Well again! What else can it be? FRUSTRATED!

[sam5570]

Wade i wish you the best on well today, the wife and i looked at our cercumstance with watering the cattle out of the well and we just didn't feel comfrontable with it so we got rid of the cattle few years back. it's just to big of chance to take, plus we were in a drout untill last month when we got over 9 inches of rain. good luck

 

[clovergamecock]

Thanks Sam. We are just SW of Charlotte NC about 25 miles. This area has been listed as moderate drought but you really could not tell it around here. We have 3 horses but I can't bring myself to let them go. My kids want a cow..... UH,,,,,,,NO!!!!!.

 

[rmorey]

Blackrat, do you know who drilled the well? Every well driller will create a well report, describing all data related to the well, including depth, tested gpm, etc. If you contact the drilling company, they would have that on file. Then you know what the well can produce.

 

[clovergamecock]

Unfortunately he retired or went out of buisness about 5 years ago. I have often wondered if he may have made a mistake in determining the well location and that once he got so deep he was not about to move. I remember him saying that he did hit water but kept going becuse the flow rate was not nearly enough. Who knows so I will just move on. There is a data plate on the case but is weathered to the point it is not readable.

 

[Bikewanderer]

Around here the well records are filed with the county and available on the web. If you find your data post it here, I'll do what I can to help you understand it.

 

[clovergamecock]

Any idea what that would be under??? I pulled up my address but I don't see anything that mentions wells.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Yes, that is a lot of water but he is asking how much he gains by lowering it 10 ft...as you properly replied at the bottom.

Harry K

Nope, not so much water:

Here is what has been done.

1. Pump replaced with Myers 1hp on Monday.
2. Bladder tank replaced last night. 40psi put in and holding same pressure this morning.
3. Checked the depth of the water in the well and it was roughly 60'.
4. Depth of pump to the bottom of the well is roughly 20'
5. Regulator switch NOT replaced but was working last night.

Thanks
Wade

Ok guys I think that the issue is not with the tank or the switch. A friend came over that is an electrician and he jhas replaced all of this himself st one point. When he got here he manually kicked the pump on at the reg. The pressure shot to 50 psi and cut off. The wife turned the faucet on and the pressure held steady for a minute or so and then slowly started going down. At around 32 psi the reg tripped for the pump to come on. The pressure raised about 2 psi and then started falling until it hist 0. The pump was still on but pumping nothing to the tanks or to the well head. I am not a well guy as I have figured out the last week or so. However, this makes me think that I have 1 of 3 things going on.

1. The new pump is bad again or both legs are not pulling the same load. The problem with this is why does it pressurize and then when the house water is turned on and the pressure drops it comes back on bu no longer pumps??

2. The refresh rate is to slow now. The odd thing here is that it has never given us a problem over the last 8 years. The well is 322' deep. We measured the depth of the water last week and it was roughly 60' deep. The pump itself was 12' from the bottom. I took off 5 feet to rais it from the bottom more due to all the sediment that was on the line and pump when we pulled it. That still had the pump roughy 43' below the water line. The pump could really lower the well not that fast?????

3. The well is now bad. Again if this was the case why am I getting water???

At this point I do not know what to do. Does any of this point to a solution? Would adding 10' back to the line placing it 7' from the bottom fix the issue? Right now I have the breaker off to keep the pump from running. I almost would bet that if I turn the breaker back on in the morning I will have water for a while anyway.

Does any of this make sense??? Idea's????

Thank you all for the patience and help!

Wade

Good Afternoon Harry,
Going back to the beginning of the thread the OP stated that hi static level was 60ft. He mentioned a well depth of 322 ft. So thats 260 ft of water minus the pump depth at 20 ft off the bottom, giving hom 480 to 500 gals of reserve... 1 1/2 gals per t Thats quite a bit of water for just domestic use.Ive read through the thread, and didnt see any mention of GPM return rate, but Im finding it hard to believe that he is actually running out of water. On a guess, and only a guess it almost sounds as if there is an issue with the pump.

Just a comment, by lowering the pump 10 ft, your only going to get about another 15 gals of reserve, and usually pump guys are not big on splicing in another section of pipe...

Theres 60' water in a 322' well. ... Circuitous to follow but I think thats right. Lowering the pump 10' in that case would, like you say, make only ~15 gal more reserve. ... But that is a significant proportion more than he has. Also, delivery rate increases continuously as you fall below the static level [where it is zero] so delivery would rise a bit too.
larry

 

[tcartwri]

Any idea what that would be under??? I pulled up my address but I don't see anything that mentions wells.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

You may have to look around for a little bit, but it should be there. A simple GIS viewer will have to be downloaded onto your home computer to view the files.

 

[clovergamecock]

Ok guys here is the next step based on the well guys recommendation. When my well was first drilled 8 years ago the side cover shows 30' 6gpm. Origionally I had a 3/4 hp 5gpm pump in it. When that pump went bad the local hardware store said that as deep as my well is I needed a bigger hp and gpm pump to increase pressure. Needless to say that was not the case and I did not know any better. That first 1hp pump stopped pumping 6 months ago. we pulled it out and found a stretheched and broken wire. The pump was making some noise so to be safe they warranied it out. We put the new one back in and it worked!

Now bringing us to the present. As you know we lost water almost 2 weeks ago. After swapping the tank, pressure switch and pulling the pump yet again. Then After installing everything and all the confusion I caused myself and you all I was still running out of water.

Fastforward to yesterday. Well guy comes out and says the well has lost some water maybe due to the leak we had at the barn but maybe not. He looked at the well pump box and said it is the wrong sized pump. 1HP 12gpm will suck it dry. he asked why I put that one in there and I told him the hardware\plumbing store recommended it to increase pressure. I got an eye roll out of that and he said all the pump does is increase volume, the tank is werer the pressure is generated. He said he was surprised I made it a year with that pump before seeing this. He told me that before I spend the money for a new well since they will not drill this one deeper, he would go get a 3/4hp 5gpm and add the 12' back to the line and see how things go.

So now if the hardware store will not swap this pump out for a 3/4 I will have to eat this one and buy another one.

Any thoughts on all this???

Thanks
Wade

 

[scott_vt]

Fastforward to yesterday. Well guy comes out and says the well has lost some water maybe due to the leak we had at the barn but maybe not. He looked at the well pump box and said it is the wrong sized pump. 1HP 12gpm will suck it dry. he asked why I put that one in there and I told him the hardware\plumbing store recommended it to increase pressure. I got an eye roll out of that and he said all the pump does is increase volume, the tank is werer the pressure is generated. He said he was surprised I made it a year with that pump before seeing this. He told me that before I spend the money for a new well since they will not drill this one deeper, he would go get a 3/4hp 5gpm and add the 12' back to the line and see how things go.

So now if the hardware store will not swap this pump out for a 3/4 I will have to eat this one and buy another one.

Any thoughts on all this???

Thanks
Wade

Good Morning Wade,
I would be more inclined to believe what a well guy or pump technician has to say, rather than the local hardware store.

I posted earlier that I thought the problem was because your pump wasnt big enough for that depth, obviously I was wrong, although I did say I was guessing...

I would get the pump that the technician suggests, and save your current pump for a new well to supply your barn and animals when money permits...

Let us know how this all plays out !