Wash Down or Shark Valve Experience?

[Gritres]

Anyone have experience using wash down valves? Namely the ones with the bouyant ball inside it that floats back up and seals off after you've jetted down your well screen? We all know jetting works great to get down in sand and without having to pull a pipe up and place a new one in worrying about cave-ins (or jetting with a larger temporary pipe) this could save a lot of time and energy if it actually works as intended.

 

[Gritres]

Since nobody is biting i'll share my experience. Where I am it is very sandy, nearly all sand. using a common wash down technique using 2 city water hoses to wash down a 2 inch casing I found to be pretty unrealistic here. Even in the beginning there is hardly enough outward flow to wash material out of the borehole and once you start getting into water bearing sand that takes your water forget about it. the sand slurry turns into a suction-happy wet cement and you're stuck no where deep enough to draw water for any real duration. So I didn't really get to test the damn valves. EMAS telescopic sludging will be the order of the day.

 

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[Kdinob]

Sounds like the exact same scenario as me, with exactly the same results. I am going to attempt to use the wash down valve you have described this weekend. I will let you know.

 

[Texas Wellman]

Could you post a link?

 

[Gritres]

[h=1]Brady Wash Down Valve (bwdv-200)[/h]
not even a real picture but thats what it is
and this is not a review on the valve - just on the lack of viability of the wash down technique when you're in certain sandy areas like NW florida. getting a 2 inch pipe washed down even 25 feet with 2 garden hoses just seems impossible though im sure it'd be possible with greater water flow. i've used other methods to get about 25 feet of 3 inch casing down but pulling it up after i put my smaller screened pipe down to prevent air suction is going to be a challenge.

 

[Masterpumpman]

They work great for what they are designed for, washing down sand points but there's much more to it than that. They can be found at http://atlanticscreen.thomasnet.com...-pressure-and-wash-down/wash-down-valves-pvc?

 

[Jason Wanzel]

Just happened upon one of these wash down valves at Ace the other day. Can’t find any info on how to use them. I’m in the Panama City Fl area and have lots of sand. Water drilled our first tap last weekend and put well screen in but was only able to get screen in 11’, although we do have 6’6” of standing water in the pipe. I would still like to give this method a shot. Any pointers or videos would be helpful. Can’t seem to find any DIY videos on this product.