I have spent days reading this forum trying to find my answers but I figured it would be better to just create an account and post my questions/issues so here I am. This looks like a great site and I'm proud to be here and hope to learn a lot from all of you.
I have a 3/4 acre pasture and I want to pump up my own water because using city water is expensive. I have been working on my own well and this is where I'm stumped, If anyone here can help shoot me in the right direction I will appreciate it.. Maybe I need to completely start over because I've done it wrong and if that's the case I will, But I'd at least like answers first on what I've done wrong with my current setup.
This is what I have done:
I bought a hand auger and it works very well I must say.. I kept busting couplers and threads trying to drive in my well point by hand so having this auger was a life saver for me.
I dug down to about 14 feet and I hit water around 8 feet. I have a good solid 5-7' section of my pipe and well point directly under the water level and being august I figure this is about as low as its going to get. ( it's a 36" well point ) What I did from there is centered the galvanized pipe in my hole and poured 4-5 bags of pea gravel down it to fill the sides of the hole. Obviously I have a 4" hole with a 1.25" pipe so I figured the pea gravel between the dirt wall and pipe would let water come through to my pipe faster and also help prevent any kind of cave ins. If I didnt add the pea gravel the walls would just collapse and dirt would be directly around my well point which in theory is fine, that's what it's made to do but having the walls filled with pea gravel seemed like it would yield better results. Maybe this was a bad idea but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
So after I added the gravel I filled the rest of the hole with dirt all the way to ground level and hooked up my new pitcher pump to it and primed it and sure enough NOTHING is coming out of the pump. I can tell it's building pressure because the handle gets hard and I can hear water gurgling in the pipe if I put my ear against it but nothing ever comes out of the pitcher. I'm stumped, I know I am in water at least 6 feet and it should be pumping like crazy. I guess I can hook up a electric pump and see if it can suck anything out but I really wanted to get the pitcher pump working first since it's a manual hand pump that doesn't require electricity. Knowing how I did my setup do you have any suggestions? Hindsight 20 is the fact I shouldn't have filled the hole with gravel or dirt until it was working but it's too late for that now. Obviously water can flow through the gravel faster then it can dirt which is why I filled the gap with gravel.
I'm sure I didnt do something right so if I need to start over with a new hole I can as there is no way i'll be able to lift back out my galvanized pipe and well point at this point, which sucks because it was all expensive... I dropped a nut with a string tonight and verified I have 7-8' of water on the string. I also know the pitcher is building seroius vacuum pressure because I can barely move the handle if I keep pumping it but it's almost as if It's creating the vacuum and pushing air DOWN the pipe instead of bringing the water UP the pipe like it's supposed too. I have no idea why i'm not getting any water ..My friends and family think i'm crazy for wanting my own well but I feel like it's 100% do-able and a affordable & cheap way to get water in my pasture. I have already spent a lot of money on everything ever since I bought a auger, auger extension, galvanized pipe, stainless well point, etc but I'm hoping the major expenses are behind me now. Now i'm at the point where I need advice from those of you who have been there and can help.. I always seem to do things the hard way but that's how I learn.
I have noticed a lot of people on youtube vids and even on here installs a 2-3-4" pcv pipe and then uses a drop pipe from the pump which goes inside the pcv, I didn't do this because I thought the reason to have a well point is you don't need to double tube it, I thought it was made to drive right in the ground with a pump on top? I do not have any check valves or anything else on the line.. it's literally a 36" well point connected to 12' of galvanized pipe and then the pitcher pump sitting on right top. I read in another thread if the handle lifts and there is a lot of vacuum in the line it means you're out of water but it can't be the case since I know there is 6' or more of water in the bottom of my pipe.
