Right sized pump?

I just had a driller drill a well on my property. He ended up at 425' and hit clay the whole way down. He told me that he put in a 1.5 hp 10 gpm pump. Evidently he wasn't able to blow it out because of the depth and now the house and hydrants are spitting out the bentonite clay used in drilling. I let the pump run 3 hours last night hoping to clear out the well, but the flow was nearly nothing when I turned the hydrant off. I had a 5 gallon bucket under the hydrant earlier and measured 4 gallons in a minute, but after reading the site I guess this is not the way to measure GPM.

I wasn't home, but the wife told me they dropped a screen down the pipe? Could this be causing flow issues?

My question is do you guys think this pump is sized correctly for the depth of the well? I have 3 outside hydrants and I live on a 8 acre farm, so I will be irrigating gardens and animals all over the place. The contractor told me that the water level was at 150'. I don't know what height he put the pump.

Even if the water level pulls all the way down to 425', a 10 GPM, 1.5 HP should still pump 9 GPM. So either the well is only making 4 GPM, or you just don't have enough faucets running to get 9 GPM.

jtmcclain said:

He told me that he put in a 1.5 hp 10 gpm pump.

I had a 5 gallon bucket under the hydrant earlier and measured 4 gallons in a minute, but after reading the site I guess this is not the way to measure GPM.

Click to expand...

A 1.5 hp, 10 GPM pump at 60% efficiency should give you 10 GPM at (1.5)(40)(60)/10 = 360'.

Use a bucket or one of these
http://www.amazon.com/Toro-Flow-Pressure-Gauge-53351/dp/B000O5SP80

You using plastic pipes? What ID? What lengths?

Sorry for the late reply, been busy all week.

He is using a 4" well casing, it looked like 20 ft of pvc screen at the bottom of the casing.

After I went home last weekend, I ran all 3 hydrants for around 20 minutes and evidently ran the casing dry.

He called yesterday and told me he dropped the pump 40 more feet. He wants me to run it and see if it cleans up. I am adding a valve to the line so I can run the hydrants outside and not contaminate the inside pipes.

The screen on the casing was set at 425' It sounded like they dropped some sort of screen that was supposed to go on the pump.

I will run it tonight and update on this.

By the way I am in Nebraska.

You should never install anything, like this valve you mention, between a pump and its controlling pressure switch that can be shut off or otherwise block up. Especially with a 1.5 hp 10 gpm submersible. You are more than likely to have the pump's pressure building qualities to break 'things'.

Shut off the house water AFTER the pressure tank if you don't want dirty water in the house for awhile until you flush it out.

And to develop a well that the driller won't or hasn't, you may have to run water for days until it clears. But normally this 'dirt' isn't going to harm anything or anyone.

Tell him/her to get the right size air compressor to blow the well out and develop it by air lifting, or use a bailer (either works), as he should have done to begin with but didn't include the cost to do it in his contract. Or he did and isn't spending the time (money) do it.

That seems to be a constant with many drillers of today. Many don't educate the prospective customer as to the importance of developing the well and then don't include that cost in their quotes because other drillers' quotes (w/o developing) come in lower and they lose business. Many quote keeping the cost as low as they can and sell on price. IMO they need to learn how to sell their service and craftsmanship and refuse to cut corners, at their customers' expense after the well is in.

I have read post after post about well drillers not developing the well or "using the pump to do it."
That is just wrong and should be illegal!
The customer is paying for a well, Not a hole in the ground.
A pump can not be used to develop a well. The pump is for getting to water to the house.
If any "well guy" says the pump will do the rest, do not pay him, He has not done the job he was hired to do!
He is just being lazy and trying to cut corners at the customers expense.


Travis

Size air compressor for well developing

I have 350 ft. water well and look like the driller did not finished his job. I would like to know what kind of compressor(psi/gallon tank) I need for developing my well. Also, please, do you know any link where I can buy bailer for 6 inch casing?
Thank you very much! I really appreciate your time!



QUOTE=Gary Slusser;216994]You should never install anything, like this valve you mention, between a pump and its controlling pressure switch that can be shut off or otherwise block up. Especially with a 1.5 hp 10 gpm submersible. You are more than likely to have the pump's pressure building qualities to break 'things'.

Shut off the house water AFTER the pressure tank if you don't want dirty water in the house for awhile until you flush it out.

And to develop a well that the driller won't or hasn't, you may have to run water for days until it clears. But normally this 'dirt' isn't going to harm anything or anyone.

Tell him/her to get the right size air compressor to blow the well out and develop it by air lifting, or use a bailer (either works), as he should have done to begin with but didn't include the cost to do it in his contract. Or he did and isn't spending the time (money) do it.

That seems to be a constant with many drillers of today. Many don't educate the prospective customer as to the importance of developing the well and then don't include that cost in their quotes because other drillers' quotes (w/o developing) come in lower and they lose business. Many quote keeping the cost as low as they can and sell on price. IMO they need to learn how to sell their service and craftsmanship and refuse to cut corners, at their customers' expense after the well is in.[/QUOTE]

, .

About a bailer... it's not an option for a homeowner. You need a derrick truck to use one. A bailer is a long pipe that has a check valve on then bottom end and you drop it down the well and it fills and you lift it etc..

Okay, after having a week off from work and talking tothe driller here is where we stand.

He installed a valve AFTER the pressure tank like was mentioned previously. This was his suggestion and it works well. I get 26 gallons of water at high pressure, then it is like a switch to a trickle of water. I still get dirty water. I called around and it turns out this guy was fired a number of years ago from a local company for screwing up jobs like this.

We spoke late last week and he is willing to pull the pump and redevelop the well - blow the casing out and reinstall the pump. I am going to tell him to install a 2HP pump. I also am very curious to see how bad the pump is clogged. My washing machine pump was caked with clay. One of the competition told me on a well this deep if you don't get the "sand pack" in quickly then you might get muddy water permanently? Sound right? My driller had his truck shut down for 2 days due to a breakdown and that was after he hit 430 ft.