Unapreciated/Unused Well Pump

[Alternety]

There are lots of posts on well pumps. Pretty much all the "normal" pumps. Usually accompanied with what is wrong with them.

A pump I have been using for >12 years is the LORENTZ Solar Pump Systems. I think they are still found under this name.

They are designed as an Archimedes pump (think back to explanations of this as a screw in a trough in your youth). The pump is composed of a stainless steel tube, hard rubber filling, and an eccentric rotor. The motor is 3 phase AC at 48V. No electronics or vulnerable parts under water. Brushless water impervious motor. Water bearings. Very deep use. Mine is at 550'. Other versions go deeper. The design is derived from pumps used in oil wells. They handle gritty materials. Not sure how much.

Simple 48 VDC power supply runs the system. It feeds the Inverter that drives the AC pump. I built my own 48 VDC supply; it should have been a higher voltage. Probably 60 VDC to 70 VDC. I don't think it has ever drawn more that 500 W. I should mention that the pump is providing about 3 GPM from 550'..

Unlike centrifugal pumps they are positive pressure generating pumps because of the structure of the helical pump head. Sustained pressure can be quire high. I have used the pump with a pressure switch (40/60) to pressurize the house in an emergency. I accidentally allowed one of these to run without pressure turn-off. It was approaching failure pressures in the house when I saw it. I asked the original importer if the high pressure may have hurt anything. Their response was "how high did it go"; we have not been able to break it.

Power consumption is way lower than "normal" centrifugal pumps. They are sold as solar powered pumps.

 

[Valveman]

My first experience with helical shaft pumps was what we called the Peerless Wiggle-tail back in the 60's. If your pressure switch stuck they would build so much pressure I have seen them put a 120 gallon galvanized tank through the roof of a well house and launch it a couple hundred yards like a rocket. They will keep building pressure until it pushes the thrust bearing out the bottom or the motor stalls from the load.

We thought those corkscrew shafts looked cool, so we used the old ones for gear shifts on hot rods and welded them sticking up on the corners of truck bumpers for show.

It is very hard to balance a corkscrew or helical shaft. They would knock the top bearing out of the motors fairly quickly. Some of the newer versions have a extra long special bearing section between the pump and motor to help with this. And being positive displacement they will pump water at very low RPM, which is conducive to DC and solar power.

Running at low RPM and only when the sun shines they should last a long time. The rubber around the helical shaft wears fairly quickly. I don't think they will last very long in a high use system running at high RPM. But they are much preferable to windmills, as old style windmills require never ending maintenance.

 

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[Craigpump]

We used a few wiggle tail pumps in oil wells in KY, kinda neat but a pump Jack was more impressive when the promotors brought prospective investors around.