upgrading from 'well water' to 'municipal water'

So my town is finally putting more pipes in the ground, meaning I should be able to get rid of my well in the next few months. I have to hire a contractor to connect my house to the street, so this is my chance to install some more gizmos I'm also interested in installing an irrigation system next year, so keep that in mind.

For control, it looks like nothing beats the ELK WSV water valve. Expensive, but I don't want to have to worry about replacing it. Is my assumption still right?

Monitoring seems to be a bigger question mark. There are some interesting threads on CT, but they are older, and some mention a device which is no longer available. This DLJ100 valve looks pretty interesting, but not sure if there are better solutions out there. I am interested in using it for leak detection and verifying the water bill. What else is out there?

I am hoping they will run an 1" line, but don't have those details yet.

One of the things I recall when having my sprinkler system installed was to use a metal manifold instead of a plastic one. I ended up with a plastic one because that is what was used by the sprinkler company. I do have all my valves under one buried box which makes it easier to maintain and check. In our area we needed to put in a back flow device which needs to be inspected every year and removed in the fall to prevent freezing/damage. I had them install it in an area which was easy to get to (for removing). I also added a separate water meter for the water flow and that is connected to a 1-wire device for measurement. I can use this water meter to detect leaks up to the valves and I guess manually playing around with the valves to the sprinkler heads. I never had any problems with leaks other than stuck open sprinkler heads being run over by lawnmowers. Some folks have added a fertilizer tank system for some auto fertilization. I don't know if I like the idea of doing fertilizing in this manner and still do it the old fashioned way.

The neighbors installation had some issues with the lines being run too close to the surface. The next season he had his lawn aerated and the machine pieced some of the sprinkler lines. The company had to return and literally run all new lines.

While the company was installilng the flexible plastic pipes I had them install extra (cost me about $50 at the time) for future burms which I am utilizing today. In all I ran 6 non water PVC lines in the back yard and about 6 in the front yard. 4 of the most difficult ones ran underneath the front sidewalk. Its amazing with the proper tools how fast the installers put these lines in.

Personally I think switching from well water to municiple water is downgrading. I would trade out for a well the day it became legal here, once you switch to city water from well water you're not allowed to go back sadly. Biggest complain is the addition of flourine to the water, unfortunately I have to either leave out rain buckets or drive to my parents house and fill up water jugs with their well to water my house plants as the flourine in the city supply kills them. So if you're using irrigation just for grass you should be ok but just watch out that the chemicals in city water as it can harm a lot of other plants.

scorp133 said:

Personally I think switching from well water to municiple water is downgrading. I would trade out for a well the day it became legal here, once you switch to city water from well water you're not allowed to go back sadly. Biggest complain is the addition of flourine to the water, unfortunately I have to either leave out rain buckets or drive to my parents house and fill up water jugs with their well to water my house plants as the flourine in the city supply kills them. So if you're using irrigation just for grass you should be ok but just watch out that the chemicals in city water as it can harm a lot of other plants.

Click to expand...

If you are allowed to (and they may not !) I would be tempted to keep the well for gardening, power washing etc.

Up here we get billed for incoming water by the cubic meter and then we charged for the same metered amount as sewage even if you dump the water on the ground.

I use my rain barrels for outside watering and washing now.

Plants and flowers do very well on rain water but not so well on town water.

Treated town water tastes terrible !

scorp133 said:

Personally I think switching from well water to municiple water is downgrading. I would trade out for a well the day it became legal here, once you switch to city water from well water you're not allowed to go back sadly. Biggest complain is the addition of flourine to the water, unfortunately I have to either leave out rain buckets or drive to my parents house and fill up water jugs with their well to water my house plants as the flourine in the city supply kills them. So if you're using irrigation just for grass you should be ok but just watch out that the chemicals in city water as it can harm a lot of other plants.

Click to expand...

I completely agree. My city water bill WITHOUT sewage has gone from ~ $45 a month a few years ago to well over $200 a month with watering 2 times a week during the spring and summer and fall months.

Where does the OP live that a well is illegal? Is this in the US?

Interesting because in our subdivision we are not allowed wells. Most of the home outside of my subdivision have wells. I wish we could get a well.

Our water bills are tied to sewer bills also. Just asked wife and she said we are billed every month now. Used to be less than $20 and now averaging over $100.

I am currently in Will county in Illinois. My old home was in Cook county the water bills there were less than $10 a quarter.

pete_c said:

Interesting because in our subdivision we are not allowed wells. Most of the home outside of my subdivision have wells. I wish we could get a well.

Our water bills are tied to sewer bills also.

Click to expand...

Pete what's the issue with having a well?

Its some town law that is related to the storm sewer water. Its been challenged a few times. My sister lives about 3 miles from us and she is allowed a well. Its odd though that our storm sewers drain into ponds which surround the subdivision and golf course. There is a pumping station when the water level gets high.

