Sewers - What are the pros and cons of having well water and a septic system?

What are the pros and cons of having well water and a septic system?

I'm thinking of buying a house with both. I've had city water and city sewer all my life. What can I expect? I live in southern Indiana if that makes a difference.

Public Comments

well water smells SO gross most of the time I will never drink it
I have never been on city anything. I have built my own septic system for a house I lived in for 20 years and all I ever did was replace a sump pump that failed in the first 2 years. Well water does taste different but there are treatments that can be added. A waster softener at the least if there is high iron and on up to more elaborate treatments. Wouldn't bother me in the least to live with one.
Have the well tested. I have had a well and the water was very pure 98.7 . And friends came from other states and would bring empty jugs to fill up from our well. A septic was also used on our property and depending on the size (yours is sized for X number of people with normal usage) it will go for years without being pumped.Not expensive usually. It is made that way. They should disclose this in the papers you read about the property. Check with the county, as in,... have your agent check. Also there is a reading from your health dept. about the water and how many gpm it puts out. There are minimums. If you check everything out then there are no cons.
Well water destroys clothing, it has a bad taste, you will have to clean things more thoroughly. It sucks. You have to have a good water softener, and you will have the cost of salt for the softener. City water is better. Good luck.
I've have and had both.....buying a house...have water quality checked...first taste it...simple enough. does the system have treatment for hardness and /or whole house filter to remove sediment which can clog washing machine valves....septic...it should be pumped before purchase...when was it last pumped? usually every 4 years....size...should be 1000 gallon tank... if both systems are good you don't have to pay water bills and for 200 dollars/4 years you pump the tank....
not much wrong with a septic tank.....u just might have to have it emptied every 5 yrs or so....use proper septic tank chemicals to keep it work good....laundry soap and bleach are bad things to put into the septic, they kill off the things inside the tank that keeps it working so u might want a separate line from the laundry room and bypass the septic and go straight to the leaching field if possible.....wells just don't have enough water pressure at times and sometimes the water will be dirty....good for everything but drinking and smells at times...well water could harm your clothes...or discolor sinks and toilets.....I said could ....it may not happen, ask others in the area how their water is....if u have a septic tank then make a map of where the lids are ( how far from house ect...) hard to find once covered up with dirt....be sure there are clean out pipes on each end of the tank
With well water you don't pay the water company but you pay for the pump and some storage tanks. Just make sure the water well is not side by side with the septic vault.
Usually, your regular annual maintenance cost will be lower with a well and septic because you aren't paying for those services from a municipality, but once in a while you could get a big bill for repairing or replacing parts of the systems. It pays to maintain and use them properly. If you have a well, no one can tell you when or how much to use the water. One disadvantage of a well is that when the power goes out, so will your water pressure. I keep rainwater around in the winter so I can still flush the toilets when the power goes out, and I keep a little drinking water stored too, just in case. The water quality from a well can vary from excellent to just plain awful, and it can't be predicted accurately. Get a water quality test done, ask if the well has ever run dry, and when, especially if it's a shallow dug well. Ask to see the flow rate which should have been recorded if the well was drilled. With a septic field, you should be aware of what you put down the drains since the health and functioning of the system depends on what goes into it. That can take a little re-adjustment of your thinking but not much else. Have the system inspected by a pro before you buy so you know where it's at in terms of lifespan. I wouldn't let the presence of a well or septic system deter me from buying a house. Millions of people have them and do just fine.
We have always had a septic system and well water. Our area was going to get city water but not enough people in our area wanted it. So the plan was ditched. You save money in the long run, but you have to maintain your own equipment. If you like the house, I wouldn't think twice about it. If you don't like the taste of the well water, you can put a softener on it, it there isn't one there, but if it is not needed, more savings!
I agree with almost all of the answers. The only difference I experienced was the taste. There is nothing you can add to well water to make it taste like city. What my family did was go to a gas station in town and fill our water jugs there. Free. Whenever anyone had to go for an errand they'd take the empties. No inconvenience.Cooking was the same, as was washing.
Water quality and quantity varies by locality. You should check with your local health department on both systems. The folks complaining of poor water quality have had bad experiences, sometimes you'll get the best water, sometimes horrible water. Nearly all the "bad" water can be filtered and treated to some degree. Find out how old the well is, how old the pump it (it may be newer than the well), how deep the well is and any other information you can get. Have the well water tested - this will likely only be a bacterial quality test, but necessary just the same. You can spend hundreds to thousands of dollars testing for "everything" - I don't recommend this. If you want to test for more than bacterial quality, then you need to know exactly what you want to test for. No lab will declare your water "safe". They will say it is "bacterially safe". I'm not aware of any test that declares your water "very pure 98.7". You should definitely have both systems inspected by the health department (assuming they do those kind of inspections). They are the ones with the original records, plus they aren't trying to sell you something. I've known some unscrupulous septic system installers to find "something" wrong that needs to be fixed right away, just because they want your business. Have the septic tank pumped out before you move in, then depending on how many people there are in your house, you should have it pumped every 3-6 years. No, septic system additives do not help, and some additives can hurt your system. The less water you use, the better for your system - get a front loading washing machine. Both systems require maintenance. In the city you pay those fees monthly, in the "country" you don't pay monthly, just when something goes wrong. This is nearly always at the most inconvenient time possible (ie. the septic system starts to surface the day before Christmas when the whole family is coming to your house! One person mentioned bypassing your septic with laundry water, right to the leachfield. Do NOT do this - aside from being illegal it is important to have it go thru the septic tank because the tank settles out any solid material in the water. If your septic tank and well were both properly installed they should be at least 50 feet away from each other in clay soils, and 100 feet in sandy soils. All that said, I would have no problems owning a house with a well and septic system (in fact, I wish I did!).