Well Water

[CLASSICPW 14]

I'll be honest, this might have been asked before(maybe by me), but it's been awhile so I'll ask it again. 30% of my customers have wells and I've only had the occasional question about their tanks and pumps and such. I will be hauling my own water in a few months, hopefully, but until then, has anyone had any problems with well water ie. a customers pump burning up or a holding tank running dry? The only prob that I've had so far is low water pressure.

[the_GUNN_man 14]

If that many customers have wells I would suggest a on board water softener. It will help protect your pumps, coils, and you will get better results from your chemicals. Well water will also leave very spotty windows depending on how hard the water is.

[Celeste 341]

Be very careful of possible high iron content - if you have that, your lovely clean white house will turn orange before your very eyes! (For the record, oxalic applied immediately afterward will fix it - but talk about cutting into the profit margin!) You can ask the HO if their toilet bowls are rusty looking most of the time - if they are, there's iron in that thar well!

Celeste

[PLD 14]

Be very careful of possible high iron content - if you have that, your lovely clean white house will turn orange before your very eyes! (For the record, oxalic applied immediately afterward will fix it - but talk about cutting into the profit margin!) You can ask the HO if their toilet bowls are rusty looking most of the time - if they are, there's iron in that thar well!

Celeste

Been there, done that. At first I was petrified to see the white vinyl turn rust brown all over. Scrubbing, etc did nothing. At the time, I didn't know about the oxalic but I dusted off the old chemistry neurons and figured that if a base took it out of solution a caustic outta put it back in solution. 5 gal of OXA later, all was well except for some badly tarnished brass.

I do believe it is more complicated than just the water. Non of the masonite turned and neither did the very shady vinyl side of the house.

Philip

PowerHouse Pressure Washing

Fayetteville, Ga.

[Celeste 341]

Phillip, I do believe that you were the one I learned that lesson from - didn't you post your nightmare about that? (Sorry I didn't give credit for where my knowledge came from - I couldn't remember)

Celeste

[CLASSICPW 14]

I'm in Maryland so the iron thing has never happened. I do aot of house washes for a painter friend of mine. Most homes are cedar, 500,000 tp 1M a pop and always on wells and there has never been an "orange problem", i'm very thankfull now that it's brought up.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Please tell me your friend is not painting that beautiful wood... say it isn't so....

Beth :groovy2:

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

The problems I have encountered with well water did not come directly as a result of the well but the tank they have to store water in till it is used...the bottom of it was full of silt and created a major problem with supply to my machine. It clogged the filters and choked the machine so much that I was spending 20 minutes a pop taking the reservoir tank filter off, cleaning it out, putting it back together and washing for about 5 minutes and doing it all again till I said enough. I told the customer I could not do finish the job till he had his supply tank cleaned out and explained to him the circumstances it was subjecting an 8k+ machine to.

Since then, I have installed filters in the supply hoses (both ends) to help cut down on this problem and I have to vacuum out the tank for sediment periodically too.

Rod~

[CLASSICPW 14]

Not painting, but mostly solid staining, some semi, depending on the condition of the wood.

[PLD 14]

Phillip, I do believe that you were the one I learned that lesson from - didn't you post your nightmare about that? (Sorry I didn't give credit for where my knowledge came from - I couldn't remember)

Celeste

I did post that last year some time. Oh boy what a panic it was. If it helps anyone, I noticed the water tasted metalic when I drank from the hose early on. I would have thought it would have reacted in the wash mix bucket but it didn't.

Philip