Hi, Our house has a 1/2 HP jet pump for water. According to the guy I bought the house from the well is only 21 feet deep and the water table is at 11 feet. He installed a two line jet system because he did not want to worry about a point plugging up. Anyways he also installed an inground sprinkler system, which did not work for me. The heads barely popped up and the pump sounded awful, chugging really bad, even started sucking water from an upstairs toilet. The pump and everything is in my basement. It appears he put the two pump lines down into a 6 or 4 inch casing. My question is can I replace this setup with a submersible pump? Or should I try putting in a larger jet pump(3/4 or 1 HP) I talked to a local well driller who was drilling at a new house next door, and he said he got tons of great water at 40 feet. I'm sure he hit water sooner, he just went down to 40 to insure he'd have enough. Any suggestions would be great. Jeff
Or he most likely is getting paid by the foot (~$100-150/ft in my area)
The truth be known. You sould always go with an accurate flow test.. I'm not sure how that works but here, the county inspector has the well driller perform this test. If he doesn't get the volume output, he keeps drilling (more money) until the well meets the local standard for a residential well. Oh, yah, the take water sample also for tests.
HOLY CRAP! What kind of well driller charges $100 to $150 per foot? The highest I've EVER seen a well driller charge (and I didn't hire him) was $11 per foot for the well and $8 for the casing.
I just had a well drilled and paid 9 and 9. 220 feet deep, 14 gallons per minute, 40 feet of casing, cost me less than $2000.
A two line/deep well jet isn't going to change the type of construction of the well. All wells are of two types. Most common nationally is a rock bore. Casing into the bedrock and then a hole to the depth of the well. Or, a fully cased and then screened well, usually only used into gravel and sand and ither 'drilled' or called a well point type which is usually not more than 2" dia pipe. The samllest submersible pumps are about 2.5" but usually 3" dia. so other type pumps must be used for the smaller than 4" ID wells.. Screening and/or point screeing does block up. As 'veins' in a rock well do also.
chugging
You parbably have a bad pump since it sounds awful; they normally don't make nosie other than a motor running. Well they can if they don't have enough water to lift out of the well. Bigger is not better and you don't size a pump by looking at the hp. You size a pump based on the gpm needed, the TDH (total dynamic head), including the pressure you want to run and THEN select the hp to do that job. All pumps have two parts, the wet end and the motor. The wet end couldn't care less what hp the motor is because they all work based on the RPM, of the motor.
The driller has to provide storage space for the water he 'finds'.... so how do you see him going past water to simply increase the bill? Most folks mistakenly believe a driller drills until he breaks through into a stream or pool of water. No so in 99.999% of water wells. A water well is nothing more than a hole in the ground that is meant to collect and store water for future use. The drill intersects many water bearing strata and when they total a certain amount of recovery (minimum of 3-5 gpm) and based on the storage capacity of the well, based on the water needs of the building, they quit drilling.
Go here for some info on pumps
You may need a new pump, new j-body in the well, they have to be 'married' for the pump you have, and check on the depth of the foot valve and see how deep the water level is falling when you use water. Depending on that data, then you'd look at cleaning the well or a new well. Especially for that price for that deep of a well!!
Yes you can run electric to and down the well and install a submersible pump. And I'd suggest you do that rather than a new jet pump. You'd sue the larger line for the electrical to the well and the 1" (smaller) line for the water. Look up pump guys in your yellow pages if you aren't into doing this yourself..
Before you do anything, see my other reply to your previous post. You don't need new excavation unless there is something proven wrong with your present plumbing. If yer handy you can replace your own pump and especially a pressure tank. If you want prices and instructions, my email works.
Here's the URL I mentioned but forgot to add in my previous post.
Yep, that's about what I paid for new well (60 ft), run to house (100 ft), new pressure tank, extra circuit for a 110 outlet at pump and install 1 frost free hydrant.
The price I mentioned is inclusive of the well casing and deepwell pump..
The guy up the road, here in W. Washington, went down about 130 ft for good water and paid about $10,000.. That's about 77 a ft.. However if the water had come in at a shallower depth he would still have to pay a couple thousand just for the set up, plus footage...
I use to hang out at a bar where some well drillers would stop in after work.. I would sometimes hear comments about "can't make any money until we get down to 100 ft...". Thus an incentive to drill deeper wells.
Ask for a price for just the well minus the cable, pump, it's tubing/pipe, pitless adapter, excavation to the building, the pressure tank and fittings etc. and see what you're told.
Then get a price for the excavation only. Then a pump guy or plumber that knows pumps and wells, to price out the cable, pump, tubing, pitless and pressure tank with the needed switch etc.. Or do the excavation, cable and tubing to/from the well and the pressure tank yourself. Then have the pump guy install the pitless and pump.
You can buy all this stuff over the internet ya know. You can even size the pump on the internet. I sell all of it to DIYers.
Those/these guys must not have much competition except between themselves!
I meant for the driller to drill the well, which includes installing the casing. A drill and hole saw doesn't cost much, or you can burn the hole for the pitless. You could rent the torch.
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