New Plumbing from Well to House

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VAWahoo

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Hello,

I am in the midst of a renovation in central Virginia and we are planning on replacing the plumbing from the well to the house (we are actually tying into a different existing well that was previously only used for cattle waterers - better supply and quality). I am not completely confident in the advice we are getting from contractor/subs, so I would love to either get confirmation of our approach (and what is a fair cost), or an alternative suggestion. It was initially recommended that we install a new variable speed/constant pressure pump. After some reading, I am pretty sure I do not want the added complexity/cost of a VFD system, and have requested that they instead install a Cycle-Stop Valve or just a standard pressure tank. I believe the existing pump may be undersized, so it will likely need replacing.

Here is the pre-existing condition:

Location: Central Virginia
Well depth: 305ft
Pump depth: 280ft
Static Water Level depth: 40ft
Ground Floor House Level: ~10ft above well
Pump: Franklin Schafer 3/4 HP, 10 gal/min
Well production: 15gal/min but this is unconfirmed as it is an old well. We do believe (based on an 8 hour flow test) there is a reasonable underground reservoir (~300-400 gal)
New Water line length: ~750ft of new trenched lines (some of this is to tie the waterers into the old house well).
Water Quality: ph is fine, slightly hard (old well is acidic and hard so requires conditioning)

My questions:
  1. What manufacturer/model/size is recommended for the well pump?
  2. Is a Cycle-stop valve appropriate for this? What settings would you recommend? We would like decent pressure but do not want to overwork the well.
  3. What size pressure tank is recommended?
  4. Should we install a pump monitor/dry well protector (e.g. Franklin Pumptec) - if so is there a recommendation?
  5. Should I also try to tie in the older house well now or just wait and see if we desire more pressure later? According to the cycle-stop site you can use two cycle-stop valves to tie together two wells.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I was quoted over $10k which seemed high to me given I drilled a new well for less than that, but what I am really concerned about is spending a bunch of money and having an unreliable or expensive to maintain system.

Many thanks in advance!
 
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Reach4

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If you don't use the Cycle Stop Valve, http://www.amtrol.com/media/documents/wellxtrol/MC7025_04_14_WXTsizingCard.pdf has some sizing info. The Well-X-Trol tanks are top notch. If I need to replace, I expect to get either one of those or a Flexcon Flex-lite tank. If you use a CSV, you probably would want the PK1A pside-kick Kit, which includes the tank, the CSV, and more.

To me, the CSV seems to best match cases where you do some irrigation or regular lawn watering in the summer, and the conventional tank seems matched to flushing toilets, doing laundry, and moderate -length showers. You mention waterers. Is that irrigation, or is that to fill a watering trough?

In selecting a pump, the static water depth and the altitude change from the well to the house would come into play. Have any wells in your are gone dry that you know of?

Your existing pump may be up to the job. Depends on things.

I am not a pro.
 

VAWahoo

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If you don't use the Cycle Stop Valve, http://www.amtrol.com/media/documents/wellxtrol/MC7025_04_14_WXTsizingCard.pdf has some sizing info. The Well-X-Trol tanks are top notch. If I need to replace, I expect to get either one of those or a Flexcon Flex-lite tank. If you use a CSV, you probably would want the PK1A pside-kick Kit, which includes the tank, the CSV, and more.

To me, the CSV seems to best match cases where you do some irrigation or regular lawn watering in the summer, and the conventional tank seems matched to flushing toilets, doing laundry, and moderate -length showers. You mention waterers. Is that irrigation, or is that to fill a watering trough?

In selecting a pump, the static water depth and the altitude change from the well to the house would come into play. Have any wells in your are gone dry that you know of?

Your existing pump may be up to the job. Depends on things.

I am not a pro.

Thanks for your advice - The static water depth is at 40ft and the ground floor of the house is probably less that 10ft above the well site but there is a second level.

The waterers are just troughs, BUT they will NOT be connected to this system (for hygiene) and there is no irrigation system attached to the well.

I saw the pside-kick Kit. The one thing I was concerned about is if we wanted to use a larger pump for a higher flow rate, would the pressure tank be under-sized and allow for too much cycling if there were frequent short duration demands (i.e. hand dish washing). I liked the idea of the CSV for longer duration demands of several high flow showers we are installing, so I was thinking of pairing it with a larger pressure tank.

Thanks again
 

Reach4

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I think the CSV that you want would be the same as in that kit. If you used a big tank, you would want the CSV adjustment to be nearer the cutoff pressure.

Will the pressure tank and pressure switch be at the house? If so, a single pressure tank will be good. If the pressure tank and pressure switch is at the well, I would probably put any big tank at the house and a small tank (protected from freezing) at the pressure switch. You always need a pressure tank at a pressure switch. I am thinking that the existing pump will be adequate.

I plugged numbers into http://www.pressure-drop.com/Online-Calculator/ and calculated a pressure drop for 1 inch poly (wild-guessing 1 mm roughness) and came up with less than 0.04 PSI of extra drop for 800 ft.

After well work, it is a good idea to sanitize. I suggest the method at http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing
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Valveman

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Yeah the CSV1A and a 4.5 gallon size tank as comes in the PK1A Pside-Kick kit is all you need for a pump up to 25 GPM. You can do both wells this way and just stagger the pressure settings like 40/60 and 30/50 to make the second well be an automatic backup or just add to the flow rate when you need more water than 1 pump can supply.

You will need to use a Cycle Sensor for Dry Well Protection as it knows the difference between low amps from the CSV and slightly lower amps that happen when the well is pumped dry.
 
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