well water/sprinkler problems?

[bananiem]

We have a well and the outside water is so full of iron it's orange. No matter what kind or price of sprinkler we buy it seems to work fine for about 5 or 6 times and then it will stop oscillating. Our neighbors either don't have this same problem or they are all buying new sprinklers every week. Does anyone else have this problem?
I think it must be our water that is gunking them up inside but I'm just wondering if anyone else has gone through this, How did you fix it?

 

[Snowwark]

Is there a place in your area where you could get your water tested Bananiem?

Keeping this near the top for any well Buds who might have an answer!

 

[Snowwark]

~ bump ~

No well Buds out there?

 

[WebmasterAlex]

We have a lot of iron in our water too. We put in a unit called an "acid neutralizer" basically a big cylinder that forces the water through limestone then a water softener. Huge difference in water quality for washing clothes etc as well as not clogging stuff!

 

[bananiem]

We have a water softener and Iron filter for our indoor plumbing., we just didn't have it run to the outside too. I didn't think it would be good for the plants and grass. I was just wondering if anybody else had problems with their sprinklers getting gunked up.

 

[DixieDreamer]

We are on a well too. We do not have the iron problem you are describing, but we do occassionally get some sand in our system and it will clog the sprinklers up. When this happens, I switch to a sprinkler that I have that literally has no screens and no small holes, it tosses the water without going through small passages. It is a rose waterer that I purchased made by gardena. I have not seen it in the stores in a long time - but found it by a google search at a United Kingdom site. I use this for a day or so and it allows the sand to be cleared out of the system. Then I return to my other favorite sprinklers. I only have to do this once in a while.

The iron in the water sounds like more of a consistent problem. Are you sure it is your well? My sister had a problem like this with her water system and it turned out it was the pipes that brought the water from the pressure tank to the house and gardens. They used metal pipes to run the lines rather than the standard water grade PVC that is commonly used today. The result was that she had terrible staining in her bathroom fixtures and the taste was AWFUL! They ended up replacing all the piping - which required retrenching everything.