dug well, hand pump, old pipes...

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rh9911

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We were without power for 5 days recently. So I've become more interested in getting easy access to the water in the old dug well on our property. It's a pretty well, dates back to the 1800s, neatly lined with stone all the way down the shaft which is about 2 feet wide. It's about 30 ft deep plus a 3 ft round stone top around it, above ground. The water level is between 22 and 28 ft down from where I could put a pump. A while ago I bought a closed cylinder shallow well pump thinking I'd put it on top of this well.

I noticed though that there is a pipe inside the well that comes up and then turns into the ground toward the house. And there is a pipe sticking out of the wall of the basement of the house which would about correspond to the one I saw in the well. The house is built into a hill, and it used to be the site of an old New England barn, so the basement walls are thick fieldstone. Later a man lived in what is now the basement, during the 1950s and 60s. So that pipe could date from a very long time ago, or 50 years ago. It's quite heavy duty with a 2" opening, and a couple of turns where it comes out of the wall.

So now I'm just wondering if my shallow well pump will work or not to suck water 22-28 ft up (i gather probably not very well) and if I should try and connect it via the pipe that comes into the basement, or if that'll be way too much hassle. It would of course be nice to have a backup water system right there in the house instead of 100 ft away up the hill.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
 

LLigetfa

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My guess, from your description is that the actual elevation difference would be less than 22 - 28 feet and that there was a pitcher pump there at one time.
 
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