new water well

[MDM]

I had a new well drilled a few weeks ago. I got the pump set last weekend end, and have been pumping it dry about twice a day ever since to try to get the water to clear up. How long does it generally take for the water to clear up after a new well is drilled? I'm going to give it another week, but there has been no change in clarity for the last 6 days.

 

[BTDT]

Sounds like you didn't go deep enough if your pumping it dry. May not ever clear up. (in my opinion)

 

[Jimbrown]

Pumping it dry is causing it to bring in new silt each time. Stop pumping it dry.

 

[Egon]

Don't pump it dry if you want clarity.

 

[turnkey4099]

I had a new well drilled a few weeks ago. I got the pump set last weekend end, and have been pumping it dry about twice a day ever since to try to get the water to clear up. How long does it generally take for the water to clear up after a new well is drilled? I'm going to give it another week, but there has been no change in clarity for the last 6 days.

You didn't say how you set the pump. It needs to be several feet off the bottom to give room for sediment settlement. As others have said, don't pump it dry.

Harry K

 

[MDM]

Well is 135 feet deep. 135 is deep for around here, most are not over 100ft. The pump is set 10 ft off the bottom. The stream is at 31 ft and only makes 20 gallons an hour. It's not very good, but it is what it is. The static level will rise to 25 if I give it enough time which gives me 250 gallons, and that is way more than I will use at any one time. Everyone around here including the drillers, said to keep bailing it until it clears up. Even if I let it fill over night, the water is still very coudy. There is no change in clarity from the time I start pumping until 25 minutes later when it pumps dry.

I have another well that I am using in the mean time. My old well slows way down in the summer. So I had another one drilled so I could flip back and forth between the two.

 

[MDM]

Just to be clear, I have been pumping it dry intentionally. I turn the garden hose on and leave it on until it pumps dry - about 10 gallons a minute for 25 minutes before it goes dry. I was told to keep doing this until it clears up. I was told it may take a couple of weeks.

 

[gordon21]

If you have a well with 20GPM flow, that is very very good. Most of my neighbors have 5GPM or less and never run the well dry unless they are filling a pool. If you run a hose at 10GPM, the well would NEVER run dry. The well would be refilling it faster than you can use the water. 20 is bigger than 10.

Do you really have 20GPM?? You may have 2GPM instead. Look at the data tag attached to the well casing. It could be a 2.0 on the tag, not 20. If you can empty your well in 25 minutes using one hose, you have a serious problem.

If the water is cloudy, why don't you merely add an in-line water filter. $75 should be enough to buy the filter, the fittings and an extra cartridge.

Was the well drilled or pounded? If it was drilled, it may need to be fracked.

Are you sure the bottom of the pump is really 10' off the bottom of the well? If it is too close, it will pick up crud off the bottom.

You need to get definite answers to what you really have and don't have. In the meantime, do not continue to pump the well dry. That will do no good at all, especially for the pump. Having to replace a $500 pump in less than a month is not good. Deep pumps rely on water to cool them and keep lubricated.

 

[JoeL4330]

I read 20gph not 20gpm

 

[Blackfoot]

Just to be clear, I have been pumping it dry intentionally. I turn the garden hose on and leave it on until it pumps dry - about 10 gallons a minute for 25 minutes before it goes dry. I was told to keep doing this until it clears up. I was told it may take a couple of weeks.

I have a well that pumps 40 gpm, our water has a lot of minerals in it, and when it sets a bit it turns a milky color. I had the well drilled in 1991, but just put a submersible in it last summer, as it is artesian and has a static level of25ft. But the point that I am coming to, is that after letting it set for so long without pumping it, the water had slowed down quite a bit on its out put. So what I did, is before I put the pump down, I put an air fitting in the well cap, so that I could pump air down the casing, I put a 150lbs of air in the casing which blew the bottom of the well out real good and it tripled my water flow. I have never heard of some one pumping the well dry like you are doing, but this is what I was told to do and you might want to give it a whirl. Cut your flow rate back to where you are not running it dry, and then pump it steady for a few days. Maybe with you pumping it dry like that the dirt is falling back into your blowout hole at the bottom of your casing, which in turn is giving you the muddy water.,,,,,,Good luck, BF