Bad Pump?

I pulled the pipes today and checked the foot valve. The screen was clear and valve worked ok. I had water about 29' down and the overall length of the piping was 107'. I guess I will have to get some another drop pipe cause the one I purchased was only 100'. Not sure how to measure the draw down but I guess its not an issue over 70' of head water. I will purchase a sub pump this week and probably put it in next weekend. It did take a while to prime the pump and it was pretty easy to fill back up. I just filled the down pipe at the 90 to the well with water until it came back out the other end of the down pipe.

I do have a question regarding pump size and flow rate. Without knowing the flow rate of the well which I am assuming is good should I base the pump size and flow rate on the house consumption? I don't want to go with a 1hp pump and find that it cycles too much due to the high flow rate. I have 2-1/2 baths one with a 6ft Jacuzzi tub and three other sinks and that's it. Any input?

Even if the well has a slow recovery you have about 100 gallons stored in the 78' of standing water in the well. So you should be able to size the pump to the house demands. 2.5 baths with fairly normal shower heads will only use maybe 10 GPM. The Jacuzzi tub can fill slow or fast depending on how much water you give it. A 3/4 HP, 10 GPM pump will give you good pressure even at 100' pumping level. Your well is 107', you have 100' of pipe, and the sub pump will be about 3' long. This will put you 4' off the bottom which should be good.

Cycling does not happen at high flow. You have a 10 GPM pump, so as long as you are using 10 GPM, the pump runs continuously. It is the low flow for long periods of time that causes cycling. If you ran a 2 GPM sprinkler for hours at a time the pump would cycle on and off a lot. If you never run a sprinkler or anything else for long periods of time, you only need about a 40 gallon size bladder tank, that will hold about 10 gallons of water.

If you want to be able to run sprinklers or anything else for long periods (hours), then a Cycle Stop Valve and 4.4 gallon pressure tank would be better. Even without sprinklers, this will also give you constant pressure in the house, instead of the pump and pressure cycling 3 or 4 times each shower. It works exactly like the constant pressure simulation that Franklin has on their web page, except it is an inexpensive, long lasting, simple valve, with absolutely no electronics to cause problems.

Thanks Valveman, What are the approximate cost of a CSV and would this go before the bladder tank or after?

To date I have not gone any further with the submersible pump install. I do have an issue with keeping my jet pump primed. If I run the dishwasher or clotheswasher it will loose the prime on the pump. If I only use enough water to have the pump cycle on and fill the tank the pump will not loose it's prime. It seems like there is air in the system and i cannot get rid of it.. Could it be a small air leak or is the jet gone? I will replace with a new sub once the 12/3 wire comes in but not untill next week. Just getting tired of primming the pump on a daily basis.....

Could be air, could be your using more water than the pump can get. Could be the lack of a good backpressure control. like I said, they are important.

I got the submersible in this past weekend and all working great except for one issue. When the pump turns on and the system charges up to 50psi and the pump cuts off the guage slowly drops to 45 psi. It takes about 30 - 45 seconds but stops and sits @ 45psi.

Could this be due the lack of a check valve at the tank (thinking that with the pump off the pressure balances from the house to the pump and the check valve would be a fix) or could the pitless be leaking only above 45psi?

I can't explain what causes it to do that, but it's happened a million times to me. It's a normal thing as long as it only drops the five pounds then stays there.