Spring Water

[ponytug]

@Cycledude why not get your spring water tested if you have concerns? The DNR has a list of certified/approved labs;

Laboratories | | Wisconsin DNR

dnr.wisconsin.gov

Not zero cost.

All the best, Peter

 

[Cycledude]

@Cycledude why not get your spring water tested if you have concerns? The DNR has a list of certified/approved labs;

Laboratories | | Wisconsin DNR

dnr.wisconsin.gov

Not zero cost.

All the best, Peter

Not sure why you think I’m concerned about the spring water safety, I’m actually very confident it’s some of the best water in the state of Wisconsin

 

[WinterDeere]

Not sure why you think I’m concerned about the spring water safety, I’m actually very confident it’s some of the best water in the state of Wisconsin

I suspect he was responding to this:

I quit drinking it a few years ago because of all the stuff on the news about possible issues.

 

[Cycledude]

I suspect he was responding to this:

Dug well here was dug around 1964, as far as I know the water has never been tested. Never has given me any trouble but I quit drinking it a few years ago because of all the stuff on the news about possible issues. There is free spring water about 12 miles from here so that’s where I get most of my drinking and cooking water from, it was upgraded by the state probably 20 years ago and supposedly is some of the cleanest water in the state of Wisconsin, it’s out in the middle of nowhere and every time I go there are other people there filling up with water. Yes I am aware if I ever want to sell my place the dug well and septic system will most likely cause problems for people needing to get a loan from a bank. They say around here any time property changes hands the state gets involved and comes out to inspect stuff and that causes all kinds of trouble.

Yes maybe he misunderstood what was posted, guess he didn’t realize I was referring to the water from my hand dug well that has never been tested, I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with it but since the free spring water is so easy to get and supposedly some of the best water in the state that’s what I mostly use these days. Most of the other folks I see getting free spring water are getting it for making coffee because they say it tastes a lot better than the city water where they happen to live.
There are also folks that laugh about folks driving out there for supposedly some of the best water in the state, they claim it isn’t any better than city water.

 

[WinterDeere]

I will agree that city water makes terrible coffee, due to most of it being chlorinated. I don't know how people who live in areas with city water deal with that, but I'd suspect just filling a jug the night before and letting the chlorine dissipate a few hours or a day before using it, probably helps a lot. I guess a lot of water filtration systems are also aimed at removing most of the chlorine, at least below the taste threshold.

 

[Cycledude]

I grew up on a dairy farm that had excellent tasting drinking water from a drilled well so it has been pretty normal for me not to like city water from most cities, yes I can drink it but it just doesn’t taste very good.

 

[brewdog]

@brewdog How do you have your RO set up? What does your RO recycling mean? Just curious.

All the best,

Peter

Hey ponytug, RO is reverse osmosis. Salt Tank and Filter. My Tank is set up to regenerate every 28 days because my iron and hardness in the spring water is very low.

 

[ponytug]

Hey ponytug, RO is reverse osmosis. Salt Tank and Filter. My Tank is set up to regenerate every 28 days because my iron and hardness in the spring water is very low.

We have an RO here, too, I just wasn't sure what you meant by regenerate. The water softener? Or do you have a RO system that an automatic clean of the membrane (e.g. flushes the membrane at high speed, with a cleaning agent, and than applies some permeate to clean things up)?

I am always curious how others have their systems set up. I change the pre/post filters on my RO system regularly, and monitor the TDS of the permeate (and input) water to track the water quality. We use a 10gallon lined pressure tank that lets us manually run a cycle to produce permeate in a large batch once every ten days or so. It is a big improvement on the tap water.

All the best,

Peter

 

[NorTracNY]

Sadly, despite the offer being verbally accepted, the realtor called me later in the day of the contract being signed and told me the seller changed their mind and signed a lower offer they received prior to mine. I'll never really know the true story.

 

[rontaki]

Water is best when everything else is filtered out of it except the beer!

