How to Prep Old Well that has Never Produced

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Stan Nickel

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Brand new to forum--thanks for having me. Purchased property last year in the southern Rockies of New Mexico. It has an existing water well that was drilled in 1997--cased and tested at 30 gpm. Depth is 215 ft. It was never equipped to produce and has never been used. I met a water well contractor at the well to discuss equipping the well to produce. He visually said everything looked good, and did not suggest that anything be done prior to him rigging up on the well. He is scheduled to run a pump in it next week. Is there anything that I should do to prep the well prior to his work? Do I need to disinfect the well?

Thanks,
Stan
 

LLigetfa

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Any time you touch anything that goes down the hole, you should disinfect afterwards. Of course good hand hygiene and not letting anything touch the ground beforehand is good practice.

If the well tested out to 30 GPM, it should not require extensive developing, just some heavy pumping to clean out sediment and to flush out the bleach.
 

Reach4

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Decide if you want a pitless adapter. It has advantages over a well seal including protection from freezing.

How big is the casing and what material? If 5 inch or bigger, put a flow inducer sleeve on the pump for better cooling.

7 gpm 3/4 hp could be good for a house depending on static water level, but that size is good for a range. For irrigation, your needs could be different. Local guy should have very good insight.

"Develop" the well by pumping continuously for a fairly long period-- hours or days, depending on what it takes to clear sand or whatever.

As LLigetfa said, sanitize after, not before. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my sanitizing write-up. Maybe overkill. If you were to use that, you would want to get some materials in advance. One change I think I would make is to use a cheap pH meter instead of pH paper. Calibrate before each use in buffer solution made from cheap packets, of buffer salts, sold for the purpose. Store the device cap-down after filling the cap with water, to keep the sensor in water.
 
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Stan Nickel

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Thanks for the suggestions/advice. The casing is 5" diameter and plans include installing a pitless adapter. One thing that this contractor is recommending that I have not heard of before is an "inwell" tank instead of a conventional pressure tank. Do you have any experience or opinion on this type of pressure tank?
 

Valveman

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I actually wrote/own the patent on the in-well tank. Lol! And even I would not use one if there is any other option. A well for stock water that is in the middle of a field with no well house, OK. But if you have a place for a small pressure tank in the house or well house, you will be much better off. The in-well tank is much too small unless used with a Cycle Stop Valve or a VFD. The in-well tank and a VFD is double the trouble. But when you have a Cycle Stop Valve, the tank can be so small you can put it anywhere. We use a 4.5 gallon size tank in the PK1A kit using a Cycle Stop Valve for control. You can put this tank in a crawlspace, above the water heater, or under a sink. Then you don't need the expensive and way too small in-well tank.

You can see the Pk1A kit here. https://cyclestopvalves.com/pages/pk1a-pside-kick

And this is how it works.

 
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