water well drilling info

RedNeckRacin · Oct 22, 2015

Make SURE you get a centralizer on the first foot of pipe above the pump! Spacing them out every hundred feet is a good idea. Also, make sure they install centralizers on the hanging pipe as well! I recently had to pull my pump because the jabroney put ONE centralizer above the pump. The stinking wires rubbed through the insulation and shut my pump down. $500 dollars later and pulling the pump twice, I got it fixed by myself. It took almost 3 years for those wires to wear through and break but it happened!

Garycw · Oct 23, 2015

My well is only about 100'? I can see water at around 40' and watch it go up & down as the pump cuts on & off. Maybe being on top of the mountain instead of near bottom makes it so deep.

redman135 · Oct 23, 2015

Hello 747driver. I would suggest that you run the bore to a 5000 gal tank so that WHEN, not if , the pump stops you will still have house water while the bore pump is being repaired. I would also recommend that the toilet be on bore supply so that the water absence is noticed quickly. On mine the bore supplied the stock water as well.

jclaudii · Nov 13, 2015

not sure you have your well installed yet, but I am about to put in one of those Stop Cycle Valves, I won one on ebay for .99 cents and it was taken off and put on a shelf because a plumber told the homeowner he did not need it when he put new pressure tanks in

. Anyway, my little 35 gallon or whatever it is was fine before we had more animals to water and three kiddos but now I have noticed the pump will kick on and off alot lately and this will stop that. I will let you know how my csv helps my setup as I was about to purchase a 80-120 something gallon to increase my capacity on hand and lengthen my run time. My pump's life is already cut short and living on borrowed time from a dry well condition or stuck contacts on the pressure switch a few weeks ago (I'm working on a solution to this utilizing an arduino micro controller and a current sensor).

If you do install the pump yourself, use a good quality rope or stainless steel cable to attach the pump too. build an a frame and use a piece of pvc and bend a good long sweeping 90 degree in it at the top to keep from kinking poly pipe(use a torch to bend the pvc). two simple prusik knots will allow a safe way to lower the pipe into the well and it simple slides up and down, similar to descending a rope but on a pipe and the rope is attached to the a frame. If you have a long rope or cable use a few pulleys to make life easier when lowering. Almost a necessity at that depth as that is a lot of weight Use lots of good quality tape to tape the power wire or even some rubber strapping in a knot. This will keep wires from touching casing and eventually short out and cause you to pull pump to repair wire damage.

ishiboo · Nov 13, 2015

Since this threat was dug up...

Make a well inspection a condition in the offer to purchase. They will test the water, flow rate, etc. Without it, assume there is a small chance the well would require replacement - and that's not a cheap operation at 400'. Make sure they know that there is no pump installed, as I'm not sure if/how they will do drawdown/etc.

Cord · Nov 13, 2015

jclaudii said:
not sure you have your well installed yet, but I am about to put in one of those Stop Cycle Valves, I won one on ebay for .99 cents and it was taken off and put on a shelf because a plumber told the homeowner he did not need it when he put new pressure tanks in . Anyway, my little 35 gallon or whatever it is was fine before we had more animals to water and three kiddos but now I have noticed the pump will kick on and off alot lately and this will stop that. I will let you know how my csv helps my setup as I was about to purchase a 80-120 something gallon to increase my capacity on hand and lengthen my run time. My pump's life is already cut short and living on borrowed time from a dry well condition or stuck contacts on the pressure switch a few weeks ago (I'm working on a solution to this utilizing an arduino micro controller and a current sensor).

If you do install the pump yourself, use a good quality rope or stainless steel cable to attach the pump too. build an a frame and use a piece of pvc and bend a good long sweeping 90 degree in it at the top to keep from kinking poly pipe(use a torch to bend the pvc). two simple prusik knots will allow a safe way to lower the pipe into the well and it simple slides up and down, similar to descending a rope but on a pipe and the rope is attached to the a frame. If you have a long rope or cable use a few pulleys to make life easier when lowering. Almost a necessity at that depth as that is a lot of weight Use lots of good quality tape to tape the power wire or even some rubber strapping in a knot. This will keep wires from touching casing and eventually short out and cause you to pull pump to repair wire damage.

Realize that a Cycle Stop valve is nothing more than a regulator. This means the pressure before the regulator will be very high. Although there will be fewer starts, I'm not certain I'd like my pump laboring to produce a pressure that is beyond it's design spec. At that point either the amps will be off the chart or the pump will be cavitating. Cavitation will wear an impeller just as fast as pumping sand. Personally, I'd go for a larger pressure tank before I went with a Cycle Stop valve. Also, check your bladder tank as it may have developed a leak. Frequent starts and dry runs are a symptom of the tank pressure being off. The correct pressure is 2psi higher than your pumps cut in pressure. If you see any moisture come out of the schraeder valve, then the bladder has failed and the tank needs to be replaced.

