Well repairs,,, OUCH!!

[fishheadbob]

With a low delivery well, the best solution is a low capacity pump (well below well recovery rate) and then a buried cistern holding more than enough for your worst peak demand. The well pump can take its sweet time refilling the cistern, provided it will hold enough for you to live from for a few days. It is actually just about the default setup for an off grid home since the cost to have batteries and inverter that can run a 3-5hp well pump is prohibitive.

Sounds like your supplier is working for his best interest and not yours. With such a large accumulator the supplier should take the oversized pump back and put in one the same size or smaller than the one you had. Potentially adjust the pressure switch so it can dip lower in pressure and then use a booster pump with a check valve to supply pressurized water to the house. That way the well pump would not run as frequently and would last longer.

I would agree.

A well that runs dry after 35 gallons (7 GPM pump ran you dry in 5 minutes) isn't much of a recovery rate.
How was your situation before your problems began ?
I would be very slow about paying this driller until he gets things right for you; I would also take a look at my local Better Business Bureau, maybe there was a reason he was available when the first 7 calls couldn't find help. Well drillers , just like any other business, have the occasional gouger in their ranks, and the price you paid seems high but I haven't had to deal with any drillers in decades.

 

[timster2]

Years ago I ran into the same problem with a low flow well. I was able to use a load sensing motor control that shut the pump down when the well was pumped down. The switch was under a hundred dollars back then, 1.5 hp, and worked for twenty years until a lightning strike took out the pump. Here is a link to the switch I used. Franklin pumptec-family. You can find it on line for about $350 for a five hp pump.

 

[dmccarty]

...
The original pump was a 1.5hp (not sure of the gpm rating) and sat at 400'.
...
He actually claims it's a 1.5hp/7gpm pump with a 5hp motor for longevity.
...
When we did the run test after installation, we found the pump runs the well dry in under 5 minutes, which means it runs the well dry before it recharges the tank. ...

I questioned him about whether the pump is oversized for the recharge rate of the well. ....

Because regardless of whether I'm trying to re-fill an 86 gallon bladder tank ....

Let see if I got this right:

• Well did not run out before latest problems.
• Well is 400+ feet deep.
• New tank is 86 gallons.
• Pump is 7 GPM

Key questions to answer:

1. What is the diameter of the well bore? 6 inches?
2. What is the static water level in the well?
3. What is he recovery rate of the well?

My well has this information on a plate attached to the well casing.

If the well bore is 6 inches in diameter, and there is 100 feet of water in the well above the pump, then there is over 140 gallons of water in well.... 50 feet of water would be 70ish gallons.

So if the pump runs 5 minutes it would only have pumped 35 gallons of water. Either the time to pump is incorrect, the GPM of the pump is higher than expected, or there is not much water in that well. 35 gallons seems like a low number if the well was working before.

Static water level vs the level of the pump along with bore size will tell you how much water is stored in the well.

7 GPM would work as long as the there was 100ish gallons of water in the well available to the pump. Since pump starts are supposed to age the pump, seems like a small GPM pump that ran longer but started less would be better.

Seems like finding how much water is available in the well bore is the key question to answer at this point.

Later,
Dan

 

[Old Junk Man]

I grew up with deep well pumps and pump troubles. We used to use those Jet pumps and a air volume control. The submersible pumps and air bag tanks are much better. My water pump quit last. My well is 450 ft deep. I simply went to lowes and bought a new 1&1/2 horse submersible pump ,controls , air bag pressure tank and pressureswitch. My wife and I pulled up the old pump and replaced it. The trick is I attached a small stainless steel cable to the pump when we installed it 12 years ago. we simply use a crank handle to bring it up. the cable winds around a 1 inch pipe. the top part is tied to the rear of a small tractor and one person drives slowly while the other cranks. we use the black plastic pipe . Cost us about$700. why would you need a 5 hp pump? are you watering a rice field? I use a pressure regulator to keep the flow even. Also a 6 inch well will hold a gallon & 1/2 of water per ft.

