We just replaced a broken water pump and tank. We now have dirt in the cold water, which we never had before. It has been about a week and it doesn't clear up. What do I do now?

Is this a submersible pump down in a well, or a surface pump? What color is the dirty water, brown from rust or dirt, or blackish? Was the installation done by a well company or someone that can take a look at what's going? If the work involved pulling the pump and pipes from the well casing they may have reinstalled the equipment too low in the well and it is sucking in dirt from the bottom of the well. If so maybe it can be raised a foot to eliminate the problem.



Edited 3 times.

The pump is in the basement. No work was done on the pipes going into the well - a shallow well. The pump is 1/4 hp stronger.. Could that be doing it?

The water is rust colored but has bits of dirt in it also.

Are we talking about a lot of dirty water, or just specks of rust and grit? Has it gotten any better as time went by? Is this an injection surface pump, it pushes water down a pipe then a second pipe brings the well water up? You will have 2 pipes going down into the well.

The pump being slightly more hp I wouldn't think would do it, but I guess it is possible if the well pipe pickup point was near the bottom of the well. There could be other improvements we aren't thinking about like a new pump or pump impeller and those improvements could increase the suction power. Since you said it is a shallow well I'm thinking the dirt is coming from the bottom of the well, something has changed. The person that did the work for you, is it a well company or someone that can look into this further for you? Or did you do the job yourself?

If you are able to raise the water pipe going into the well and get the lower end up further from the bottom of well that might help, even if it is just a few inches. You can easily measure the depth of the well with a small weight tied to a string and lower it into the well casing until it gets to the bottom. Then if the person that installed the water pipe into the well knows how many feet they used you can get an idea if your lower end is close to the bottom of the well. Has there been anything else happen that could be causing the dirt in the water, like the well casing was replaced or the basement flooded and dirty water got into the well?



Edited 5 times.