Rslaback
Member
Long post. Bring a sandwich.
I own a shop property that is on a 1.6 acre residential subdivision lot in my rural subdivision. My wife first wanted to put in a few apple trees. We live on sand. As in we are 150 yards from the lake, the lake is 10' in elevation lower than my house and there is no need for a sump pump in my basement. It can pour for two days straight and you can mow the lawn 2 hours later. So I made up a water wagon that my son used to water the trees. Then the wife turned her trees into a mini orchard with some blueberry bushes and pear and cherry trees. A couple years ago I decided to plant a sweet corn patch so it was time for a well.
The conditions were right and Wisconsin allows it so I drove a sand point well following the state recommendations here. My well is basically figure 5 in that document. It is driven 28' deep and we hit water at 14'. The driven section of the well is 2" pipe to accommodate a slitted screen point which my research determined was the best option. At the tee I used a close nipple and a cap instead of the plug shown in the diagram. At the tee the pipe reduces down to a 1 1/4 line to match the pump. Right inside the wall of my shop there is a 1 1/4" brass check valve. The system then runs another 18" vertically or so (It used to be straight, I just put in a larger tank to avoid short cycling) to a Red Lion RJS-75PREM jet pump. The first year I used the system it worked great with the exception of the well chattering because of the large pressure bump when the well would come on which would shut off the pump momentarily. I was able to dial in the pressure switch to get it to work well and it was fine that entire first year.
Last spring when I went to fire it up again I could not get the pump to consistently come back on once it had sat for a while. It would just run and run the pump without moving water which would eventually boil inside the housing and then melt the diffuser. I eventually figured out that my problem was a stuck check valve. I wanted to try a different check valve so I got a different version but it wouldn't open either so I replaced that with one the same style as the original and it worked well for the rest of the season.
This year I fired it up and it ran fine for a few hours watering the new raised beds of various vegetables that my wife added this year in between the trees. Then the pump started humming. I shut it off and used this opportunity to put in the larger tank. I went from a 7 gallon horizontal to a 30 gallon vertical. I never did figure out why it started humming. I am guessing it overheated from being on 100 percent of the time. I also changed the output from the pump to the tank from 3/4 pex to 1' iron pipe. I got the system going and it was fine until it would need to come on from a lull. Remembering that this had happened last year I put in a brand new check valve. This time there was no difference. Reading that most of the time the stick is in the o-ring of the check valve I swapped the o ring from the new check valve into the housing of the original check valve that I had installed. I rebuilt the pump with a new diffuser which was melted and that was working great for a week or so.
This morning my wife went up to water and filled her watering cans. She heard the pump kick on but I had told her it was fine so she wasn't concerned. A half hour of weeding later and she noticed that the pump was still on so she unplugged it. She said the pump was pretty hot so I imagine the diffuser might be trash again.
I'm starting to be at a loss. I was able to verify the issue last year as the check valve as I could whack on it and it would open and the pump would gain pressure no problem. Not so much this year. When I did finally change it out I could see that it took quite a bit of push for me to get it to pop open. This year the new valve that I had put in had a bit of resistance but nothing at all like last year. At this point my guesses are: The pump is just too weak to pull open the check valve or the extra air that I have in my system by using a nipple and cap instead of a plug is causing the water to be able to drop down too far in the driven pipe and so that vacuum fights the check valve.
I do use a vacuum pump to prime the well so I could theoretically put a vacuum fitting in the top of the standpipe tee and suck all the air completely out of the driven side of the well if anyone thinks that would help. I am skeptical of that being the issue though as other wells in that pamphlet show buried service pipes and standpoint of 5 or so feet which would be theoretically filled with air.
I own a shop property that is on a 1.6 acre residential subdivision lot in my rural subdivision. My wife first wanted to put in a few apple trees. We live on sand. As in we are 150 yards from the lake, the lake is 10' in elevation lower than my house and there is no need for a sump pump in my basement. It can pour for two days straight and you can mow the lawn 2 hours later. So I made up a water wagon that my son used to water the trees. Then the wife turned her trees into a mini orchard with some blueberry bushes and pear and cherry trees. A couple years ago I decided to plant a sweet corn patch so it was time for a well.
The conditions were right and Wisconsin allows it so I drove a sand point well following the state recommendations here. My well is basically figure 5 in that document. It is driven 28' deep and we hit water at 14'. The driven section of the well is 2" pipe to accommodate a slitted screen point which my research determined was the best option. At the tee I used a close nipple and a cap instead of the plug shown in the diagram. At the tee the pipe reduces down to a 1 1/4 line to match the pump. Right inside the wall of my shop there is a 1 1/4" brass check valve. The system then runs another 18" vertically or so (It used to be straight, I just put in a larger tank to avoid short cycling) to a Red Lion RJS-75PREM jet pump. The first year I used the system it worked great with the exception of the well chattering because of the large pressure bump when the well would come on which would shut off the pump momentarily. I was able to dial in the pressure switch to get it to work well and it was fine that entire first year.
Last spring when I went to fire it up again I could not get the pump to consistently come back on once it had sat for a while. It would just run and run the pump without moving water which would eventually boil inside the housing and then melt the diffuser. I eventually figured out that my problem was a stuck check valve. I wanted to try a different check valve so I got a different version but it wouldn't open either so I replaced that with one the same style as the original and it worked well for the rest of the season.
This year I fired it up and it ran fine for a few hours watering the new raised beds of various vegetables that my wife added this year in between the trees. Then the pump started humming. I shut it off and used this opportunity to put in the larger tank. I went from a 7 gallon horizontal to a 30 gallon vertical. I never did figure out why it started humming. I am guessing it overheated from being on 100 percent of the time. I also changed the output from the pump to the tank from 3/4 pex to 1' iron pipe. I got the system going and it was fine until it would need to come on from a lull. Remembering that this had happened last year I put in a brand new check valve. This time there was no difference. Reading that most of the time the stick is in the o-ring of the check valve I swapped the o ring from the new check valve into the housing of the original check valve that I had installed. I rebuilt the pump with a new diffuser which was melted and that was working great for a week or so.
This morning my wife went up to water and filled her watering cans. She heard the pump kick on but I had told her it was fine so she wasn't concerned. A half hour of weeding later and she noticed that the pump was still on so she unplugged it. She said the pump was pretty hot so I imagine the diffuser might be trash again.
I'm starting to be at a loss. I was able to verify the issue last year as the check valve as I could whack on it and it would open and the pump would gain pressure no problem. Not so much this year. When I did finally change it out I could see that it took quite a bit of push for me to get it to pop open. This year the new valve that I had put in had a bit of resistance but nothing at all like last year. At this point my guesses are: The pump is just too weak to pull open the check valve or the extra air that I have in my system by using a nipple and cap instead of a plug is causing the water to be able to drop down too far in the driven pipe and so that vacuum fights the check valve.
I do use a vacuum pump to prime the well so I could theoretically put a vacuum fitting in the top of the standpipe tee and suck all the air completely out of the driven side of the well if anyone thinks that would help. I am skeptical of that being the issue though as other wells in that pamphlet show buried service pipes and standpoint of 5 or so feet which would be theoretically filled with air.
