Do you pump into a cistern with a dole valve or just let it flow?

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Boerdoc

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I have a simple question with complicated variables. My question is "should I use a dole valve in my cistern and if so, what GPM should I use".
The variables are as follows. I have a 1000 gal cistern that stores water for the house. It has a 10 gpm betta flo feeding the house and landscaping. I feed the cistern by way of two wells feeding into one inlet. The first well is only 80 ft deep and has a regeneration rate of 2.6 gpm and depth to water of only 10 ft. It is setup with a 40/60 pressure switch. The second well is 480 feet deep and regenerates only 1 gpm. the depth to water is 100ft. It is on a 30/50 pressure switch. The cistern is setup with a float switch that opens the solenoid valve (A sprinkler valve) to allow water to enter. The float switch is set to allow a drawdown of 1/3 of the cistern before opening the valve to refill. When the cistern was empty, and I started to fill, I had the solenoid valve set to only allow 2.5 gpm to enter but the pump in the first well (80 ft deep) would fill the pressure tank in less than 20 seconds then the pressure would drop and pump would start again. This cycle would recur every minute or so. I did not like that so I opened the valve up to allow it to fill without restriction. When I did that the pump could not keep but 10 psi as it fills. That is not a problem as it is just refilling the storage tank. When either well pumps run dry they are protected by pumptecs so they will shut off for 30 min before restarting. I tried to cover all my bases here but I do not know. BTW the pressure tank and switches are in the cellar and the line going to the cistern tees off from the line going to the cellar. Having it setup this way I did not see a way to put a csv in the system.
The 80 ft well has an unknown pump in it. The deep well has a 3/4 hp 5 gpm set at 470 ft.

So, there you have it. Should I use a dole valve in the cistern to throttle back the pumps or just let them pump what they can. How would I size the valve if used to reduce cycling? It may seem easy but I do not know.


Thanks for any advice
Kent
 

Ballvalve

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Hard to tell from the description, but I would pump only into the cistern [non pressure] from both wells and alternate their use. Then the tanks outlet would feed the pressure tanks with a jet pump. [or a small submersible in the tank] You already have pumpteks, so you are covered. Sounds like you are only pumping 300 gallons at a time, and without doing any calcs,it seems the wells would do it without any flow valves, although that would not hurt. Use a low pressure cut out switch on the jet pump or final pressure pump.
 
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