If you guys think I need to start over with a new well please let me know how I should do it so it's done properly and at the same time I would like options on how to get my current well working, even if it doesn't yield a lot of water I'd at least like to make all this effort worth while.. Driving my first well kicked my butt until I bought the auger so it's more of a pride issue at this point.. I need to see water come out of this dang thing, it can't win!! ( male pride and stubbornness is in 100% effect right now )
nathan
I have a 3/4 acre pasture and I want to pump up my own water because using city water is expensive. I have been working on my own well and this is where I'm stumped, If anyone here can help shoot me in the right direction I will appreciate it.. Maybe I need to completely start over because I've done it wrong and if that's the case I will, But I'd at least like answers first on what I've done wrong with my current setup.
This is what I have done:
I bought a hand auger and it works very well I must say.. I kept busting couplers and threads trying to drive in my well point by hand so having this auger was a life saver for me.
I dug down to about 14 feet and I hit water around 8 feet. I have a good solid 5-7' section of my pipe and well point directly under the water level and being august I figure this is about as low as its going to get. ( it's a 36" well point ) What I did from there is centered the galvanized pipe in my hole and poured 4-5 bags of pea gravel down it to fill the sides of the hole. Obviously I have a 4" hole with a 1.25" pipe so I figured the pea gravel between the dirt wall and pipe would let water come through to my pipe faster and also help prevent any kind of cave ins. If I didnt add the pea gravel the walls would just collapse and dirt would be directly around my well point which in theory is fine, that's what it's made to do but having the walls filled with pea gravel seemed like it would yield better results. Maybe this was a bad idea but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
So after I added the gravel I filled the rest of the hole with dirt all the way to ground level and hooked up my new pitcher pump to it and primed it and sure enough NOTHING is coming out of the pump. I can tell it's building pressure because the handle gets hard and I can hear water gurgling in the pipe if I put my ear against it but nothing ever comes out of the pitcher. I'm stumped, I know I am in water at least 6 feet and it should be pumping like crazy. I guess I can hook up a electric pump and see if it can suck anything out but I really wanted to get the pitcher pump working first since it's a manual hand pump that doesn't require electricity. Knowing how I did my setup do you have any suggestions? Hindsight 20 is the fact I shouldn't have filled the hole with gravel or dirt until it was working but it's too late for that now. Obviously water can flow through the gravel faster then it can dirt which is why I filled the gap with gravel.
I'm sure I didnt do something right so if I need to start over with a new hole I can as there is no way i'll be able to lift back out my galvanized pipe and well point at this point, which sucks because it was all expensive... I dropped a nut with a string tonight and verified I have 7-8' of water on the string. I also know the pitcher is building seroius vacuum pressure because I can barely move the handle if I keep pumping it but it's almost as if It's creating the vacuum and pushing air DOWN the pipe instead of bringing the water UP the pipe like it's supposed too. I have no idea why i'm not getting any water ..My friends and family think i'm crazy for wanting my own well but I feel like it's 100% do-able and a affordable & cheap way to get water in my pasture. I have already spent a lot of money on everything ever since I bought a auger, auger extension, galvanized pipe, stainless well point, etc but I'm hoping the major expenses are behind me now. Now i'm at the point where I need advice from those of you who have been there and can help.. I always seem to do things the hard way but that's how I learn.
I have noticed a lot of people on youtube vids and even on here installs a 2-3-4" pcv pipe and then uses a drop pipe from the pump which goes inside the pcv, I didn't do this because I thought the reason to have a well point is you don't need to double tube it, I thought it was made to drive right in the ground with a pump on top? I do not have any check valves or anything else on the line.. it's literally a 36" well point connected to 12' of galvanized pipe and then the pitcher pump sitting on right top. I read in another thread if the handle lifts and there is a lot of vacuum in the line it means you're out of water but it can't be the case since I know there is 6' or more of water in the bottom of my pipe.
If you guys think I need to start over with a new well please let me know how I should do it so it's done properly and at the same time I would like options on how to get my current well working, even if it doesn't yield a lot of water I'd at least like to make all this effort worth while.. Driving my first well kicked my butt until I bought the auger so it's more of a pride issue at this point.. I need to see water come out of this dang thing, it can't win!! ( male pride and stubbornness is in 100% effect right now )
nathan
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