Water well: anyone have one similar?

[robbyr]

My father in law gave my wife and her sister a couple acres some years back for their own homestead. We trenched across the pasture (maybe 200 yards) to supply our homes with water. So there are three households on this well. In the summer of 2000 the pump went out. He was the kind of fella that could do most things himself so I helped him pull the pump. Instead of installing a new pump, we replaced the galvanized pipe with PVC. Then we added another smaller line (1/2" I think) in the casing and elled it a few feet inside the main pipe. This is connected to our air compressor which blows the water up.

My father in law passed away unexpectedly in 2010 so I've had on a few occasions to work on it and familiarize myself with it. I think I understand how it works. We have a 1000 gallon concrete holding tank, a jet pump, and the pressure tank. There's a float switch in the concrete tank so when the level drops to kick the switch on, it activates another switch ( I don't know what this one is) that is on the air line going down in the well. As long as compressor is putting out 80 lbs it will blow the water up into the concrete tank. The outlet is at the bottom of tank and piped to the jet pump then the pressure tank.

I had never before seen a system like this and still don't know of anyone else who does this. So was wondering if any of you TBN guys have seen this before?

 

[bcp]

Don't have one but have heard of them. I think this one works like that:

Submersible Pumps, Bore Pumps, Well Pumps, De-watering, Aerating, Leachate. DIY

Also try a Google search and Youtube for

airlift pump


Bruce

 

[robbyr]

In a way it's kinda neat that the only thing in the well is pipe. No pump no electricity. Everything's on the ground. Monday I put a heat lamp by the jet pump and wrapped the pipes. Also have a halogen light stand set up by the regulator on compressor. It has frozen there before or right under the pressure switch. But we usually only have that kind of cold for two or three days a year.

 

[robbyr]

Meant to post this on initial post

 

[Katahdin]

How clean is the air going into the well from the air compressor? I'd be worried about oil blow by from the compressor cylinders getting into your water supply. I would suggest getting a water test done to look for contaminants.

 

[RalphVa]

Not familiar with a system like that, but EVERYONE all over Virginia have well pumps that are 200+ feet into the ground. Think all of them use polypropylene (black, flexible) piping between the well and house. It seems a lot more long lived than PVC, much tougher.

Ralph

 

[Egon]

Never seen one but would think it works exactly the same as a deep well jet pump only it uses air for the working fluid in the educator. Discharging into a tank at atmospheric pressure makes it possible.

Chances are you could use your existing jet pump to replace the air. Might need a different educator downhole.

Think about how sand blasters work. Same idea.

 

[toppop52]

If it's a 4" or bigger well, I'd rather have a submersible pump, much simpler and easier to protect from freezing. I'm lucky and live on top of the Paleo Channel and my well is about 65' and the water level is about 8'-10', so I don't have the lift issues deep wells have.

 

[buickanddeere]

Must be some sort of a reason to use such a complex and energy hogging system ? I have heard of low yield wells pumping into an accumulator tank so peak gpm demand scan be met.

 

[cqaigy2]

That sounds like an interesting system. Everything on top where it's easy to work on and replace with little going into well. Like Katahdin said, i'd probably have a filter or two on the air before it going into the well to sop up oil and contaminates from the compressor.

My system is a "deep" low yield where the submersible pumps into a 1000gal cistern that feeds a much smaller pump to a pressure tank.

Float switch in cistern control relays that switch the output of the pump control to the submersible pump. Ditto with the pressure switch on the pump feeding the pressure tank. So both legs of the power to pumps are switched instead of one.

The biggest benefit for me is the float switch has lasted many years because it's not switching full load across it. The relays are fairly cheap, rated at much higher voltage and current the load and are easily replaced if needed. It does add complexity that some well people might not be impressed with but it's really pretty simple. Also i was told by a person that installs all kinds of big and small pumps that switching all the power legs on the pump seems to make them last much longer, possibly because of less electrolysis taking place, donno though.