Cleaning Sandpont Well screens

[bigswede]

Just bought a cabin that has both a drilled well and a sandpoint. Seller made the comment at closing that the screens might becoming plugged. He said to clean it to just shoot a .22 cal down the pipe. Sounds a littel funny to me, but I am not sure. Anybody got any suggestions. Dont plan to use it a lot, but it is nice to know I have a second source of water If needed ever. Thanks in advance.

[IFallsRon]

Check with your local well driller and ask for Nu-Well tablets. They're muratic acid. I got some from Traut Wells in St. Cloud. If the point isn't too plugged, this treatment will clean it up. It didn't work for my neighbor. He pulled the point and replaced with a stainless point and pushed it deeper, too.

[BillP]

That idea has been around for a long time. I even did it with my dad once. My guess to be really effective you would have to pump the well dry then pull the pipe off and shoot. It wouldn't take much water above the point to negate the shock of a .22 round.

[G_man]

You could always lower a hose from a pressure washer into the sandpoint to clean the screen. If the screen is stainless steel (and most of them are) ... the most likely cause for the blinding of the slots is fine sands. Create a small angle on the discharge point of the hose and slowly rotate the head of the hose as you move it up and down the column. Basically, in the well industry, this method would be referred to as 'jetting'.

The .22 method would be an attempt to simulate the other non-chemical method primarily used in the well industry known as 'air surging'. Well drillers will drop an air line down the column, then pump down the column, seal the top, and compress air in the column. Then they will release a valve on top and the compressed air will surge out the top and stir up the fines around the screen. I believe this method would be alot more difficult for the homeowner to do on his own, hence the development of the .22 idea to create a shockwave. While this simplistic method is curious to me, it also seems a bit dangerous. If the bottom of your sandpoint is sand ... the bullet should be absorbed by the sand. If the bottom of the casing is grouted (cement) ... you might get a riccochet. If the bottom of the screen is metal ... you might penetrate through it and create a larger sized hole that will let fine sands enter your column and hence your sand point will produce fine sands in addition to water. Over time, these fine sands will destroy your pump impeller. Plus, they are no fun to look at in your glass of water. I'd speculate your sand point has a metal bottom.

Mechanical methods of 'developing a well' are what every municipality use. Chemical treatments are avoided but they make work as well and be easiest.

[bigswede]

THanks for the info. I will strat with the tablets and go from there.