Irrigation well question (low flow rate)

[symatic]

DonL

Thanks for the vacumm measurements.

Porky

I will be purchasing a vacumm gauge today (pool gauge). I understand the dewatering process. The question was more for edification reasons. Its obvious my logic is flawed

John c.

[symatic]

Well it turns out what they had was a pressure gauge. No one in this area seems to have a vacumm gauge except for the digital ones which are beyond my price range. So i ordered one off amazon. Technically a compound gauge(pressure/vacumm), so it comes in and its only a pressure gauge. So now it is being sent back because they shipped the wrong one. Strange week!

I have been wondering around some of the local hardware stores and picking up some very useful information reguarding sand and gravel aquifer we sit on and ways the locals put pipe down(much easier than my process). I explained where i was in depths and soil composition. He told me I really have two options, pull up to 20 feet(where the first white sand was), or go deeper till i hit another white sand area. He explained this is water bearing area usually and provides much cleaner water. This area is heavy in sulpher and iron.

Well I decided to come up, cause going down is basically starting over. So now my pump throws out 20 GPM. Pump still makes cavitation sounds till i adjust the the ball valve to almost closed and reduces output to 16 GPM. Only thing is that the water is a good orange/stinky mess. Clears up a little after running for a bit, but i don't want to stain my property.

So have decided to use the information I learned from the locals and go deeper where the water was much cleaner. They use a 2" pipe with a bit/plug combo, then an inline screen(which is pvc wire wrapped design) and a bailer(sand sucker). When you get to the depth you want you pull the bailer out, drop in this wood plug and rest the bailer on top of it overnight. The wood plug seals the bottom and keeps the sand out. now you are ready to start pumping!

Ill let ya know what happens when I go at it again. I forgot to note that it turns out that we are currently having a servere drought!

John C.

[gritres]

i've been going through the same well hell as you for the past week, finally get my 2 inch 3 foot long metal screened well point down 31 feet to replace my old sprinkler well and im only getting about 2 gpm whereas 8 feet away at about the same depth i got probably 30. the old well is toast, roots were growing in it and i ruined any chance of digging down and repairing it (which i should have done) when i dropped and glued a smaller pipe in it. im also in NW florida and it sounds like we have the same ground conditions.

i definitely have no leaks. i have a shitty brady foot valve at the bottom as it is the only 2 inch valve that would fit down my 3 inch casing. it's doing it's job keeping the prime but it's probably adding a lot of friction due to it's crappy design. im thinking a foot valve at all was a waste. a leak free drop pipe and check valve at the surface is really what I should have been after. but i cant get over how crappy my gpm is. im clearly either at the wrong depth or just don't have a good enough well point.

im dying to know what my old well had for its exact depth and type of screen. i had a decent attempt using car jacks to lift it but it broke off the glued on cap and i gave up after that. perhaps drilling a hole through and using a metal rod through the hole would provide me a lot more force before failure. anybody know my actual chance of getting up a 30+ ft 2 inch pvc well that's been in the ground 13 years? im afraid im going to have malaria from all these mosquitos before i get a decent flow out of this thing.