I agree with most of the opinions about Lemco Seals, but
speedbump mentioned above that the name changed several times. When my dad started the company he named it Lowe Engineering & Manufacturing Co. The acronym becomes LEMCO. We have always called our seals Lemco Seals and that has never changed. When we were looking for a web presence, the name
www.lemcoseals.com was available and I thought it was the best name that described our product. Then, about seven years ago, I decided to change the company name to match our website address, but only the company name changed. The full name of our product always has been
Lemco Drawdown Well Seal. Simply put, it was designed to control drawdown. It does this by making an airtight seal above the submersible pump to stop it from sucking air. Actually, drawdown becomes a non-issue, because the Lemco Seal forces the pump to draw from the aquifer below instead of drawing down or lowering the water from above.
My Dad, Bill Smedley, Sr. gets credit for inventing the Lemco Seal, but the idea of making an airtight seal above the pump had been around for a long time. We heard some were wrapping the drop pipe with burlap and pine pitch to make a seal. Some of the drillers in our area were using K-Packers for seals, but from our experience, it was a nuisance trying to get the electrical wires for the pump through the packer and they didn’t seal very well since they were intended to seal sand and not air. Dad thought there had to be a better way, so he engineered a device that had the holes for the electrical wires with a rubber that has a larger diameter than the inside diameter of the well. That way, it has to fold up all the way around into a cup shape before it enters the well and that’s how it’s able to make an airtight seal.
Other ways of controlling drawdown were to restrict the flow or select a smaller pump, but these methods are unappealing when you’re trying to get as much water as you can. Lemco Seals are easy to use. Most sizes are made to screw into the top of the submersible. Then, the wire leads are run through the seal. When the nuts are tightened, the rubber squeezes around the electrical wires to make them airtight.
Sammyhydro11 mentioned the seal will leak if it isn’t installed properly. Our instruction sheet
www.lemcoseals.com/instructions.html covers that issue. If the nuts are over-tightened or under-tightened, it can cause an air leak and the seal will not work. We recommend putting silicone caulk around the wire holes to help stop air leaks, but other problems exist too. Steel casing has a welded seam that can be hard to seal and if it’s an older well that has scale, it can be very difficult to get it sealed, but the rubber is soft and pliable enough that it should work, especially over a little time. We recommend putting a little water on top to help it. I’ve had some drillers tell me that they use a little Bentonite, but we don’t recommend that since that can make it difficult to pull the pump for repair.
Sammyhydro11 also mentioned the seal will leak if you’re using poly pipe, but my dad used a lot of poly pipe and it wasn’t a problem. He always used a safety cable when he used poly pipe. Since they fit so tight, the Lemco can be a little difficult to get down the well with this system, but dad’s trick was to hook up the electrical and momentarily turn the power on and off. That way, the pump pulls itself down the well.
Bob NH mentioned the seal allows “a submersible pump to create a vacuum in the region of the pump so that more water will be inducedâ€. I get more calls about using Lemco Seals to increase well production more than anything else. I already mentioned that restrictors are not necessary when it has a Lemco Seal, but larger pumps can be used to increase production. The Lemco Seal will not make a dry hole pump water, nor will it increase well production if the water isn’t available.
Where we sell most seals is for sand, screened wells where there is plenty of water, but there’s also excessive drawdown that is causing the pump to suck air. The Lemco Seal can help these wells produce more water by putting suction on the well.
Raucina mentioned using “seals that have an unused port, usually 3/4" and place a pipe with cap in it - useful for chlorinationâ€. The Lemco Seal has an extra ¼†hole for running polyethylene tubing with the electrical wires to the top of the well. Whenever the well needs to be chlorinated, all you have to do is open the top of that tubing and insert it into a jug of chlorine. When the pump runs, chlorine will siphon directly into the pump and screen area.
Bill Smedley, President
Lemco Seals, Inc.
www.lemcoseals.com