Shallow Well Bladder Tank Pump? Recommendations?

First of all thanks to everyone for the great advice. I ended up going down 15 feet with my hand driven well. I've got about 9 feet of water in the pipe. I just hooked up my Wayne portable utility pump to a garden hose and stuck the hose down the well. The pump is rated on flat land at 1700 gph, and it pumped water from my well like crazy for 15-20 minutes until I turned the pump off.

Now I'm ready for some recommendations for shallow well pumps that already come equipped with pressure tanks (at least thats what I think I need).
In the perfect world I'd like enough pressure and tank capacity so I'm able to water the garden out of two or three hoses at once. But if that's not realistic, I'm interested in a pump with punch, and weather resistant. I'd pay up to $350 or $400...or a little more if there was a good reason to do that.

Thanks,
Steven
Willards Maryland

If all you are doing is watering you probably don't need a tank if you design the irrigation system properly.

Do a test to determine how many GPM the well can deliver for an hour without pumping it dry.

Then get a shallow well jet pump that is compatible with the capacity of your well, and that will deliver the GPM you want at 40 to 50 psi. You may be looking at a 1 HP pump.

If you hook up your irrigation system so it is never completely valved off then you can run it with a manual switch. You can set up a contactor (relay) and use a transformer and low voltage circuit for control if that is most convenient.

Lay out your hoses and sprinklers and turn on the switch. Don't use the pressure switch.

The pump will operate at a pressure that will allow the sprinklers to deliver water consistent with the characteristics of the pump.

A shallow well jet pump has a shutoff head (pressure) that is in the safe range and the pressure will not exceed that pressure.

In a setup like that the pump will never cycle on and off during the run and it won't hurt the pump as long as there is at least one hose open.

When you want to move the hoses to a new location, turn off the pump, move them, and turn on the pump.

You can go shopping here Jet Pumps.

One thing you can't do; is leave the Pump running with a squeezie handle on one hose at a time. If you unsqueeze the handle then get busy doing something else that lets the Pump run without moving water for 10 to 15 minutes, things are going to get real hot. In 20 minutes or so, the fittings and the impeller will melt.

Before shopping on my site, I like BobNH recommend you do a test on the Well to see what it will deliver in gallons per minute. Then I can help you size up a Pump. Your Wayne Utility Pump pulling through a Garden Hose is not moving very much water. Hopefully, the well will produce more than that.

bob...