?? About installing well

[AlbertC]

I am building a new well house for my well that I use to irrigate my property. As part of this I had to cut the pvc pipe to the expansion tank so that I could temporarily remove it in order to pour the concrete pad for the new house.

I am now ready to reinstall the tank and will glue up the pipe that was previously cut. Do I need to do anything special before I turn the pump back on?

I presume that I will have air in the lines and will have to run the water a while to get the water out of the lines but is there anything else?

Thanks

 

[nybirdman]

You may find it easier to use a PVC union rather than a coupling;you will have some air in the lines.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I am building a new well house for my well that I use to irrigate my property. As part of this I had to cut the pvc pipe to the expansion tank so that I could temporarily remove it in order to pour the concrete pad for the new house.

I am now ready to reinstall the tank and will glue up the pipe that was previously cut. Do I need to do anything special before I turn the pump back on?

I presume that I will have air in the lines and will have to run the water a while to get the water out of the lines but is there anything else?

Thanks

Is the pump in the well or on the surface? If it's in the well you don't have to do anything, it will push water up no problem. If it's pulling you'll need to get most of the air out.

 

[oosik]

Without a picture - what nybirdman suggest regarding a coupling will probably be the easiest way to go. Yes, you will have air in the lines.

If you have a submersible pump - everything will be pushed out thru a hydrant/faucet. If its a ground level jet pump - get as much air out, by prefilling the lines/pump - this can be a PITA - but if you do your best the pump should catch a prime - pump and push everything out a faucet/hydrant - as quicksandfarmer indicates. With the surface level jet pump be sure, at least, that the pump is full of water. There may be a small, removable plug on the pump to fill it with water and prime it.

There is a more devious/exotic way to remove air and prime if you have a jet pump. If you have at least the main line going to one faucet and the small plug on the pump - do this. Hook a garden hose to an outside faucet on your house or alternate water supply. Get a female/female fixture and connect the garden hose to a faucet on your irrigation system. Remove the small plug on the pump - turn on the atlernate water supply - let the water run back thru the main line - fill the main line & pump and push all the air out of the system. Install the plug. You should now have a majority of the air out of the system and the system should be fully charged with water. Remove the hose from the faucet on the irrigation system - leave that faucet open - turn on the irrigation pump - let her rip.

I have a big jet pump that pumps out of my lake. In the spring when I bring the irrigation system back into operation - I use the process outlined in paragraph two to recharge the pump. Makes life a whole lot easier than trying to dip water out of the lake and fill the pump.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I have a shallow well that I drain down in the winter. The well is about 15 feet deep and the pipe runs about 100' horizontally to the pump. There is a foot valve in the well, a check valve right before the pump, and a hose bib before the check valve. To fill it in the spring, I use a potable water utility transfer pump (search for those words on Amazon for examples). I fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and put the input in the bucket and hook the output to the hose bib.

Without the foot valve you'll have a hard time filling the pipe, you need to be able to generate pressure to drive the air out. Even with the foot valve it can be tricky sometimes, you can get air bubbles stuck if the pump is not at the highest point of the pipe. Sometimes it takes a combination of running the transfer pump, then running the well pump, opening and closing valves and generally changing the conditions to get the bubble to move along.

Draining the pipe with a foot valve is tricky too. My foot valve leaks just a little, so if I open the hose bib in time the pipe will drain down. I don't know how you'd get the water out otherwise.

Finally, air leaks on the suction side are death to shallow well pumps, so I have a cap on the hose bib as insurance against it leaking. I also spent a little more for a ball valve.

 

[DieselBound]

As suggested, put in a coupler (I have them on either side of significant pieces of equipment; also have spigots along the line so I can test efficacy of different parts of my system). Makes for a much quicker R&R in the future.