gonefishing
New Member
Replaced shallow well, static water line is 14 feet below grade, point is 23 feet below grade and then a standard 3 foot 1 1/4 point. I added 5 feet to the new pipe. The old point was 18 feet below grade. The system now pulls at a rate of 180 gallons per hour. We put up with a deteriating point for years that was able to pull about 45 gallons per hour. This is a lake cabin, so we put up with the low volumn. The problem is when there is a larger group of people, we may lose prime after 3 or 4 days. We do not lose prime between visits that has been as much as 3 weeks apart. It was suggested that we are getting excessive draw down with sustained higher use and the draw down causes the loss of prime after several days of high use. I was offered three possible solutions. The cone of depression is being developed with this higher use and with more use it will be okay as the acquifir will drain and fill quicker. The other suggestion was a different pump. I put in a 1/2 hp Red Lion. It was suggested the inlet port on this mfg pump is larger and great for volumn but can push out the water without creating enough vaccum to create suction to pull the water and then runs dry and loses prime. The third suggestion was to add another 5 feet of pipe to increase the distance between the static water line and point. Will the cone of depression increase in volumn and create passages that increase water supply to the point? Is the Red Lion pump design causing my problem and would another make of pump work better? Information appreciated.