts.
- Clogged filter . It often happens that due to irregular maintenance, the filter device becomes silted.
- Errors when drilling a well . Some craftsmen build it without reaching the aquifer.
Purge for cleaning
To perform this you will need a special device - an airlift. This is a regular compressor with a hose connected to it. With its help, air is supplied into the well under a pressure of 15 atmospheres; thanks to the pressure, it pushes silt and sand from the bottom of the well to the surface. This option is used for wells up to 40 meters deep, and the pressure must be closely monitored. The purging process is carried out step by step:- Insert pipes into the well . They must be secured from above with ropes, this is necessary to prevent the pipes from rising, which can occur due to high pressure.
- Installing a Vacuum Adapter . It needs to be secured with self-tapping screws. After inflating the pressure to the maximum value, the compressor is connected to the adapter using a hose.
- Turn on the unit. Under pressure, the air will begin to push out dirty water, which itself will clean the interpipe space.
Dry cleaning
It is used if after purging the water flow has not increased. This phenomenon indicates that the filter is clogged with solid deposits containing iron, salt and lime.To get rid of them, they resort to a radical method - using battery acid. All the water is pumped out of the well, and then acid is poured into its bottom. In this form, the well should stand for 2 days, while its top should be carefully closed with a lid. After this, the water from the well is pumped out several times to clean it of the residue broken down by acids.
Try to use water only for household and construction needs. Only after a month is it allowed to drink and use it for cooking, otherwise there is a high probability of being poisoned by acid residues.
With two pumps
To perform cleaning, 2 pumps are used: deep and self-priming. The process takes a lot of time, but it proceeds without clogging with large sediment particles:- For all the dirty water that rises from the bottom, you need to prepare a barrel of at least 200 liters. A small container is attached to its upper part, the bottom of which is made of a fine sieve;
- One hose is directed into this container, the other, loaded, is lowered into the well, but so that it does not rest against the bottom;
- Work begins by turning on the deep-well pump. He collects a full barrel of water; if there is not enough water in the well, he will need to top it up;
- It is necessary to put into operation a self-priming pump that will supply water from the barrel to the well, since particles of silt will remain in the container with a mesh bottom, the water will return relatively clean.
The cleansing process in this way lasts about 2 hours.
Application of a bailer
This is an effective method, for which you need to prepare a half-meter pipe, insert a metal ball into it, its diameter should be about 50 mm. This device can be purchased in a store or created from improvised materials. A mesh is welded in its upper part, and a hole is provided in the lower part, which is made using a regular nut. In this design, an arc is welded on top, from which the cable is suspended.
The bailer sinks to the bottom, water seeps into it, and the ball inside begins to rise and then falls. He makes such translational movements up to 4 times. After which the structure is lifted from the well and cleared of sand. In general, about half a kilogram of sand gets into the bailer. The work is carried out until the bailer rises almost empty.
This method is most often used for shallow wells - up to 30 m.
Cleaning with pump and fire truck (video)
Wells in private houses are characterized by a shallow depth, which can reach up to 25 meters. Thanks to this, you can clean them yourself using low-power pumps, as suggested in the attached video:Cleaning with pump
To supply water to the surface of the well, a pump is lowered on a suspension, then it turns on and pumps out water. If siltation occurs at the bottom of the device, the water supply may eventually stop completely.Most wells use a conventional vibration pump model. In case of removing the plug, you need to choose a model with a lower water intake, but before using it you need to modify it:
- Unscrew the outer nut on the tip of the pump;
- Install a metal bracket about 15 cm long onto the threaded shaft;
- Clamp it with a nut and tighten it well.
The pump lowers to the bottom of the well, but only on the condition that there is water there. If it is not there, then you need to add a small amount of liquid there. After filling it, the pump is lowered, with light rocking movements it is lifted and immediately lowered. With this action, a bracket attached to the end of the pump agitates the sludge. The pump is able to pick up contaminants and throw them out.
Cleaning with fire truck
If the blockage is more serious, and the sediment formed on the outer walls of the pipe has become a hard crust, then the second option, which is shown in the same video as in the previous paragraph, is suitable.You need to take a fire hose, the diameter of which fits freely into the well pipe, and put a tip on it. Its design is made with a narrowed end, due to which, when water is sucked out of the system, the pressure at the bottom of the well will increase.
Washing is carried out using a fire truck:
- Supplying liquid to the sleeve;
- Filling the entire well;
- Due to the resulting pressure, water penetrates through the filter into the space behind the walls of the pipe and destroys the crust of sludge.
