17K$ 600' Granite Hole

Looking for suggestions to fill my china hole with water retrieving
apparatus.

Stats:

600' drilled well 4" diameter, granite (rock all the way down)

2 gpm in drought season, might be more in the spring

124' static water level (476' reserve) x .66 = 314.16 gals

Looked at the Flint & Walling Commander pro 150 Constant Pressure
system. Essentially a 1.5 horse pump on a 3 horse motor with a control
box. Variable frequency for constant pressure. see link

http://www.deanbennett.com/constant-pressure-pump-cp-pro150.htm

Found the system in NJ for $1600.00

Does this system sound plausible? Thanks in advance guys.

Steve

It will work. However, be aware that if you are going to utilize the storage in the well, the water level will drop to nearly 600 feet. At that point, if you add 75 psi for pressure drop in the pipe and pressurizing your system, you will have a pressure in the pipe at the top of the pump and top of the water of 335 psi. That means you will have to put in pipe with 335 psi working pressure.

That probably means steel pipe, so your cost is going to be a good bit more than $1600.

Thanks Bob, I will use galvanized drop pipe.
Have a grea day!!!

Around here that hole would have been 6" and the cost about $8000 including 40 foot of casing and sealing. Why so much money?

If it really gives 2gpm, Why not pump at 2gpm with a small submersible into a $1000 storage tank? Should be able to get a 2500 gallon for that. You could set the pump high on poly pipe and avoid the horrors of galvanized pipe. One might assume that your static water level would then remain reasonably static and you could make your calculations based on a 150' pumping depth.

Use a multi stage booster for the house feed. Advantages; large water storage, long life of pump in well and easy maintenance if needed, access to the pressure pump on surface, gravity feed to house when power out if tank is elevated.

I think if you run the numbers you would find storing water above the ground is better in this case then in the well.

Thanks Raucina:

Well that put's me on the fence, I will have to ponder
maintenance on two pumps, pipes and pressure sensors.

my thought was the flint & Walling might be simple.

Thank you very much, semper fi guys good luck in
all you endeavors.

Steve

Herc,
you might want consider looking into having the well hydrofractured instead of putting money into another pump system. Hydrofracturing basicly gets the well to produce more water by forcing high pressured water through the seems of rock. By doing that the water forced through the seems loosens up alot of material that is restricting water flow. Its not guarenteed but i have had plenty of wells that have produced 10 times the amount they did before the fracturing. Call around to your local well guys and get some estimates and more info.

Good luck,

SAM

No one around here does hydro frac unless we are talking oil wells.

As to maintenance on 2 pumps, I would say that by spreading the work between two pumps and having the submersible run just a few times per day, then your pump repair work might be restricted to the one on the surface and the one in the well for your kids. And when one fails you still have a tank to pull you through a few days or more with gravity feed.

Its about redundancy and every Marine knows about that; pistol in the sock, extra clips in the shorts, knife in the pocket. If your rifle fails, you have something left to work with....

So Raucina, what exactly is your point with the hydrofracturing comment? I find it hard to believe that a developing method that is used world wide on water wells is not performed in your area.

SAM

My situation is kind of like yours.
Our well produces 1-1/2 gpm. It is 600' deep. They hit water at 15' but we wanted higher production so we went on down. Never hit the mother lode. My strategy is to pump from our drilled well into a buried cistern by the house, once a day. If the well fills to the 15' mark we should have almost 600 gallons to pump. 2 gpm is 2880 gpd. That's a lot, unless you are running a car wash or watering livestock. Once in the 1100 cistern we will pump it into the house using a variable speed pump. At 2 gpm, you should fill your well to the water level in an hour. So you could have 120 gph. To fill a cistern you don't need a lot of pressure. It's a pain to have to do all this but sometime you just have to. Get a timer and a float switch and a cistern and a pump tech

At least you have water.

So Raucina, what exactly is your point with the hydrofracturing comment? I find it hard to believe that a developing method that is used world wide on water wells is not performed in your area.

I believe my point was contained within my point, but let me translate it for you as a courtesy: Hydrofracturing on residential water wells is unheard of in this tri county area of california, containing area about the size of new hampshire. We have some oil wells a bit further south, and for them, the process is economically viable.

If you pump a 2 gpm well at 2 gpm, the water level will fall only slightly, and one need not drop the pump to the bottom of the hole. Since 2 gpm put into storage is adequate for residential uses, why bother with any other procedures other than designing the pump and storage to the wells production?

Wells with less than 1 gpm usually get abandoned, but if you are sure hydro frac works, and is economically viable, someone here might pick up the program and start a business. I just think its a hard sell, and thats why it does not exist here. Remember, this is where we drop 4" pvc pipe down 6" drill holes and slot it with a saw as a liner. Must be a California thing.

You crazy Californians, I'll bet you don't us pitless adapters either...

Rancher

Hey Guy's thanks very much for all the input, I know they hydro - fracture up here and will look into the cost. As for now we went to the property and had a great john wayne day, shot everything in our arsenal. My buddy has a 50. cal , thinking about improvising, adapting ond overcoming with a few shots down the well, now that's hydro-fracturing!!! Have a great Memorial Day weekend and semper fi to all you vets, thanks for your service!!

Steve

I'll bet if you put a rock on a pound of C-4 and set it off at the location of the aquifer, it would crack a few rocks in the vicinity. Do it when the water is standing as near to the top as possible to provide tamping.