help for newbie well owner

Hello all,
Would really appreciate some insight on my concern. Recently bought a house(1yr ago) that has a well. Woke up this morning to no water. Had a "Well service" come out, they replaced the well pump and misc stuff like the gauge on tank, pressure switch etc.
They upgraded the pump from a existing 1/2 to a 3/4 hpwr pump (4" goulds)....all went well until they finished up, chlorinated the well and began to run the pump thru a garden house to run the water until it ran clear(I also have a septic). The water volume was very good.
I wasnt entirely paying attention to the time but it must have been running non-stop for 40-60minutes before the water slowed and then stopped. I concluded with their help the well was run dry.
Turned the power off, waited 30 minutes or so and had water again.

My question is now do I have a bigger problem with the well? is this normal? is this a low yielding well that I need to be worried about. until now, I never had any "water" trouble at all.

other stuff I know about the well from the guys
165ft well
pump at 150ft
after install, they said I was pumping 15gal per min.

Thanks in advance!!!

Pumping 15 gals a minute is great - but only if your well can actually produce that much water. Why did they upgrade you to a 3/4hp pump? Were you looking for more pressure or more volume?

Unless you use your well to water your lawn its probably not going to be a problem for you because that is really the only time you would draw water at that high a rate for a long period of time.

Regardless you might want to invest in a pump stop sensor to protect your new pump. When your well pump runs dry the current to the pump drops. The sensor detects this and turns off your well pump for a specified period of time.

If you allow the well pump to run dry it will burn up fairly quickly.

You must have bought my old house.

My guess is that you got an "upgrade" pump because that's what was on the shelf or in the back of the truck. 15gpm must be the rate the pump will do, not the well. That's a lot for a garden hose- must have been shootin' around like a mad snake. Don't worry a slightly larger pump won't hurt anything.

Your well produces a lot less than that. The rate that is pumped after it "slows down" is the rate that the well produces. The well shaft acts like a reservoir. If you pump out the reservoir faster than it gets filled then it gets empty. Turn off the pump and it eventually fills up. This won't hurt the well but it could affect the pump.

Have the well company change the pressure switch for on with a low pressure cut off. It will keep the pump from running when the well runs dry.

Thanks for the responses.....The reason I got a 3/4 pump vs. the 1/2 that was originally installed was based on the recommendation of the service rep. The service guy started rattling off pros/cons of the sizes of the pump. Admittedly, I wasn’t following everything except the concept that due to the size of my home the pump would not have to “work as hard†as the other…..after getting dizzy going thru all this, I just asked him the “loaded†question, if it was your house would you install the larger unit. We all know what the answer was.
I will tell you before it ran out of water, the water was coming out of the hose like mad. Based on the feedback so far it looks like my knee jerk fears are unfounded and the well is okay.

Another twist, I came home this afternoon to find out the water was coming out as a “drip†from the facets. I don’t have to tell you my response (it was a graphic statement ) then I called the well guys. After much discussion, it turns out the filters needed to be changed and will need to be changed several more times in the coming days because all the sediment and stuff is being pumped out of the well…..I think that would have been good information for them to share.

couple of more questions:
one of the recommendations was a pump saver…Any recommendations of a brand or model? How expensive and hard are they to install?

I know all wells recover differently. However, is there a range of what a normal recovery rate is?


Thanks again to all!

They really should have pumped for a while after changing things. Before/after changing the pump they should have measured the recovery rate of the well. Providing protection for the pump running dry should have been provided. Particualrly if they did not know the recovery rate.