Cord · Nov 13, 2015

jclaudii said:
not sure you have your well installed yet, but I am about to put in one of those Stop Cycle Valves, I won one on ebay for .99 cents and it was taken off and put on a shelf because a plumber told the homeowner he did not need it when he put new pressure tanks in . Anyway, my little 35 gallon or whatever it is was fine before we had more animals to water and three kiddos but now I have noticed the pump will kick on and off alot lately and this will stop that. I will let you know how my csv helps my setup as I was about to purchase a 80-120 something gallon to increase my capacity on hand and lengthen my run time. My pump's life is already cut short and living on borrowed time from a dry well condition or stuck contacts on the pressure switch a few weeks ago (I'm working on a solution to this utilizing an arduino micro controller and a current sensor).

If you do install the pump yourself, use a good quality rope or stainless steel cable to attach the pump too. build an a frame and use a piece of pvc and bend a good long sweeping 90 degree in it at the top to keep from kinking poly pipe(use a torch to bend the pvc). two simple prusik knots will allow a safe way to lower the pipe into the well and it simple slides up and down, similar to descending a rope but on a pipe and the rope is attached to the a frame. If you have a long rope or cable use a few pulleys to make life easier when lowering. Almost a necessity at that depth as that is a lot of weight Use lots of good quality tape to tape the power wire or even some rubber strapping in a knot. This will keep wires from touching casing and eventually short out and cause you to pull pump to repair wire damage.

Realize that a Cycle Stop valve is nothing more than a regulator. This means the pressure before the regulator will be very high. Although there will be fewer starts, I'm not certain I'd like my pump laboring to produce a pressure that is beyond it's design spec. At that point either the amps will be off the chart or the pump will be cavitating. Cavitation will wear an impeller just as fast as pumping sand. Personally, I'd go for a larger pressure tank before I went with a Cycle Stop valve. Also, check your bladder tank as it may have developed a leak. Frequent starts and dry runs are a symptom of the tank pressure being off. The correct pressure is 2psi higher than your pumps cut in pressure. If you see any moisture come out of the schraeder valve, then the bladder has failed and the tank needs to be replaced.

bspeedy · Nov 13, 2015

jclaudii said:
If you do install the pump yourself, use a good quality rope or stainless steel cable to attach the pump too. build an a frame and use a piece of pvc and bend a good long sweeping 90 degree in it at the top to keep from kinking poly pipe(use a torch to bend the pvc). two simple prusik knots will allow a safe way to lower the pipe into the well and it simple slides up and down, similar to descending a rope but on a pipe and the rope is attached to the a frame. If you have a long rope or cable use a few pulleys to make life easier when lowering. Almost a necessity at that depth as that is a lot of weight Use lots of good quality tape to tape the power wire or even some rubber strapping in a knot. This will keep wires from touching casing and eventually short out and cause you to pull pump to repair wire damage.

Have to disagree with most of this. Don't attempt to run coil plastic tubing on what is likely a 500+ foot well. It's too heavy and is not the best use of coil (black) plastic. Don't attempt to install this pump yourself. Odds of dropping it are high and odds of fishing it out after dropping are low. And, NEVER use rope on a pump with coil plastic. I know, most of the pumps come with a place to attach it, but the coil plastic is much, much stronger than the rope. Plus, when the rope breaks, guess where it goes? That's correct - it all falls right down on your pump - locking it down the hole. How does it come out then? In pieces because you have to bring in a cable tool rig and drill it up if it can't be fished out.

Xfaxman · Nov 13, 2015

Cord said:
Realize that a Cycle Stop valve is nothing more than a regulator. This means the pressure before the regulator will be very high. Although there will be fewer starts, I'm not certain I'd like my pump laboring to produce a pressure that is beyond it's design spec. At that point either the amps will be off the chart or the pump will be cavitating. Cavitation will wear an impeller just as fast as pumping sand. Personally, I'd go for a larger pressure tank before I went with a Cycle Stop valve. Also, check your bladder tank as it may have developed a leak. Frequent starts and dry runs are a symptom of the tank pressure being off. The correct pressure is 2psi higher than your pumps cut in pressure. If you see any moisture come out of the schraeder valve, then the bladder has failed and the tank needs to be replaced.

This is not true, the amps will be lower than if you remove the CSV and let the pump run at full flow. It is true the pump will have the maximum pressure that it is designed for but I never heard of it cavitating. The pump here was installed ten years ago and is still running good.

Mine draws 8.3 amps with the CSV set at 50 pounds and the hydrant wide open, and a lot less at 1 gpm. The electricity consumed is directly proportional to the water flow in gallons per minute.

The CSV and pressure tank are underground, no heated well house to worry about freezing when the power goes off during an ice storm.

747driver · Nov 13, 2015

We are still considering this property. Thanks for all the good advice, as now we have a much better understanding of well drilling and pumps. If we decide on this property, then as previous posts have mentioned, we will have a well inspection done as part of our offer !