Woke up this morning and turned on the faucet to fill coffee pot. No one had run any water since last night. Pipes were full of air and water turned black. Ran the outside spigot into a bucket and didn't clear or stop sputtering. Any ideas? I'll be calling a professional in a few hours.

thankfully town water here les,hopin its something simple.

Hole in well pipe I would bet. Look on the bright side at least it did it today and not on Thanksgiving. Good luck

what kind of pressure tank do you have?

Is that casing or the line to the house you think? Seems like pump runs OK. At least the bit I ran into a bucket recharged the pressure tank. Yeah glad it was today and I'm not working. I wouldn't care if it happened tomorrow except I'd need to wait another day to call someone.

The kind with a bladder. Just had it replaced last January. Had a hole in bladder.

Just a guess but I’d say in the well. It spraying against the casing and making the water dirty. As it drains back it creates air. It could also be a bad check valve they will create air too. Worst case is well going dry.

Fortunately I have a 5 gallon water cooler we use for cold drinking water. And the crik is only 30 yards from the back door to fill buckets for the potty.

well (pun intended) i hope you can get somebody over today

Right now I have the water shut off at the tank to see if the pressure drops indicating a leak. If it was line to house, I would suspect the color to be more brown. This is black. Gotta wait until 8:00 before the pump supply company opens. Was going to drive down and talk with someone on recommendations. I need to get out of the house anyway. Mother in law is driving me nuts.

Oh perfect, well trouble and mother in law there at the same time. Hopefully there’s a bar on way to well supply store. LOL Just be glad it’s not your septic system, that can be a real PITA with company in the house.

I would say its from the bladder tank, but if you can drop a cup on a fishing line down the well head that will let you know if its at the well if that water is dirty.

mine did somethign similar a year or so ago - turned out to be a bad check valve

First off you haven't really given much to go on so someone can give suggestions to help you out,

what's the depth of the well,

what kind of pump is it a submersible or jet pump.

Does it pump up to pressure and shut off or does it continue to run ?

Total depth of well then total amount of water in it ?

This black water is it coming out of the hot or cold side of the faucet ?

How much galvanized pipe do you have in the water system ?

Why are you waiting a few hours before calling the well company ? Don't they deserve to enjoy Thanksgiving with friends and family to ( yes you guessed correctly if your thinking this guy is or was in the water well business ) and holiday rates can go into effect real quick and cost you more the longer you wait.

Don't drop a cup down your well on a fishing line because chances are it won't get past the pitless adapter unless it's a 8" or larger casing and let's say it does and the line breaks then you have more junk down in the well you don't need in it .

Allan

Had to wait until they opened. Well is about 55-60' deep. Submersible. Pump seems good. Repressures the tank and doesn't bleed off. I closed the valve for an hour and only lost 0.5 psi at most. Black coming from cold side. I ran a hose outside into a bucket after turning water back on. It ran clear after a few seconds but I could always feel a bit of air every once in a while. I didn't run more than 10 gallons through total. I don't know of any galvanized pipe. One last thing. It did this at the first use of water in the AM. Not sure if that means anything.

I'm just playing the devil's advocate here in hopes of helping you out, something momentarily went south somewhere in the system for what ever reason, it sounds as if the pump was pulled and reset which is one of the reasons why you can get the off colored water.
I'd run it outside and see if it clears up after shutting off the power to the pump until it quits flowing water then check the air pressure in the pressure tank , which should be 2 lbs less than the cut on pressure on the pressure tank, when you check the pressure if water comes out of the valve the bladder is shot if this is the case get another pressure tank as large as you can fit into the space available and that you can afford it's better for the entire system.

It almost sounds like you need to get your well bailed out or cleaned out if the faucet screens get plugged that's one of the signs of trouble, like here many water wells are punched through a vein of coal and it amazes me how much damage tiny pieces of coal can do it's as bad or worse than sand with that said a filter before the pressure tank maybe a good idea also.

You don't want to run a bunch of hot water until the water clears up again because they fill up with enough minerals as it is I hope this helps and let us know how it goes for you.
Allan

Thanks Allan. Talked to the owner of the plumbing supply store. He's very familiar with the aquifer on my road. He suspected based on the troubleshooting so far (thanks again) that the mechanical components are fine. Sounded to him like a pressurized vein opened underground. Odd is that it had no odor. My water has a slight sulphur smell occasionally and this certainly did not. So far so good on the clearing and air. Just running a hose out in the yard for a bit longer but no recurrence yet. I guess it is in fact time to have the well surged. Probably waited too long.

That's always possible if anything I'd suggest either bailing it out with a service rig / truck or get a air rotary drill rig in to blow it out just don't stand to close when the drill rig opp trips the handle releasing the air down into the well it gets messy in a hurry !

I'll also guess that you're well casing is 6" with a liner that's just under 5" in diameter and hopefully not steel all the way down to the bottom, and hopefully 25 thousands plastic screen and not stainless steel liner.
What you don't want is someone cutting slots into the steel casing these chances are will grow shut with iron bacteria which is a common problem for many well owners this was a common practice long before I started working on water wells.
A gallon of bleach down your well may help with the odor problem just be sure to let it sit a day or so then pump it out until you can't smell the bleach and it clears up.
I'd also suggest removing the well seal and turn the water on and time it to see what the draw down time is and the same for recovery.
I hope your well settles down and doesn't give you any more problems until you get a chance to get it fixed after Thanksgiving.
Allan