Hello all, today I figured out my well pump was running dry (while using a LOT of water) so back to the drawing board -
Back story, I bought a foreclosure in Bradenton, FL that had a 5" well casing, open to the air with no cap, and nothing else. No idea if there is a pump down there or anything else. Found the permits and the well was drilled to 380Ft, casing depth 80 feet, original pump set at 80ft, water at 30ft recovery 25GPM with final level at 50ft. That's part of why my 18GPM pump running it dry was surprising. The well is 15 years old.
Anyway, when I installed the pump I opted to do it myself to save some money. I used some of the savings to try the cycle stop valve which seems to work rather well. I did my best to fish all the frogs out and got to work. It's on 1" poly pipe and I originally decided to set it at 100ft for simplicity sake (the pipe came in a 100ft roll). The pump is a 4" 1HP 18GPM pump. When I got to around 90ft I got stuck and wasn't able to drop the pump any lower. The pump would kind of stick and if I rotated it I could sometimes get it slightly deeper but basically it wasn't going any further. So I pulled the pump, cut off a few feet and set it at 85 feet. The bottom of the pump motor was nicely scratched up from my efforts.
According to a friend of mine the casing is driven into the bedrock and as a result the bottom deforms and kind of forms a cone shape. He said he was able to get his in deeper by strong coersion but my imagination about getting the pump back out later on prevented me from taking any serious measures. Now I'm wondering if I should have.
First, does anyone familiar with the area think I should set the pump deeper or should I simply just use less water (I was really flowing it wide open for about 10-15 minutes)?
Secondly does the cone shaped casing end theory make sense or could it be something else? Maybe the pipe from the old pump.... Might have to pay the well guy after all to get a camera down there. I have an endoscope but it is only 15 meters long. Everything looks healthy at that depth (I did hit water for only 2-3 feet with that which suggests our water level is at 50 feet and not 30 feet, so I only have 30 feet of water above the pump).
Thanks for any and all advice!
Back story, I bought a foreclosure in Bradenton, FL that had a 5" well casing, open to the air with no cap, and nothing else. No idea if there is a pump down there or anything else. Found the permits and the well was drilled to 380Ft, casing depth 80 feet, original pump set at 80ft, water at 30ft recovery 25GPM with final level at 50ft. That's part of why my 18GPM pump running it dry was surprising. The well is 15 years old.
Anyway, when I installed the pump I opted to do it myself to save some money. I used some of the savings to try the cycle stop valve which seems to work rather well. I did my best to fish all the frogs out and got to work. It's on 1" poly pipe and I originally decided to set it at 100ft for simplicity sake (the pipe came in a 100ft roll). The pump is a 4" 1HP 18GPM pump. When I got to around 90ft I got stuck and wasn't able to drop the pump any lower. The pump would kind of stick and if I rotated it I could sometimes get it slightly deeper but basically it wasn't going any further. So I pulled the pump, cut off a few feet and set it at 85 feet. The bottom of the pump motor was nicely scratched up from my efforts.
According to a friend of mine the casing is driven into the bedrock and as a result the bottom deforms and kind of forms a cone shape. He said he was able to get his in deeper by strong coersion but my imagination about getting the pump back out later on prevented me from taking any serious measures. Now I'm wondering if I should have.
First, does anyone familiar with the area think I should set the pump deeper or should I simply just use less water (I was really flowing it wide open for about 10-15 minutes)?
Secondly does the cone shaped casing end theory make sense or could it be something else? Maybe the pipe from the old pump.... Might have to pay the well guy after all to get a camera down there. I have an endoscope but it is only 15 meters long. Everything looks healthy at that depth (I did hit water for only 2-3 feet with that which suggests our water level is at 50 feet and not 30 feet, so I only have 30 feet of water above the pump).
Thanks for any and all advice!