trying to get a old well working?

My SIL is looking at a old place, not lived in since 1992,

the well on the place is 300 foot deep has maybe about 40 foot of standing water in the bottom, (well guy measurement),

we pulled it found holes in bottom pipe, (new leathers by well guy), put new pipe in, put pipe back down, pumped some then quit, or would pump erratically

pulled pump found rust and sand in cylinder pump, on screen on bottom 80% plugged,

cut off 9 foot of pipe, cleaned and put new foot vale on pump and replaced, same basic results,

I have read some about AIR lift to clean out wells, (would like to try to clean out the sediment out of the bottom,

QUESTION, is

how deep will it work, how much AIR, (I do have one big honking Air compressor), three cylinder single stage about 20 hp), (guessing it can pump in the 100's cu-ft a min, never have had it running, runs off a tractor PTO)

from what I see it is a pipe with air line in side and you put in the water and the air blow the water up the pipe,

will it lift it the 290 feet?

any one done this?

any web site to explain?

was wondering if we could use either the 1 1/4" drop pipe as the air pipe and the casing as the lift pipe? or drop a small pipe down the 1 1/4 pipe and use the drop pipe as the lift pipe, (with out the cylinder attached),


I know if your going to use air to lift water by bubbles one needs a high column of water, but that is low volume and pressures,

or would a home made bailer bucket on a rope be as good as any thing? simular to what a Cable drill rig uses. some thing like this. http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5567E/x5567e0l.gif

thank you all who respond.

It takes a lot of air to blow water out the top of the casing. Diameter of casing?? This is the best way because the water and sand coming up will sand blast the casing clean on the way up.

It doesn’t take much air to blow water out the top of 1.25" pipe. This can be dabbed down into the sand and will clean out the bottom of the hole. However, you don’t get the sand blast effect from this method.

A bailer will only suck a little off the bottom, and maybe make a few feet of hole. A high speed bailer can be used with steel casing. This type bailer has a fairly tight fit in the casing. Then when you pull it up at high speed, it makes a syringe out of the casing and draws a vacuum below that draws in sand and really cleans up the well. Takes a special high speed draw works to make this work.

Maybe a little chemical treatment would help as well. Talk to Cotey Chemicals about this and they will help you out.

It is a 4" od steel casing looks to be about 1/8" thick (inside about 3 3/4")