For the filter - if you have a faucet before the filter, run the water, from this connection only, until the water clears. If you don't have such a connection you can 1) add one 2) remove the filter and take water from the cold water faucet closest to the pump system until the water clears. Don't run this into your septic system.

cityguy said:

Thanks for the responses.....The reason I got a 3/4 pump vs. the 1/2 that was originally installed was based on the recommendation of the service rep. The service guy started rattling off pros/cons of the sizes of the pump. Admittedly, I wasn’t following everything except the concept that due to the size of my home the pump would not have to “work as hard” as the other…..after getting dizzy going thru all this, I just asked him the “loaded” question, if it was your house would you install the larger unit. We all know what the answer was.
I will tell you before it ran out of water, the water was coming out of the hose like mad. Based on the feedback so far it looks like my knee jerk fears are unfounded and the well is okay.

Another twist, I came home this afternoon to find out the water was coming out as a “drip” from the facets. I don’t have to tell you my response (it was a graphic statement ) then I called the well guys. After much discussion, it turns out the filters needed to be changed and will need to be changed several more times in the coming days because all the sediment and stuff is being pumped out of the well…..I think that would have been good information for them to share.

couple of more questions:
one of the recommendations was a pump saver…Any recommendations of a brand or model? How expensive and hard are they to install?

I know all wells recover differently. However, is there a range of what a normal recovery rate is?


Thanks again to all!

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Leaks are due to dirt in the seals.

Recovery rate depends on the depth of the pump in the well, the static water level, the diameter to calculate the volume in gallons. Then add in your pressure tank volume and divide by the actual flow rate of the well itself. It's usually somewhere between 20 minutes and one or two hours.

>>I know all wells recover differently. However, is there a range of what a normal recovery rate is?

Short answer, No. A recovery rate of 5gpm is decent, 20gpm is great and 2gpm kinda sucks. Less than 2gpm is not good and will most likely require a retention tank setup unless you are really frugal with you water use.

The previous poster described how to go about calculating your recovery rate. As a well owner I would want to know what it is.

In my old house I had a 7gpm pump, a 1.5 gpm well, 6" diameter with about 150' of storage depth along with a 30 gallon pressure tank. As long as you didn't try watering the lawn I never had any problem.

6" dia = .2 square feet; x 150' = 30 cubic feet; x 7.5 gallons/ cubic feet = 225 gallons; + 30 gallons = 225 gallons total reservoir volume.

225 gallons / (7-1.5gpm) = 41 minutes to complete draw down.

225 gallons / (1.5gpm) = 150 minutes = 2.5 hours complete recovery.

Thanks for all the great information and responses. The service guys mentioned my well "information" is required to be engraved on the bottom of the well cap and that is where they obtained the depth of the well. Is the recovery rate or static level something that is also "required" information on the bottom of the well cap? can obtaining the information be this simple?

cityguy said:

Thanks for all the great information and responses. The service guys mentioned my well "information" is required to be engraved on the bottom of the well cap and that is where they obtained the depth of the well. Is the recovery rate or static level something that is also "required" information on the bottom of the well cap? can obtaining the information be this simple?

Click to expand...

The required information is probably in a State Code. If it has the name of the driller you can call them and maybe they'll have records.

Check with the state or local agency responsible for wells (e.g., health department). They may have the well logs online.

KISS! Keep it simple.

All the information others have submitted is good, however some is quite complicated to the non experienced.

It's obvious to me the well was over pumped to the point the water was cascading down the well casing walls, causing the debris to plug the filter.

A qualified pump man would have pumped the new pump slowly by restricting the flow until it cleared by bypassing all filters; the tank and the house. Once everything cleared then connected it to the filter, tank and house.

Since you don't have a well record, I would have a Pump Sensor and a c
Cycle Stop Valve www.cyclestopvalves.com installed by a qualified pump service man. This will prevent your pump from running dry and burning out and the Cycle Stop Valve will give you a constant pressure (Like city water pressure).


Lastly, once everything is again working OK I would flush out the hotwater tank at the drain near the bottom and check the washing machine hose screens for debris, as well as check any ice maker and filters in the faucets, dish washer and refrigerator. Maybe even check the shower heads and the toilet tank for debris. It sounds like a lot to do but if you suspect any debris got past your inline water filter it should be done to prevent future problems with those appliances.