Will this amount of sand damage my pump?

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Phonedude

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I have a new well and pump it's 105' overall with pump at 95' pumping static at 67' with 5" casing to 28' then sandstone to 105' pump is 3/4 hp franklin submersible 10gpm.
when I change my sediment filter each month it has about a tablespoon of fine sand in it I am concerned this will wear the pump out a lot faster. Hoping you experienced pump guys can answer this.
 

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ThirdGenPump

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Agreed eventually.

If that's all you get a month and you have no other issues I'd just accept the fact you'll need to replace the pump more often than average. You pick you battle based on how often.

Generally on wells as shallow as yours it would have to be eating up pumps left and right to be worth it looking into further. Pumps are pretty durable.

A Lakos sand separator would help if it comes down to it.
 

Phonedude

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Thanks for your replies! I was thinking of making an extra long flow inducer to see if that would help? The Lakos is closed to the price of a new pump.
 

Craigpump

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We use long flow inducers or shrouds, if the sand is heavy enough it will fall right past the shroud. I'd try one about 6-7 feet long, use a piece of sch 40 4" and a 4" abs seal.
 

Reach4

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We use long flow inducers or shrouds, if the sand is heavy enough it will fall right past the shroud. I'd try one about 6-7 feet long, use a piece of sch 40 4" and a 4" abs seal.
His pump is 10 ft off of the bottom. Do you think yould you keep it there?

I am thinking that the shroud would go on the next pump rather than on the current pump, right?
 

Phonedude

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The driller set the pump at that depth and it is on a pitless. I test pumped it for 9 hours at 14GPM and it drew down from 47' to 67' so I was going to raise it to 85 feet and put a 7' pump shroud on like CP said. This pump and well have only been in service for 6 months so I figured it was worth trying to do something now. The driller did very little to develop it. I was even considering renting a big compressor and blowing it out while the pump is out. Do you guys think that might be a good Idea?
 

Reach4

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You would to pay maybe $500 to get the pump pulled, pump raised, and shroud installed? Is that going to raise the life of the pump from 6 years to 10 years? 7 to 8? 8 to 15? 13 to 15? I don't know, and I don't have a real feel for that. Clearly if it increases the life of the pump by maybe 40%, the move will be roughly break-even. If it increases the life by 10%, I think you would be better to wait. Nobody has made an estimate of the life improvement so far.
 

Phonedude

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I'm going to pull the pump myself it's on 1 inch polly. So it will only cost 20 for the well seal and 10 for the pvc not much risk here. I'm only really lifting it 47 feet that's my static.
 

Reach4

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I'm going to pull the pump myself it's on 1 inch polly. So it will only cost 20 for the well seal and 10 for the pvc not much risk here. I'm only really lifting it 47 feet that's my static.
That changes the economics a lot. How will you clamp the PVC pipe that is in the well while you are removing PVC pipe above?

You might want to read up on air lift pumps for removing sand from the bottom of a well. Probably not for now, but maybe for 15 years from now to suck out accumulated sand. Air lift pumps are much slower than what the 275 CFM compressors can do, but the air lift pumps don't need a huge amount of CFM.

Later in this thread https://terrylove.com/forums/index....advice-please-borehole-supply-in-the-uk.61806 , there is a nice example of an air lift pump lifting sand... much more than your sand.
 

Phonedude

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Well I finally got around to pulling my pump found it set 10 ft off bottom of 105 ft well. I raised it to 20 ft off bottom and installed a 4" inch flow inducing sleeve on the pump that was 7 feet long to reduce the amount of sand the pump was seeing. Removed all of the cheap tape the driller used on the wiring as it was already starting to peel off at 6 months. Put it back with heavy cable ties and 3m super 33. Went to put it back in the 5" casing and the inducer would not make it by the pitless. I had to remove the inducer and hope raising it 10 feet helps with the sand. I figure I'll watch it for a month or two and raise it another 5 feet if it is still pumping sand.
 
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Phonedude

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20160608_163708.jpg
While I had it out I noticed red blobs of rust starting to grow on the seam at the top of the motor is this normal I have no iron in my water (tested twice by softener people and when I did my kar labs kit).
Pump has been in well 6 months.
 

Valveman

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I always use a 1" pitless even though I hang the pump on 1 1//4" pipe, so I can get a 4" 100# shroud past the pitless in 5" casing. Apparently there is a cast iron part under that Stainless Steel cap on the motor. I don't like how the rust is building up under the cap. When they did this with an Aluminum bottom end, the corrosion on the Aluminum would build up and push the bottom end cap off. Had a pile of hundreds of bad motors like this that Franklin said was not a problem. They eventually changed it back to cast iron, so I guess there was a problem, they just didn't want to pay me for all my warranty repairs. I don't know that there is anything you can do about it. Just have to use it till it quits.
 

Reach4

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Went to put it back in the 5" casing and the inducer would not make it by the pitless.
Dang.

4 inch PVC SDR 35 pipe is 4.215 inches OD and 3.890 ID. That may be too small inside. Not sure.

4 inch schedule 40 is 4.50 inches OD and 3.998 inches ID.
 

Craigpump

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Now everyone gets to see why we never used flow sleeves in over 50yr.


Why? Because he couldn't get his past the pitless? Maybe he has odd size casing, a pitless that isn't installed correctly or most likey what's happening is he's having a hard time getting it past the pitless due to the curve in the coil pipe.


We use them all the time, they cool the motor, keep the sand out of the pump and put a little extra money in the account. Which of those three are you opposed to?
 

Phonedude

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The schedule 40 was about a 1/4" too big to get past the pitless when it it hit the pitless I still had 3 feet of sched 40 sticking out of the well no curve in that pipe, I really think that would of solved the problem if it would of fit. I'm just gonna live with it and if I ever have to pull the pump I would try again with thin wall instead of sched 40. I really appreciate all the advice you guys give out.
 

Valveman

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The schedule 40 was about a 1/4" too big to get past the pitless when it it hit the pitless I still had 3 feet of sched 40 sticking out of the well no curve in that pipe, I really think that would of solved the problem if it would of fit. I'm just gonna live with it and if I ever have to pull the pump I would try again with thin wall instead of sched 40. I really appreciate all the advice you guys give out.

4", 100# pipe is the best for making a shroud. Sch 40 is much too thick and stiff.
 
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