Ideas for slow recovery well

[Thetruck454]

Trying to help my inlaws with a water problem.
Background is they have been in the house for over 20 years and always have had issues with the well recovering. As time goes ont it's been getting worse, they run out after 2 showers and it takes a while to recover. Their well is 235' and has a 3/4 pump 10gpm pump.

Recently they developed a new problem with not getting good pressure first thing in the morning. I was thinking the check valve at the bottom was no good so we pulled up the pump. Low and behold the check valve was fine, but found the nipple that threaded into the top was loose, I count take the pump off by hand. We used some potable water sealant, tightened it back up, and put it back in the well. This cured the morning water pressure problem, but of course not the recovery issue.

They have a 20 gallon pressure tank with the switch set as 30/50 psi. I played around with a garden hose and once the pressure dropped to below 30 psi and pump came on, it could never catch up with the garden hose on. I then turned off the garden hose and the pressure came up to 43 psi pretty quick. It then took a solid 3-5 minutes to get to the 50 psi cutoff. I then tried to set the pressure to 40/60 psi and played with the garden hose again. Same issue with 40 psi and the pump never catching up with the garden hose if left on. When I shut the garden hose after about 7 minutes the best it could do was 54 psi, it could never get to 60 psi. I then set everything back to the 30/50 psi including the air bladder in the pressure tank.

They really need a deeper well but they don't have the money and I'm not that nice of a son-in-law to pay for one, haha

I'm trying to limit modifications to ones I can do myself to save em money. Would replacing the well pump with a 1HP one help the pump recover? What about adding another 20 gal pressure tank in parallel with the first?

 

[GReynolds929]

Cistern with a float, restrict the pump, booster pump with a CSV would be the best setup.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bannerman]

Their well is 235' and has a 3/4 pump 10gpm pump.

- What is the well casing's internal diameter?
- What depth is the pump hung at?
- What is the well's static water level depth?

Since you had pulled the pump, the pump depth would have been easy to determine from the length of the drop pipe.
If no water had been drawn from the well for some time prior to pulling the pump to permit the well to recover, then the static depth would likely have been obvious, due to the location of water on the drop pipe vs the dry section above.

20 gallon pressure tank

... turned off the garden hose and the pressure came up to 43 psi pretty quick. ... then took a solid 3-5 minutes to get to the 50 psi cutoff.

A 20 gallon pressure tank running at a 30/50 psi pressure range, will have a Draw Down capacity of approx 6.5 gallons.

Assuming no other water was being drawn once the garden hose was shut off, so all the water from the pump was flowing into the pressure tank, if taking 3-minutes to rise from 43 psi to 50 psi, that will signify, their 20 Y/O pump is only pumping at a rate of less than 1 GPM.

What about adding another 20 gal pressure tank in parallel with the first?

Water comes from the well, not the pressure tank(s). A pressure tank will contain almost no water when the system pressure drops to the pressure switch cut-in pressure.

Would replacing the well pump with a 1HP one help the pump recover?

There is more to a pump's supply capacity than just HP. This is some of the reasons for the questions above.

Regardless of the pump depth, a pump only will need to pump water from the depth of the water within the well. If the water level is 60' below the surface, then the pump will be pumping from only 60'. If the water level is 200' below the surface, then the pump will be pumping from 200', and so will need to be capable of building greater pressure compared to a well where the water level is always higher.

A 3/4 HP 7 gpm pump, will typically contain more pumping stages compared to a 3/4 HP 10 gpm pump, and will therefore be capable of supplying higher pressure and will usually be capable of pumping from a greater water depth.

 

[Thetruck454]

- What is the well casing's internal diameter?
- What depth is the pump hung at?
- What is the well's static water level depth?

Since you had pulled the pump, the pump depth would have been easy to determine from the length of the drop pipe.
If no water had been drawn from the well for some time prior to pulling the pump to permit the well to recover, then the static depth would likely have been obvious, due to the location of water on the drop pipe vs the dry section above.



A 20 gallon pressure tank running at a 30/50 psi pressure range, will have a Draw Down capacity of approx 6.5 gallons.

Assuming no other water was being drawn once the garden hose was shut off, so all the water from the pump was flowing into the pressure tank, if taking 3-minutes to rise from 43 psi to 50 psi, that will signify, their 20 Y/O pump is only pumping at a rate of less than 1 GPM.


Water comes from the well, not the pressure tank(s). A pressure tank will contain almost no water when the system pressure drops to the pressure switch cut-in pressure.


There is more to a pump's supply capacity than just HP. This is some of the reasons for the questions above.

Regardless of the pump depth, a pump only will need to pump water from the depth of the water within the well. If the water level is 60' below the surface, then the pump will be pumping from only 60'. If the water level is 200' below the surface, then the pump will be pumping from 200', and so will need to be capable of building greater pressure compared to a well where the water level is always higher.

A 3/4 HP 7 gpm pump, will typically contain more pumping stages compared to a 3/4 HP 10 gpm pump, and will therefore be capable of supplying higher pressure and will usually be capable of pumping from a greater water depth.

- What is the well casing's internal diameter?
6"

- What depth is the pump hung at?

The pump is at about 220'. When we put a 250' cable on the pump to lower it down so we weren't holding it by the tube we had about 30' left when we connected the pitless adapter.

- What is the well's static water level depth?

When we pulled the well the pipe was only wet on roughly the bottom quarter So that would make static depth about 165' right?