Situation.
The well is 15 years old, depth 45 meters, water with iron, water column 6 meters.
Over the past 5 years, there has been a gradual decrease in flow rate and a decrease in depth from about 1 meter or more.
It is clear that it is time to clean.
First I tried bailing with a hand bailer - a pipe with a valve, weight 10 kg.
The bailer collects very little sediment, a couple of glasses.
It's hard and very slow.
I don’t want to hit with a heavy, powerful bailer, I’m afraid I’ll break through the bottom and the water will go away.
Result:
- The well has been restored in depth and flow rate to the same level as when I began operating it approximately 8 years ago.
- About 3 buckets of contaminants (sand, small stones, rust in nodules) were removed from the well.
- In addition, for about 8 hours I pumped out the turbidity and dirty water, using my original pump after cleaning, installed in its place.
- I cleaned it with a homemade device, made in theory from the Internet, according to the principle of a cyclone.The idea is this:
The cleaning method was inspired by a drawing from this article:
http://usadba-kirov.ru/infrastruktur...skvazhinu.htmlSince the “baby” cannot pump water with sand (although everyone does this, but it eventually comes to an end - overheating or complete wear of the valves, they are rubber), you need to separate the water from the sand, do not pump this water to the top, but let it go in a circle in the well to loosen it.
For example, the dirt that was in my well cannot be lifted with any vibrating device, there is a lot of it and it is very heavy.Based on this idea, I made my own structure from iron - for real.
This is a 1.5 meter pipe in which a vibration pump and a container for collecting dirt using the “cyclone” principle are installed.This structure is lowered into the well, the pump is turned on and collects dirt from the bottom of the well into the container. It takes all of 15 minutes.
After that, we raise it, shake out the dirt and lower it again.
My design picks up about 3 - 5 liters of dirt.
Moreover, it picks up large stones and even dissolved silt - the cyclone is a great idea, it separates even the smallest particles of dirt.What's bad is the heaviness of the structure. But the attempt to make it all out of plastic did not work out. The installation should sink well to the bottom under its own weight. Loosening occurs by the installation itself, since the vibrating device transmits vibration to the pipe, and in addition, I welded three legs for loosening and stability at the bottom.
The result was a water vacuum cleaner.How is this better than a bailer?
The main thing is that you don’t need to hit anything, throw anything, or injure the filters, casing and water-supporting layer.
I lowered it - waited 15 minutes - picked it up - shook out the dirt. It's simple.
This method collects much more dirt in one lift than a hand bailer.
Lifts everything from rocks to dissolved silt. At the end, when the coarse dirt was lifted, the unit arrived full of slurry of dissolved fine dirt.
Below is a picture of the idea and my solution in hardware:
Any well eventually silts up, resulting in insufficient water supply or even stopping the water supply. This happens regardless of the quality and purity of the supplied water. Let's look at ways to clean a well and determine their advantages and disadvantages.
Cleaning methods:
So, we looked at the most popular ways to clean a well yourself. The choice of one or the other depends on your preferences.
User Questions:
- Good afternoon! The well is 10.5 m deep. The diameter of the casing pipe is 160 mm, drilled from the bottom to a height of -8 m. When drilling, this is the third aquifer, at the bottom there are large rounded pebbles. On the third day of pumping, the water level dropped and the silting clay
- How to clean a filter at a depth of 27 meters. The well is new, poor water flow. The water column is 5 meters. The baby pump will pump it out in 8 minutes
- Hello, the question is this: We have a 37-meter well at our dacha, with a PVC casing pipe, it has been used since 2009 only in the summer for irrigation and drinking, but last summer we changed the pump (it was Kama, it became Aquarius) and problems began in the form of clay slurry. Pump first hanged n
- Hello. The question is: I have a well of 45 meters, drilled in 2014. They advised me to pump out the water with “baby” type pumps (vibrating). Killed 5 pumps. Now the pump has completely failed, and I can’t pull it out, even though I attached the cable too - it doesn’t work. Posove
- The 70-meter well was used only in the summer. Now the deep-well pump is lowered by 50 meters, there is less water and it comes with sand. Is there any point in bothering with cleaning or is it easier to drill a new one? If you can clean the spruce, tell me how?
- the 30 m well is clogged with sand, there is a motor left and there is no water supply
- Hello! Please tell me, we have a well 25 meters deep. We have three small children. When we arrived at the dacha, I opened the lid of the well and I went into the house to get a pump and hose, and they managed to throw clay (a lot) into the well. Will tell you