# Running Kitchen Off Well / House off City Water - How To?



## DaziAcres (Jul 10, 2013)

Sooooo, we've had a drought of epic proportions out here in Tennessee and, added to that, we live on a mountain, so water is always fun.
We have a fabulous source of water...at least, in quality...but our well is only 50 feet deep and we've gone dry.

We're going to run a line from a city hookup so this doesn't happen again (I like my showers) but we also want to keep the kitchen sink hooked up to the well for the water quality but let the rest of the house (including dishwasher and washing machine that are in the kitchen) hooked up to the city.

Does anyone have a video or blog or someplace to direct me to how we can do this? My husband is thinking some sort of outside lever to switch from one to the other but is there a better way to do this? 

eep:


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Is there a back flow prevention device at the city water meter? There better be. Some systems with a plan can get by without a manditory back flow device. I ran a city water system and we would not let there be a dual hookup because of the possibility of a cross connection even with the device (water going back into the system and contaminating it). Read your cities rules or ask.

http://www.febcoonline.com/What_is_Backflow

Backflow prevention devices have to be tested once a year by a certified person, here. The water system will have designated models they allow.

http://www.supplyhouse.com/Zurn-2-35...FQ90fgodpV4PkQ

This is the type we used. Has to have the testable ports. Double check valve. The one shown is a 2". You would only need a 3/4" or 1" depending on meter size. They are usually in a seperate box, after the meter....James


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

You're gonna have to get into the internal plumbing to do what you want....a valve outside will be one, or the other, for the entire house. You want to select certain sections of the house for one source, and the rest of the house to use another.....the valves will go at the point those lines separate.

The degree of difficulty will be determined by how easy, or not, you can access the points at which those lines diverge. If, for example, you have access to them in a crawl space under the house, or basement with no finish ceiling....it might not be to hard....but if they are buried in a wall, or a concrete slab, you're in for a major pain in the backside to do this.

We have a dual source setup....our spring is our main source, a drilled well is the backup (no utility water here) in case the spring dries up. (And by the way, this is NOT even close to the worst drought we had in East TN).

But our setup is whole house.....I can switch from spring to well, but only for the entire house. It's sort of a complicated series of piping and valves, more complex because there is a booster pump on the spring inlet (it gravity feeds at 25psi, and we lived with that for 30 years until I saw this booster and fell in love with the 50-80psi it keeps the house at ). Also, there is a UV light on the spring supply.




















The 'water room' is located in the basement right under the master bathroom, the large electric looking box high up on the wall is a steam generator for the shower....boy...does THAT feel good when you have a aching bones


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## Steve_S (Feb 25, 2015)

TnAndy, your amazing... everything your doing is to the highest levels always.... no short cuts or bodge jobs - Dang it man, write a big book ! Seriously, your a gold mine !


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

ahaaaaa....thanks Steve....most kind of you.........but what you're NOT seeing is the number of times I've done stuff 2 or 3 times before you see the latest version. On occasion, I hit it right out of the ball park first time.....but those are rare, let me tell ya. There is hardly a corner of this place that hasn't be remodeled.....and bear in mind, I did all the original, so it's not like I can cuss some other guy over it....ahahahaaa I've torn the yard up so many times my wife is has threatened to hide the doze, excavator and tractor keys. 

We actually have an ongoing map of water/power lines/etc that now runs to 5 pages of large drawing paper with lots of photos....told the wife if I die and she sells the place, offer the map for $5k. If they don't take it, wait until they come back for it (they will, ahahahaaa), tell 'em it's twice that now....they'll pay. 

Picture above is a prime example....the spring was our only source until about 10 years back when we really did have a terrible drought. It didn't go dry, but it was close. So I had the well drilled as a backup. The original spring line from house building days ran from a 1,000 gallon concrete tank up at the spring, about 1500' down a 1" line, and came in that basement wall just to the right of the booster pump. Look between the tip end of the slip joint pliers, and the round end filter wrench in the 2nd pic, and you see the old line cut off at the wall.

The well is out in the yard, buried below grade, and I later diverted the well line and the spring line in at the same point (see at floor level, lower left of pic1....spring line near floor, well line just about it).

Even up at the spring, I changed from an inground 1,000 gal concrete tank to a 10x20 block building built back into the bank containing two 1500 gal poly tanks. Tripled our storage and a WHOLE lot easier to clean when it needs it.

Photo of the water house, circa 1998:











One of the reasons I've given a lot of free advice (yeah, wife keeps saying "write a book" )(my response is "the first thing we cobblers do is avoid written instructions... ) is I hate for folks to screw up as much as I have....maybe they can shortcut some life lessons....ahahaaaaa


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

I know about doing things two or three times. The last time was getting the valving right for water sourced from either a well, a cistern or the county. I used Ford fittings and polyethylene pipe so I could disassemble it until it was right.


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## Steve_S (Feb 25, 2015)

Well TnAndy your coming from experience and most importantly "Lessons Learned" and surviving "Murphy's Laws" which of course dictates that "If anything can go wrong, it most likely will". That makes what you share that much more valuable my friend. As for Mrs Tn, you know she can dig a hole with the Backhoe and bury you too, if you really go too overboard, then we'll see a Big Sale on used equipment ! LOL

I write instructions and details as well.... Try to help where & when I can with my own Lessons Learned... and yep... I do things up the Rule of Three being expended... Everything get's a MAX of 3 Attempts, very rarely a 4th. In my world and in all aspects, Rule of Three is king.

ONTO THE ORIGINAL QUESTION - not that the slight diversions wasn't good...
This site below has some good articles & tech info which may be of help. http://oasisdesign.net/greywater/divertervalves/ <--- their Diverter Valve Page but look at the rest. They flog a lot of stuff but there is good info there for some things.

Community Water Agencies are getting much tougher, they have to, as we have seen many counties, cities have semi-ignored the water system... (makes you wonder if this is a passive way of putting people on "Corporate Bottled Water" ) which could likely make some conspiracy types go off on a tangent but does seem rather coincidental. *Whatever you decide to do, make sure you follow the rules & regs with a healthy dose of common sense, no need to run afoul of the "Agencies" in charge* If your drinking your well water, you should likely get it tested as well to ensure that it is indeed good clean water. If the well is subject to dry-out during a drought, that creates a situation which can harbour pathogens, so some cautions are worth the effort.

Hope it helps
Steve


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## Robotron (Mar 25, 2012)

Just run a second faucet to the kitchen sink for your mountain water. No tie in to the city water. Have the best of both worlds.


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