 

[Old Junk Man]

I actually have two water wells on my place. the old well is one of those pounded wells and has a static water level at 12 feet. its 250 ft deep. Im pretty shure the water in it is coming from a small stream at 12 feet. the rest is drilled hole just for capacity. so a pump set 38 ft from the bottom would have 300 gallons of storage before it ran dry. It had a old jet pump. I made a hand pump that works like a water ram and set it in there at 20 feet. I could easily pump out water by hand faster than it could recover. I set it at 60 feet and cannot pump it dry bay hand. the water is very cold. The other is a drilled well with 60 ft of casing and its into the aquifer at 450 ft. It has a static water level of 75 feet. the pump is set a 400 feet You can run the pump wide open and it will never run dry. it don't even lower the static water level very much.

 

[gsganzer]

Calling well guy in the morning. I think there're two issues. Unless he special ordered the pump/motor combo, I have serious doubts that it's a 5hp motor coupled to a 7gpm pump. More likely, it's a 10gpm pump, because that's the starting point for Goulds pumps that have 5hp motors.

Second, because the motor is so grossly oversized, the delta in current draw between a normal pumping condition and a "dry pump" condition is only about 1.5- 2.0 amps. This prevents the use of a "dry pump protection controller" that typically look for a -25% voltage drop to indicate a dry pump condition.

Bottom line, pump is oversized and motor is grossly oversized. He needs to get his ***** back out here and make it right.

I can't do anything about a low output well, but the miss-application of the pump/motor sizing shouldn't be adding to my problem. The old 1.5 hp motor/pump worked just fine when it was all working properly.

 

[SirReal63]

Lower output wells do best when couple with a water storage tank. A 2500 gallon tank is not expensive and when outfitted with the proper float controls you will be able to pump enough to keep the tank full and draw household needs from the tank. Though our well is anything but low output, we went ahead and did the storage tank, but we went with a solar pump which made it a necessity.

 

[gsganzer]

Lower output wells do best when couple with a water storage tank. A 2500 gallon tank is not expensive and when outfitted with the proper float controls you will be able to pump enough to keep the tank full and draw household needs from the tank. Though our well is anything but low output, we went ahead and did the storage tank, but we went with a solar pump which made it a necessity.

I only need the well for potable water, so the well certainly meets those needs with the correct pump/motor combo.

However, we also have a 1 acre pond behind the house. If I ever decided I needed water for irrigation/gardening, I'd develop a pump setup that utilized the pond.

You hit on something though. When I was looking into water storage, I stumbled upon making a water tank (for either a cistern or rainwater catch) using a 5' diameter x 8' long galvanized corrugated culvert set vertical in a concrete footer for the tank. Looked like a pretty slick and simple arrangement. In fact, I thought it was so slick, I'm looking into it for rainwater catchment for the yard/garden/animals.

 

[gsganzer]

Lower output wells do best when couple with a water storage tank. A 2500 gallon tank is not expensive and when outfitted with the proper float controls you will be able to pump enough to keep the tank full and draw household needs from the tank. Though our well is anything but low output, we went ahead and did the storage tank, but we went with a solar pump which made it a necessity.

I only need the well for potable water, so the well certainly meets those needs with the correct pump/motor combo.

However, we also have a 1 acre pond behind the house. If I ever decided I needed water for irrigation/gardening, I'd develop a pump setup that utilized the pond.

You hit on something though. When I was looking into water storage, I stumbled upon making a water tank (for either a cistern or rainwater catch) using a 5' diameter x 8' long galvanized corrugated culvert set vertical in a concrete footer for the tank. Looked like a pretty slick and simple arrangement. In fact, I thought it was so slick, I'm looking into it for rainwater catchment for the yard/garden/animals.

 

[MossRoad]

Came home on Monday night to find I had no water pressure from my well. Did the basic troubleshooting and isolated to either a worn pump (26 years old at best guess, replaced by previous owner) or a hole in the drop pipe.

Eight phone calls later and I finally find a well company that can get to it. Long story short, 400' of 1.25" pipe (replaced severely rusted galvanized with new SCH120 PVC), new wire (original was direct burial cable with no ground), replaced pump (increased pump to 5HP), new control box (due to upsized pump), new 86 gallon tank (replaced old air over water tank with a diaphragm tank)

$6700 bucks, OUCH!!

The good news, it should last me into retirement.

What was the reasoning for going from 1.5hp to 5hp? Seems excessive.