How to shut down well for winter

We had a deep water well drilled this spring in Michigan. It has a submersible pump and pitless adapter. Evidently the well was "almost free flowing" so they had to install a seal at five foot depth. It runs pex I believe or some type of flexible line to the pressure switch and pressure tank. I've never shut down a deep well so I'm not sure how to go about doing it. Is something a homeowner should be able to do or is it best left to a plumber/well man? I think we start getting sub freezing temps in late October in Northern MI, so I've got about a month left before I actually have to shut down.
thanks,
Jim

How deep is your frost line?

Winterizing well

Our frost line is 42"

Check with your well guy. It would be customary to have all of the waterlines from the well to the building located below the frost line, making it immune to winter freezing.

You don't use a well seal with a pitless, and you don't run droppipe down from the top of the pitless either. You connect to the outlet of the pitless below ground below the frost line which is where the outlet should be. Then you use the inside guts of the pitless to make your connection.

If you sucked the water out of your well and lost prime, it doesn't sound like a very good producing well, even using a Flotec.

bob...

If the well produces 8 gallons per minute that is what you should have been getting with a jet pump with only 30' of droppipe in the well. 40 is not necessary. If the water level is low, like the 18 feet you mentioned, that may be the reason you were only getting 5gpm. But you should be able to keep pumping a steady stream with that water level even if it's only 2 gpm.

bob...

You should have 30' of pipe down the well if you want to do it that way. Then you won't run out of prime. It should pump the amount of water that the well is capable of.

I don't know what kind of sprinkler pump you have that is under 10 gpm an any level above 25 feet. It should do much more. Maybe you noticed I'm not fond of Flotec's.

Any single pipe pump will only lift water 25 foot max. Some a little less.

A well seal can't be pushed down into the casing, it has a lip that won't allow that to happen. If you are going to use the well this way, you should have a well seal installed. They are called sanitary well seals for a reason. You don't want rat's living in your drinking water.

bob...

You might want to put that pipe a little further up on the barb fitting at the well. It looks like it's ready to fall off. It might be a giant air leak. I would get rid of all the other fittings too, the unions, the tee at the top of the well etc.

bob...

My well driller

Hey Markhash,

my well company was out of Scottville, MI. Pump Engineering. My cottage has a crawl space under it so as the line comes out of the well below frost line it slopes slowly to ground level which is where my pressure tank and pressure switch are. I'm not sure how steep the pitch of the supply line is from the well but I figure at least the last four to five feet probably come up above the frost line. I was told I would have to get a special wrench to shut off my supply valve down in the well. The directions from my well man were to turn off power to submersible pump, open valve to pressure tank, allow water in supply line to drain back in well, leave valve open for the winter, then reverse order in the spring. I'm somewhat confused as to why I need some special wrench to close down, as I'm assuming whatever valve he is talking about should be open now as the well is functioning. I know they had to put some sort of seal at five feet as the well wanted to free flow, so perhaps it is the seal that I must open or close. That sounds goofy to me, but I know nothing about a deep well like this. (how could you tell?)