quicksandfarmer
Veteran Member
I have a shallow well I use for livestock, it's not potable water. It's only about 10 feet deep. A previous owner built a small (about 4'x4'x4') well house over it and it has a shallow well pump with expansion tank and pressure switch in the well house. The well house is not well built and can get below freezing in the winter, so I disconnect the pump at the start of the winter. All of my piping is buried, and I have frost-free hydrants, so I would like to be able to use my water during the winter.
Frost line here is about 36". The water level in my well varies with the seasons, right now we're having a drought and there's only about two feet of water in the well, but in the spring it comes higher than the frost line. So it seems to me that if I want to frost-proof my pump by putting it below the frost line it has to be submersible. (The other option would be to better insulate my well house, but I think I would have to tear it down and start over.) So I'm thinking about replacing my pump with a submersible one. It seems there are two types of pumps: sump pumps, and deep well pumps. The sump pumps I've looked at can't create a whole lot of head, I'm getting 35 PSI from my current pump which is just marginal and sump pumps seem to be designed for about a 10 foot lift, which is about 5 PSI. A deep well pump seems ideal -- it's meant for this application, and the pipe leaving my well is about 4' underground so the whole thing would be below frostline -- but I wonder if I have enough water for it to work. Will a deep well pump work in the summer when there's only a couple feet of water?
If the pump is submerged, I still have to deal with the tank and switch. Any ideas for making those weatherproof? Would it harm a tank to submerge it, isn't it waterproof on the outside? One thought that's forming is that in the winter, I can't leave anything hooked up to the frost-free hydrants anyway, and I can't leave the water on. So the pump only needs to be on when I have a hydrant open, so I don't really need a pressure tank or switch -- I just open a hydrant and turn the switch on. I'm thinking I could have a shutoff valve below frostline, along with a union connecting the tank and switch, and just disconnect and drain them when I go into winter mode.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Frost line here is about 36". The water level in my well varies with the seasons, right now we're having a drought and there's only about two feet of water in the well, but in the spring it comes higher than the frost line. So it seems to me that if I want to frost-proof my pump by putting it below the frost line it has to be submersible. (The other option would be to better insulate my well house, but I think I would have to tear it down and start over.) So I'm thinking about replacing my pump with a submersible one. It seems there are two types of pumps: sump pumps, and deep well pumps. The sump pumps I've looked at can't create a whole lot of head, I'm getting 35 PSI from my current pump which is just marginal and sump pumps seem to be designed for about a 10 foot lift, which is about 5 PSI. A deep well pump seems ideal -- it's meant for this application, and the pipe leaving my well is about 4' underground so the whole thing would be below frostline -- but I wonder if I have enough water for it to work. Will a deep well pump work in the summer when there's only a couple feet of water?
If the pump is submerged, I still have to deal with the tank and switch. Any ideas for making those weatherproof? Would it harm a tank to submerge it, isn't it waterproof on the outside? One thought that's forming is that in the winter, I can't leave anything hooked up to the frost-free hydrants anyway, and I can't leave the water on. So the pump only needs to be on when I have a hydrant open, so I don't really need a pressure tank or switch -- I just open a hydrant and turn the switch on. I'm thinking I could have a shutoff valve below frostline, along with a union connecting the tank and switch, and just disconnect and drain them when I go into winter mode.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.