 

[WinterDeere]

Sadly, despite the offer being verbally accepted, the realtor called me later in the day of the contract being signed and told me the seller changed their mind and signed a lower offer they received prior to mine. I'll never really know the true story.

Happened to me once, too. Had a seller accept an offer that was lower in dollars and came with inspection and mortgage contingencies. We were offering cash, no contingencies, and a higher amount.

Story we got was that they already gave the prior offer a verbal "yes", and wanted to honor that, even though that buyer was taking forever to submit their bid in writing. Cost them something like $100k difference, in fact we had suggested we could go even higher, and a lot of extra hoops to jump thru with inspection and sale/mortgage contingencies for their buyer. At least I could admire their ethics, if the story we got was true.

 

[RayIN]

When I was 8 (1950) dad and mom bought a 120A farm. the house must have been built prior to 1900; no electricity, no water, wood heat.
About 100' down a hill was stone steps that lead to a spring house. The water was crystal clear and very cold. It came out of a stone wall that kinda looked like the water had worn a hole through it and carved out a depression in the stone. Dad had the water tested and it passed all tests.(BTW, that depression was great for holding watermelon to cool in spring water)
I carried buckets of water up that hill for 3 years until I spotted a Rams Head water pump in the spring house. I traced the pipe all the way to the house, so_ the house did have water inside at one time.
Being a kid I disassembled the Rams Head pump, cleaned it out and reassembled it, and it worked!
That was when I learned about a self-driven water pump. The house was about 100' away and 30' higher than the spring house. I have always been interested in mechanical stuff.

You can buy one or build one yourself.

 

[Highlandr]

the house must have been built prior to 1900; no electricity, no water, wood heat.
About 100' down a hill was stone steps that lead to a spring house. The water was crystal clear and very cold. It came out of a stone wall that kinda looked like the water had worn a hole through it and carved out a depression in the stone. Dad had the water tested and it passed all tests.(BTW, that depression was great for holding watermelon to cool in spring water)

Sounds like the old farm house a great aunt/uncle lived in until the 1980s (SW Va.), except the spring wasn't 30' lower than the house (and they did have electricity - a single, bare light bulb and one outlet in each room). Water in that spring was so cold it would numb your hand. It was the site of an annual family reunion so, yes, many a wallermellon was cooled in that basin.

 

[ultrarunner]

Lost the dream property and I had the higher offer subject only to a survey paid by me…

About an hour before my official offer came in the seller gave a verbal yes to the low one…

I approached the buyer in contract and offered the 100k difference for the buyer to walk… he said 300k… which was impossible for me.

My offer did keep the buyer from nickel and dimeing because I was in the wings…

 

[ultrarunner]

Several in the family have spring water with the water coming from a cave…

Water rights deeded from the 1800’s and the water was quite famous a longtime ago… Alhambra Spring Water… the name is still out there but hasn’t been sourced from the original spring in many decades.

The nice part in addition to great water is 50psi gravity to the farm house.

The farm house does have city water tap as when city water arrived in the area they ran lines on farm property…

Different agencies have offered cash to extinguish the deeded rights but can’t see that happening…

 

[WinterDeere]

Sounds like the old farm house a great aunt/uncle lived in until the 1980s (SW Va.), except the spring wasn't 30' lower than the house (and they did have electricity - a single, bare light bulb and one outlet in each room). Water in that spring was so cold it would numb your hand. It was the site of an annual family reunion so, yes, many a wallermellon was cooled in that basin.

I'm not sure what the new owners have done with it, but there's an old spring house in the front yard of an uncle's 1720's house, which was either fed or drained by buried wood pipes. Basically cored logs.

Although I used to spend a lot of time hunting on that property, I never really investigated the spring house myself, we had too many other interesting old properties for it to be anything real special to a teen. As of maybe 15 years ago, my uncle told me those wood viaducts were still mostly-intact, which I think is the first time I actually heard that they were wood.

The house was kept very "original" by that uncle, they didn't even install a bathroom or central heating until the 1970's or 80's. Interesting place, but as my uncle had other interests, he really let it deteriorate over the years.