Low yield setup question

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ratkillingdog

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Our drilled well is giving out and I am trying to baby it through the winter. Tests over the last few days shows it currently reliable for at least a quart per min. which will give us (2) people plenty to get by. I already had a 320 gal tank and a surface pump with a small bladder tank attached. Pump in the hole is connected to a pump saver and a 30 gal draw down bladder tank. I am thinking about valving from the submersible's bladder tank to the storage tank and setting the flow at 1 qt. per minute instead of higher volume and long rest. I don't have the proper electronics for the latter method. A float will be installed in the storage tank for full shutoff. Another reason for this method is the well seems to have a consistent flow, but a small reserve in the casing. Anything wrong with this method?
Thanks,
Bob
 

Valveman

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One quart per minute is not really enough to keep a submersible cool. I would put a 1 GPM Dole valve on it and a Cycle Sensor. The Cycle Sensor will shut off the pump when it runs dry, then you can set it to restart from 1 to 300 minutes later.
 

ratkillingdog

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One quart per minute is not really enough to keep a submersible cool. I would put a 1 GPM Dole valve on it and a Cycle Sensor. The Cycle Sensor will shut off the pump when it runs dry, then you can set it to restart from 1 to 300 minutes later.

The submersible will operate normally. I will draw the qt. per min. from the line out from the bladder tank. Thirty gallons is "leaked" into storage tank, I leak it at the rate of 1 qt. per minute in to storage, in 120 minutes 30 gallons will be removed and stored from the bladder, pressure tank and the submersible will cycle normally, filling the main bladder tank. Repeat. Make sense or am I missing something?
 

Ballvalve

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So valve down the submersible output to 1 GPM into the bladder tank, and set the reset on your pump saver to 1 hour or so. This should reduce cycling.

Or bypass the bladder tank altogether and pump into the storage tank at 1 gpm with a float. Use the 2 bladder tanks on the outlet pump system. Save up for a 2500 gallon tank, so when you go away for a day or three you can come home to a pile of water.

The only issue is how reliable is the pumpsaver being switched perhaps several times a day? I would incorporate a magnetic relay on the pumpsaver output to reduce its amp switching to almost zero.
 
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ratkillingdog

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I see what you're saying ballvalve, I guess the question would be is it better to take 30 gal at 5 gpm every two hours = pump run time 6 min. every two hours or take 30 gal at 1 gpm for a pump run time of 30 minutes every 2 hours? Is one method easier on the pump? Does it draw less current throttled back? I am trying to avoid running the well dry and the qt per minute method from the main bladder tank has been keeping up (pump saver has not sensed dry condition). Not trying to argue with the experts here, just trying to get it into my head. I've lived on a well most of my 59 years and I have learned alot about hack jobs. It isn't always simple.
Thanks, Bob
 

Ballvalve

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Sounds like what you have is okay. Test your pumpsaver and make sure it works when you pump it down.

How many gallons is stored in the well and how long to recover? Whats the pumping depth?

If its so predictable, you might eliminate the pressure tank and use a good timer.
 

ratkillingdog

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Thanks for the reply. Pumpsaver tested and passed. Well is 200' and pump at 195'. Well has been getting weak since last summer, improved last winter. Seemed ok this summer, but really declined in the last 2 weeks. Ran out of water in the shower a few days ago. I don't know what the hole is doing right now. I had this 320 steel tank already and just set it up as a minimum daily usage and if I can keep it full, we will get through the winter. I think we use closer to 200-250 gal per day. There's some nasty water wells in our area, but this is sweet water so I hope we can save it, a bird in the hand...If it makes it through the winter, I can set up to pump out of the river for out side water use next spring. Last 4 days the well has kept the storage tank full and up here in the mountains we could get winter any day now so I just as soon wait. Drillers up here get $32-$37 per foot for a 6" hole, plastic. Last well I had drilled was 12 years ago on another place and it was $19 per foot for 8" steel casing.
 

Ballvalve

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Drilled many 6"wells in the past few years here in the Sierra mountains for 12 to 15$ a foot. Usually case the top 40 only feet in hard rock. That cost means you must not have any competition.

I usually drop a 4" class 100 liner and slot it, down the hole.

Drilled one 20' from my stream and got 60GPM at 60'. Drilled another in a steep canyon bottom next to a creek and got 2 GPM at 240' . Drilled 2 within 400 ' of each other, one at 50' and 50gpm and another at 100 feet and 20 gpm. Had a great driller until his machine died and he decided to retire. Have one at 800' with water up at 50' from cap on the edge of a canyon, and makes 20 GPM with the pump set at only 300'. Total crapshoot, and the new well drillers have no ethics and will drill until China to make a buck.

My worst well, this one at 240' and 2 GPM, hit water at 120', yet the static level is only 8' below the cap. Really strange that it draws down so fast.

Why not do a sand filter or deeply buried streambed pick up for water if you have a creek? You can build your own sand filter with backwash in a 1000 gallon tank, and drink it with some final filtration and perhaps UV or chlorine treatment.

I am building a 3' high dam just now in a boomer creek, that will have a buried [gravel pack] pickup for a micro hydro and waterwheel project. This was a water mill site in 1850. But such systems work good for domestic use also.
 
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ratkillingdog

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You don't mean Boomer Creek up by LaPort N. east of Chico do you? We would almost be within shouting distance. You're right about wells in this country, I'd rather take my money to Reno. We have a place out in Sierra Valley where I used to keep a few cows that had an artesian on it till they drilled a bunch of irrigation wells about a mile away. Now the water stands about 16' down and got stinky. The irrigation wells they drilled went down 1,000 feet and never got any gravel bigger than a fingernail. Get up closer to the basalt and have better luck. There used to be a guy around with a cable rig that could get water out of popcorn. He'd drill a big hole and gravel pack it up to 40' from the top, out in the sandy clay. The place we are living on now is on a lava cap and it's risky business, that's why I'd like to keep this well for house water at least.

I thought about a sand filter, and still might. The river is 85' below the house and about 150' feet away. There used to be a big train yard in Portola and they would dump all their waste oil and such into what we called the tar pits. They got nabbed a few years back and had to do some remediation to keep the nasty stuff from leaching into the river. They have a monitoring well on our side of the river and say it has "improved" but I might wait till I get a little older before I try drinking it. Our well tested ok even though it's drilled below river level and fairly close.

Driller claims to be busy with older wells going dry. We don't get the snow pack we used to and the demand on the water table is growing.
 
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