I guess though I could dig a hole (in a stealth like manner) in the garage floor, fill up my pockets and pretend that I was walking around my lawn checking it for weeds while dumping the dirt....

Just speaking to a friend whom is building a home in Estes, CO. He was quoted 15K for a 200 foot well where he wants to build his home (lots of rocks/stone).

There are challenges with wells as well (no pun intended). I know the OP has issues with iron and stuff in well water which if not filtered would clog sprinkler heads, etc. Usually chemical in municipal water is low enough where it won't cause harm to plants or lawns. In my city they charge the same - water and sewer so it also gets expensive, HOWEVER, they let you put in a second meter for irrigation/outside usage and on that meter they bill for water only and not sewer, so if that option exists I would definitely take it when they are installation. I am contemplating doing that here now but it gets pretty expensive to retrofit.

Same thing here relating to two water meters.

Only thing is that I redid my plumbing a bit for removing iron (toilet water was red when I moved in) which would now have to all be moved/tweaked a bit for second meter.

Rupp said:

Where does the OP live that a well is illegal? Is this in the US?

Click to expand...

I don't know about Dan's scenario, but I have lived in places where city ordinances would allow you to convert from well to municipal water if you wanted ("transferring water rights"), but once you had municipal service at an address that was it. You could continue to utilize your existing well for irrigation usage only, if they didn't require you to "abandon" it. (read: backfill with concrete)

As far as irrigating with municipal water - it's certainly still the cheapest public utility but blasting several thousands of gallons of water onto your lawn on a daily/weekly basis will still hit the wallet pretty well. I'd keep the well for irrigation if they let you - especially if you have any drought-related restrictions. Here outside Atlanta (remember the sad, sad, woe is me stories in the news from last year?) the water restrictions clamped down live a vise... unless you had a private well. If so, you were golden - water away!

Sacarino said:

unless you had a private well. If so, you were golden - water away!

Click to expand...

Here in Florida, the irrigation rules apply regardless of well or muni water.

My irrigation system puts out 3400 gallons every time it runs (about 23,000 sqft of lawn and flower beds), and it runs four times a week during the driest part of the summer which is the equivalent of about one inch of rain. Total cost each time it runs -- $.47 for the electricity.

My well water is so bad (extremely high in iron and magnesium) that it literally eats appliances (have already gone through 1 dishwasher, 1 washer, and part of a fridge). It's impossible to run sprinklers of the 'raw' water since it would turn our house, walkway etc red. Piping the water through the water softener isn't great for the lawn either, plus it would screw up the regeneration cycles, so well water will be a HUGE upgrade for me.

As for cost, running the well pump costs money, the water softener requires the expensive $6/bag iron out treated salt pellets (about 6 bags a month if I milk it), trucking in water for the pool cost a fortune too, I have to replace my soaker hoses and most sprinklers every year, so as expensive this 'upgrade' will be, it's worth it in the long run.

My contractor did mention his dissatisfaction regarding the chlorine amounts, and recommended a carbon filter in order to make up for that, but it's something I will have to research.

Anyways, back on topic, what do you guys recommend for monitoring water flow?

Dan (electron) said:

My well water is so bad (extremely high in iron and magnesium) that it literally eats appliances (have already gone through 1 dishwasher, 1 washer, and part of a fridge). It's impossible to run sprinklers of the 'raw' water since it would turn our house, walkway etc red. Piping the water through the water softener isn't great for the lawn either, plus it would screw up the regeneration cycles, so well water will be a HUGE upgrade for me.

As for cost, running the well pump costs money, the water softener requires the expensive $6/bag iron out treated salt pellets (about 6 bags a month if I milk it), trucking in water for the pool cost a fortune too, I have to replace my soaker hoses and most sprinklers every year, so as expensive this 'upgrade' will be, it's worth it in the long run.

My contractor did mention his dissatisfaction regarding the chlorine amounts, and recommended a carbon filter in order to make up for that, but it's something I will have to research.

Anyways, back on topic, what do you guys recommend for monitoring water flow?

Click to expand...

Just one more off-topic comment about irrigating with well water that contains iron...you're right that running the water thru a softener is both very expensive and bad for the lawn. My water has a 1ppm iron in it, so I was concerned with what it would do to my home, sidewalks, etc. The research I did led me to the conclusion that using an injection feeder system (just on the leg going to the irrigation system) to add polyphosphate to the water would be the best way to go. I decided to wait and see if I got stain problems with the raw water, and I didn't, so I never got the feeder system. It was several years ago, so I don't remember what the initial or ongoing costs were, but it was pretty cheap, especially compared to trying to go thru a water softener. I've got a pretty big water softener system on the home side of the water system, and it regens every 850 gallons or so. There's no way I could run my irrigation system thru it.

Ira