Air Lift Well Pump Problems

[Mr. Walker]

Well, I've got a well problem that is about to drive me mad. I've talked to the person who drilled the well three years ago and all they are doing is sending me around in circles. So, here is what I got: 2'' well drilled 130' deep with 10' screen at the bottom and static water level at 50' and the well produces about 7-10gpm. Its set up with a air compressor above ground with 100' air line down the well. Now once I start the compressor pressure rises to 30psi at first until water starts coming out then it backs down to 12psi steady. The water will be clear for about 30 secs then it starts pumping a very fine sandy water for about 15 secs then it clears up. After it clears up it wont pump anymore sand until you turn the compressor off and restart it in a few minutes. In fact I once ran it for 6 straight hours and after the 15 secs of sandy water it turned crystal clear for rest of the 6 hours. Now the reason that i'm having to use a air lift pump setup is because my water wreaks of sulfur and the aeration action in the well removes all of the smell.

Any and all help will be much appreciated.

And one more thing if I can figure this well problem out I can finally install my Cycle Stop Valve that i ordered thanks to this Forum

 

[Valveman]

The size of the slots in the screen need to be small enough to filter out the sand. But wit a Sulfur problem smaller slots may clog up. So you may be doing the best you can do. I would set the cistern up to be more than half empty before starting the lift compressor/pump. Valve off the water and dump it for the first couple of minutes, then switch valves and let it fill the cistern.

Since it will run clean for hours after the first couple of minutes, I would try to dump water for 2 minutes, then let it run as long as possible to refill the cistern. Instead of topping off the cistern after it drops a few inches, I would change the probes in the cistern to only fill when the cistern is almost empty. The fewer times you start the lift pump, the fewer times you will have a minute or two of sand to deal with.

Oh and the CSV needs to go on the booster pumping out of the cistern to the house, so it should have nothing to do with the lift pump.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

If you used a conical bottom tank, on a stand, for settling, you could drain off the sand at the bottom and take the water out at a higher point. You could use a smaller tank before your existing cistern, or they make them as large as you like if you wanted a new cistern.

 

[Texas Wellman]

Oh boy. Sounds like you need to just drill another well and go deeper and try to find better water. You'll spend a fortune over time keeping that system running and maintained.

You could also use a deep well jet pump to aerate the tank with nozzles and probably eliminate the sand. I've put in a couple of sulfur units that are the size of a softener that do a good job as well.

 

[Mr. Walker]

The size of the slots in the screen need to be small enough to filter out the sand. But wit a Sulfur problem smaller slots may clog up. So you may be doing the best you can do. I would set the cistern up to be more than half empty before starting the lift compressor/pump. Valve off the water and dump it for the first couple of minutes, then switch valves and let it fill the cistern.

Since it will run clean for hours after the first couple of minutes, I would try to dump water for 2 minutes, then let it run as long as possible to refill the cistern. Instead of topping off the cistern after it drops a few inches, I would change the probes in the cistern to only fill when the cistern is almost empty. The fewer times you start the lift pump, the fewer times you will have a minute or two of sand to deal with.

Oh and the CSV needs to go on the booster pumping out of the cistern to the house, so it should have nothing to do with the lift pump.

So, what could be happening down in well to produce sand only on startup? I used to have a jet pump on this well and it never pumped sandy water and if it did, it wasn't enough to notice. Now could the start of the aeration in the well be stirring the sand pack around the well screen? Because I know that there is no gravel pack around the screen. And would it hurt to run the air line all the way down in the well and blow in the well screen to flush all the fine sand out from around the screen?

And on the CSV, I know it goes after booster pump. I just want to try to solve the sand problem before I install the booster pump and CSV.

Sorry for all the questions, i'm just trying to wrap my head around what is happening way down there.

Thanks

 

[Texas Wellman]

What's happening is that a little sand builds around the screen and makes a little filter. Essentially it packs itself. When you use an air compressor it cleans all the sand out in short order. I'm betting it probably still makes a little sand but you don't see it unless you know how to look.

 

[Mr. Walker]

What's happening is that a little sand builds around the screen and makes a little filter. Essentially it packs itself. When you use an air compressor it cleans all the sand out in short order. I'm betting it probably still makes a little sand but you don't see it unless you know how to look.

Thanks,"Texas Wellman" it finally makes sense. So, basically the air lift pumping action moves so much water it clears any fine sand built up on the screen. If that is the case, then most of the sand should settle out in my concrete cistern tank before being piped to my booster pump. And with a good sediment filter after that. So, besides the small headache of draining the sand out of the cistern tank/ changing sediment filters ever so often, would it hurt the well to run like this? Because I really like the simplicity of this set up, I can kick all the parts above the ground, and if I lose power I still have a supply of water above ground.

 

[Texas Wellman]

Yes you can just clean your big tank out every so often. Set the 2nd pump up to draw water up higher so the sediment can settle on the bottom. If you've got room you might even set up a smaller second tank and plumb it in higher ( like an over baffle) so the pump only sees clean water.

 

[Boycedrilling]

You've probably got a very uniform sand size. As you pump water the sand "bridges up" on the outside of the screen and stabilizes as long as the well is pumped. However when the pump shuts off, the bridging breaker down. When you start pumping again, you get sand until the sand stabilizes or "bridges up" each time. Your airlift pump is the best way to pump sandy water.

Usually if I have a fine uniform sand, I use an artificial sand pack that is coarser than the native sand around the outside of the screen.