Old wells

[Chuck52]

I have two unused wells on my property. Both are "modern" bored-type wells. One is probably as old as the house....about 50 years. The other is newer, but probably still in the 20 year range. If the wires running down the shafts are any indication, the pumps are still down there. According to the son-in-law of the former owner, neither well ran dry. The second was dug when the quality of the water from the first declined. The second was put out of service when district water came through, as it also apparently didn't give great quality water. I assume after the many years the pumps have been down there they are probably shot. However, I'd sure like to have one of those wells available for irrigation, or maybe even for a ground source heat pump, so I was wondering what might happen if I dug up the outlet and hooked up the pump wires to power. Is there any special power reuirement for a submersible pump? Would I probably just trip whatever circuit breaker the power was coming from?

Chuck

 

[DaMadman]

I think it depends on what kind of pump is down there but most are 220 volt, not all but most are. If it was a good pump to begin with you sould be able to hook it back up and use it. Of course you are going to have to find out where the water line coming from the pump is going and find the end and tap into that.

I don't see why the pump would be bad just from sitting. They are made to be submersed in water so rust isn't an issue.

Hook power to it and see what happens

 

[Jimbrown]

You can not just hook power to the pump you need a pump controller and they are not all alike it depends on the pump. If the controller is missing Your best bet is to try and find who put the pumps in and see if they have a record or just pull the pumps. This a good idea anyway as the well may have sanded in and the pump may be sitting in sand. Plus if it is that old and they used iorn pipe the pipe is probably rusted and has holes in it.

 

[Chuck52]

Thanks guys. Both pump controllers are still mounted on the basement wall. I wish I had a diagram of where all the water lines go, but I can find them at the wells of course. There's no indication that an expansion tank was ever in the basement, so I guess there might be one buried somewhere, though the original owner may have gotten rid of it. If he did, it would be about the only thing he threw out. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif The plumbing where the water comes into the basement looks like Rube Goldberg designed it. At some point they added a water softener, and rather than simply plumbing it in, with any needed bypasses, they set it up so that in some of the pipes the water flows either direction, depending on whether the water softener was being used or not. I stood down there looking at the nest of pipes for about twenty minutes before I figured out how the water flow worked.

I'm at work and don't remember exactly what the well heads look like, but I don't recall anything but the electrical wire going down the pipe. Do you pull that to bring up the pump? Is is reenforced or something? It sounds like there is at least a possibility that I can use one of these wells for irrigating without putting in more money than I'll save on my water bill.

Chuck

 

[ByronBob]

Do yourself a favor, read about submersible wells. They have a pittman valve on them and how they work is unique.

 

[Jimbrown]

If you still have the controllers I would not be afraid to put power to it. Be prepared for water to squirt somewhere. But, most controllers are turned on and off by some sort of pressure switch. If the pressure switch is not there the controller probably will not turn on. You can jump the connections if you can still read the instructions for the controllers. Usually inside the box.
You can not just pull the pump up with the wires. You probably have a pitless adaptor down in the ground below the freeze zone. this is where the water flows out of the well. The pump it self is connected to pipe. Most likely galvanized in your case. It could be any where from 50 to several 100 ft in length/depth It takes a pump truck to pull the pipe in most cases. Although some of the newer wells like mine are starting to use black pvc so that it can be pulled with out the truck. I do not know what you pay for water or electricity but my experience that it cost almost as much to pump the water as to buy it. May not be true if you have some sort of sewer tax based on water usage. I get around this by having my well on 100% solar. But the solar stuff is expensive and not be worth it just for a small amount o watering.
Look here It is not he best picture but it wil give you and idea.

http://www.wellowner.org/awaterwellbasics/typesdrilled.shtml

 

[Junkman]

In the Northeast, black plastic pipe has been used for over 30 years. The iron pipe is easy to remove once you know how. You need a V cut into a heavy piece of plywood to lock the pipe resting on top of the well casing while you unscrew the piece that just came out of the well. Keep doing this until you have all the pipe out of the well. It is a time consuming job, but not difficult. Usually takes 2 people to do it successfully.

 

[Chuck52]

OK. This is beginning to sound like more fun than I might want. I doubt that either pump controller is still electrically connected to a pump. When the district water was brought in they apparently connected to the line from the second well rather than put in a new pipe all the way into the house; the second well is located between the water meter and the house, so that probably made some sense. At that time, I would be surprised if they didn't cut the wire from the controller to the pump, though it still goes through the basement wall with the water line. So, I'd probably have to take the controller out to the well, connect it to the wires there, get power to it, and then see what happened. Sounds like I may be better off calling in a well guy and asking how much it would cost for him to check out the wells for functionality.

Ah well. I am pretty much a do-it-yourself type of guy, but too often I end up a do-it-to-myself type.

Chuck

 

[Highbeam]

So the well casing is open? Rats could fall in? If so cap it with a cheap removable well cap to keep the water safe.

Before you cap it, look inside. Do you see water? Do you see a small pipe inside the big casing? Try and figure out how deep it is. This is often done by dropping a rock and counting the seconds. A shallow well, less than 100 feet, can be cheap to get running again. The pumps are cheap and the pipe is cheap. For irrigation you really don't need much in the way of a pressure tank, just plumb in the lines and assume the pump will run constantly.

I recommend calling in a well guy to at least investigate what you have. He may be able to fire up the old pump. May give you a bid to drop in a new one.

My well is 80' deep and used a black polyethylene pipe to connect the pump to the surface. I can actually reel the pump up by hand. The wires are attached to the poly pipe with tape every 6 feet. Th wires are only spliced on at the pump so would offer enough strength to reel it up alone.

Preserve the old wells. You may not be able to dig new ones and water is never getting cheaper. Further, if the water company loses power or if their supply becomes contaminated you will have your own source of water. Water is one of those essential things that you can't live without. It is valuable to be able to control these essentials.

 

[dummy]

There's one I can come close to answering. Oh not so long ago, pump and associated wiring/controls replaced. 250 foot depth , 1 HP submersible, time , labor and materials = $1100.00 The next thing would be whether or not you can get it done. Locally, when "city water" goes in, the old wells are supposed to be condemned, made non-useable and certified as inoperable by the health department. Therefore, the property owner would not be able to get a permit issued for the well work.