1 gallon/ minute?

[DaveNay]

WOW!

I don't know the exact specs of my well, but I do know that I just filled my 13,500 gal pool this week, running the hose wide open for less than 24 hours. This puts my flow at about 10 gal per minute. This also includes regular daily activities like watering the horses, showers, laundry, cooking etc.

I think that my well is less than 200 feet deep, with the pump set at the 170 ft mark. Don't recall at all what the static water level is.

Dave

 

[PitbullMidwest]

My well driller guaranteed 5 gpm and hit water at 100' (his minimum drill depth) but was still in shale. He told me that he could get better volume by going deeper and for $1/foot plus pipe we went down to 412' and stopped once we had 15 gpm. Total cost was $4200.

If they have been doing this for 35 years they must know that they can hit water, but 1 gpm? Doesn't sound like much of a guarantee to me.

 

[EastTexFrank]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> If they have been doing this for 35 years they must know that they can hit water, but 1 gpm? Doesn't sound like much of a guarantee to me. </font> )</font>

You're right. In my part of the country, they know almost exactly where the water sands are, how deep they are and how much they will produce because they are fairly uniform, blanket sands. In fact, I was told that the information on how deep the different sands were was on file at the local county offices. To me, 1 gpm wouldn't be worth having but if I was in the middle of the desert .... that might sound pretty good. I know the guy that drilled my well didn't guarantee anything. He told me how deep he would probably have to go to get the rate I needed to feed my sprinkler system and I think he was within 50'. Not bad on a 750' well considering that I sit up on a little hill. Still, if by bad luck he didn't find the sand, he got paid any way and there was no discount on a second well at a different location if that's what you decided to try.

 

[gsganzer]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Not bad on a 750' well considering that I sit up on a little hill. )</font>

Zoinks!! 750' sounds more like drilling for oil! I thought I had it bad with 450'.

 

[Egon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What kind of pump would one put into a well that could only recover 1 gpm? )</font>

Downhole pump's have several factors influencing delivery.
Pressure is determined by the number of rotors.
Rate is determined by the diameter and RPM of the rotors.

Domestic pumps will usually have the motor at the bottom end so it always stays in water and can be kept cool. You can put low pressure cuttoffs on the pump and have it recycle at set periods. You could do the same with amperage draw. Could use just a staight timmer. Lots of ways to set up the electrical controls.

One can also drill holes in the rotors which will reduce the capacity of the pump.

Minimum rate will vary as to location and codes.

One gallon per minute would supply a little over 1400 gallons of water a day. Properly set up this should be enough if that's all there is. You will not be watering a lawn with low flow wells.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[GerardC]

<font color="blue"> It's "not just you". Minimum in our area to meet county requirements is 3 GPM. </font>

Here too. At our well we're getting 10 GPM and in the house 200+ feet away we're getting 6 GPM.

 

[Phils]

Please don't fwd this to my county offices, but we get only about 5 gph (yes, that's "hour"). We use a 1000 gal cistern and have lived with this water supply for over 20 years. We pump the well down to almost dry every 4th day. I do have a 150 gal tank that I can haul water home in my pickup when necessary, but the only time I had to make that haul very often was when we had a teenager living with us temporarily. Normally I'll haul water maybe 4 or 5 times a year (my office is on the city system and supplements our home if necessary).

I noted the comments about slow wells having better water. That is certainly the case with ours. The water is excellent. My neighbor has a well that produces over 10 gpm, but it is such horrible water (sulfer smell) that he has to treat it before he can use it. My well is maybe 1000' uphill from his.

Phil

 

[SPIKER]

Some of the well depths amazes me here. my well 32 gpm and is at 73' depe pump set to 50 something and static height of 6~18 depending on conditions. my company uses 25K GPH yes that is 25000 gallons per hour from a 6" 50HP well that is only 48' down a 12" casing/hole we have 4 wells on the property 3 are active and have a hourly useage combined of nearly 40000 GPH also this is untreated water which is clean & clear as any city water I've ever seen. we do have some problems with sucking stones up into the pump though /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif anyohw the company make clay fired products, (sinks toilets ect.) MANSFIELD PLUMBING and is HOT WORK spent 16.5 hrs changing over a drier yesterday. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif tired tired tired. getting rdy for bed after I finihs this.

anyhow our waste water is treated and refinded to standards and is then let loose into local river. which our treatment plant runs a 4' wide by 6" deep rippeling stream out... turtles & snackes seem to love it as it is warm discharge... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

MarkM

 

[JimR]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( For what its worth.....as an observation...low recovery wells tend to have better water ( lower solids / minerals ).

In my opinion, the key really isn't recovery in GPM, but reather residual water in the well. I have less than .5 GPM ( don't tell anyone !!! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif ), but have a 428' deep hole with a static water level at about 12'. With that I have about 400 gallons of water to work with. I wouldn't fill a pool, but have never been even slightly concerned by my daily use....

As for quality, every other well within my area is loaded with iron....the neighbor ( 1/4 mile away ) actually is on his fourth drilled well...my water tested clean as could be....go figure !!!

)</font>

Sounds just like my well also. Very few minerals and a slow fill. I get about 2 gallons a minute once the tank runs down to kick the pump on. My well is 465' deep and the static level is right up there at about 25'. I can run my well dry with 3 loads of laundry, 4 showers and running the dishwasher back to back. It takes about 4-5 hours before we can run the pump again so that it will shut off on its own. You should have at least 3 gallons a minute to be on the safe side. My welldriller told the bank we had 5 gallons a minute for 4 hours. THEY LIED. We have never had this kind of water. Of course back then it was just the wife and I and we never could run the well dry. Then the kids came along. Once the kids got older the water use went up and the problems surfaced. I plan on getting the well fragged to see if that will help it out. A drilled well tends to plug up small veins when drilling. A hammer drill is much better and breaks up the bedrock for more water flow. My 2 nieghbors have hammer drilled wells. Both are around 100' deep with no problems.

 

[FL_Cracker]

They can now defrack (not sure at all about the spelling) a old well and get lots more water out of them. They send a scope down the well and find the spot where the water enter the well, then they send this head down there and using very high preasure water, they blow the sides out of the well. Sometimes they can double the water flow.....

I never had this done but know someone that use to work ona crew that did this.