New guy here, looking for some help with my well.

[rowdy235]

Hey all,

been lurking around the forum for the past week or so trying to learn all the information I can. I am in the process of purchasing a house on a well system. My mom has owned the property since 1991 and drilled the well in 2006.

So just a quick run-down of the system. My mom drilled the new well as she had some buyers lined up to buy the house- the well only put out 2gpm and the bank refused to finance without at least 5 gpm. So she hired a hydro-geologist to come in and suggest location for a new well. The location was set, and new well drilled. The well is 59' deep and had a yield of 5gpm, tested for 3 hrs per county records. As luck would have it the buyers backed out

Now, they installed a holding tank as well. I'm not sure on the exact size, but its got to be at least 500 gal, its an above-ground black tank. From reading here, its not done properly, the tank is just sitting on a pad in the front yard. Really, I'm confused as to why they even thought of putting in the holding tank in the first place- it seems 5gpm should be more than enough water for 1 bathroom house, and if it supplied that for 3 hours there's no issue with running dry? The pump in the well is actually oversize- my mom had replaced it a few years prior and the old well was over 200' deep, she didn't want to buy a new pump for the new well. I believe it is 1hp or 1 1/2, but not sure. I know they wanted to sell her a smaller pump but they ended up being able to use the larger one. It is protected by a pump-tec or similar.

Okay, so here's what I'd like to figure out. Right now the well head is on the corner of the property, and just has a small cover over it. Not much there except for electrical and plumbing connections. There is a small pump house in major disrepair. This is where most of the electrical boxes are and the pressure tank. The giant black tank sits adjacent to this building in the front yard.

Basically my overall plan is to tear down the well house. I would like to move away from the holding tank system- if its not necessary it seems to be a lot of additional components, plus it sounds like to do it properly, I'd have to redo the entire setup. My plan was then to build a small pump house over the well head, with enough room to house the pressure tank and electrical connections. However, if possible I wouldn't mind moving the pressure tank and electrical connections under the house, it has a great crawl space, at least 6' under the whole house.

Any ideas are helpful, I'm experienced in most areas, plumbing, electrical, etc., but a little new to the well aspect of things. I suspect my first task will be evaluating whether or not the holding tank is necessary.

 

[Valveman]

If you are careful how you use the water you can get by with a 5 GPM well. The pump is already in the well, and if you decide there isn't enough water you can always go back to the storage tank later. The well is only 59' deep so you don't have much storage in the well. You don't want a big pressure tank, as the well just sees that as another load to take care of, and you can pump the well dry just trying to refill the pressure tank. Plus if you want to put everything in a crawl space, a small tank is best. But you can't use a small pressure tank with a large pump like that, or it will cycle the pump on/off too much. A Cycle Stop Valve will make your large pump act like a small pump, and allow the use of a tank as small as 4.5 gallon size. The Pside-Kick kick would have everything you need to control that pump, and will fit in a very small space.

I don't think your Pumptec will work with the CSV. The Pumptec will see the low amps created when the CSV makes the large pump act like a small pump and will shut the pump off, even though the well is not dry. You can replace the Pumptec with a Cycle Sensor, as it will work with the low amps from a CSV.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[rowdy235]

That's some interesting food for thought. I never really thought of the depth of the well in relation to the storage but it makes sense. The house I grew up in only had like 3 gpm, but the well was over 200' deep, so we never had a problem running out of water. So with a shallow well like this would it make more sense to keep the storage system? I mean everything is already bought anyway . What is the normal protocol for protecting these tanks from freezing? I'm in western Oregon, pretty mild but we do get some freezing spells during the winter.

If I wind up having to keep the tank- I'd like to build a building big enough to house the storage tank, electronics, and other stuff. I'll probably rebuild the shed where it stands as there is already a cement pad there, I'll put a fake rock or something similar over the well head. Thoughts?