Genado's assertion/statement that no records are kept notwithstanding, did you happen to stop off at the courthouse and check anyway? There may be records someplace in your property survey/description indicating the presence of wells, quite possibly with the driller's name and address. No well driller ever didn't keep records of some kind, if for no other reason than to be sure he had the right equipment to drill another well in that strata. Had a small window of time, so went looking for verti-line pumps. This MAY be yours, or at least quite similar. http://www.aurorapump.com/resources/images/48579.pdf And more here - Pentair Layne/Verti-Line Vertical Turbine Pump Products Catalog Aurora/Layne and Gould pumps are reputable operations, and have been around a LONG time. May be parts readily available. Grundfos makes good stuff (I have two in line pumps here at the house and spec'ced them when doing some design work a "while" ago) but I'm not familiar with their submersibles.
I found a sand pool filter on the property. I hadn't considered using a pool filter to filter cistern water. Since it's free.... Any ideas? Or a waste of time? Remember that water main I posted about a few posts up? Well it's leaking again. It's like they fix it and where they tie the patch into the old pipe that's where it starts leaking again after a few days or few weeks if they are real lucky.
Wont hurt, will take out most sediments and larger particulates. "Sand" for filters is not usually as coarse as beach sand, and will need periodic replacement or backflushing depending on the filter design.
And then I found another well. With nothing in it, as far as pump equipment goes. Hopefully it's not a dry hole. Judging by the spool of wire I found its probably close to 300 ft deep. About 8 inches in diameter, the chances of me having a usable well at least just doubled.
I measured both wells today. One was a dry hole at 100ft. It's a 12.5 inch bore. The other well with the pump on it has a total depth of 118' and water at 106' with a 16 inch bore diameter.
Does any one know what it might cost to have a 12 or 16 inch well drilled deeper? I was talking to the guy next door and he says his well is about 120' deep also and after the initial column of water is pumped out his recovery rate is probably around 1gpm.
VERY highly variable depending on the strata. Your best bet is contacting a local driller that knows the geology.
You might also look into doing a blow down or back flush. Would probably be cheaper and get worthwhile results. As ghrit pointed out deepening might be expensive in a large bore well like yours. Check with local drillers to see how far the water table has dropped since your well was drilled if you know approx. when that was.
One of the things I cut my Teeth on, was "Shooting" Wells to increase the flow rate, when they started to lose their Flow.... It is a Specialty, usually reserved for Petroleum Wells, but it also works for Water Wells.... It takes a qualified PowderMan, who knows that kind of work... Usually the local Well Driller will know one that he uses,,,,
Shooting sounds kind of like hydraulic fracturing using HE as opposed to pumps and grit. The neighbor said he had his well flushed out a few years ago and seems to think doing so didn't help at all. I figured it would be pricey. I would spend up to $4,000 on it no problem. But most of that would be dipping into my safe deposit box money. I bet I could get my wife to chip in a grand. I'm more after water security than a cheap solution if the water table starts at 106'. In another 10 years 118' could be leave me with nothing a muddy bottom well. Although 1 foot of water loss per year would be catastrophic for this area. I'm starting to think this well might be my most valuable position since I'm in the desert, the municipal water supply is crumbling and it can go 9 months with out hardly any rain therefor I am considering building a ballistic concrete well house using that safe door frame.
That is exactly the idea, when shooting a Well... Normally, the Driller will put a Sieved Section of Pipe as the first couple of sections at the bottom of the Well Pipe, after he hits good Water... but in a Rock or semiSolid Strata, it is required to get a Fractured Area just below the end of the Drill Pipe.. So what usually happens is the Driller will put down a smaller, in diameter Drill and go down another 20-30’ , and the load a Charge, designed to fracture the rock, out 20-30 Ft in all directions, so that the liquid can pool, and then be pumped up the pipe. The design of that charge is where experience, and Geology come into play. You want to fracture the material, but NOT the bottom of the Drill Pipe, and you want to make sure the fractured Strata is to big to get sucked up the Drill Pipe... Hydrolic Fracturing is similar in nature but covers a MUCH Bigger Area, because they are usually in harder Rock, much much deeper, and need a much larger Pool size... and it isn’t going to be Potable Water...
I talked to the electric coop about 3 phase for the well. Not that I would actually pay extra for 3 phase power, just shear morbid curiosity. Assuming that well pump is a 20hp motor they would want $500 per year to keep the connection going. That 500 covers how ever many kwh you get for 500 also. The catch is if you don't use all 500 worth of power after 1 year they get to keep the remainder of the ballance.
I can do power factor correction. I have done it on all my welders and air compressors. Plus no one around here I have seen runs power factor correction on irrigation pumps.
I finally got ahold of the local well service and drilling. They said that particular area is normal to have water down around 100ft, then at 120' to 130' you run into something called the "red bed" which is the sand clay layer that the water sits on. The red bed is the impermeable layer and it's a few hundred feet thick. No one around here will try to redrill that 100' deep well since it's likely been there like since the 1940s or 1950s. Will know more when the well service looks up the permits. The city wells are east of here go down to 200'. They said they will pull the horizontal pump and drive section for $2 a foot if it comes apart. If they have to cut it apart then $3.50 a foot. They don't know of anyone who has touched that well in at least 20 years so it ain't coming out the easy way. I was thinking 20 years? My guess would be more like 30 years. They asked how I knew how deep it was and where the water was, I told them it was a wrench on a very long string and a tape measure, apparently normal people don't dip their own wells. So all in it will cost $900 to pull the old well equipment, brush bale, acid wash, flush and flow test a 5hp pump. I told them just to say when. Normally the city will brush and acid their wells every 3 to 5 years. What I was able to gather this is not peak well service season and they have been doing bid contract work for the city.
The well service stopped by. The old well pump was probably put in back in the 60s or 70s. Had a 6 inch 10 turbine pump on there. This pump assembly's pipes weighed several tons.
Sounds like some serious scrap iron there and definitely not light metal rates. Don't know the price of scrap iron in your area, but scrapping out the copper and iron might well be worth your time.
It's around 7 cents a pound for steel. These old 6 inch pipes are more valuable as fence and gate posts around here then scrap metal, I think. Inside the drive shaft there brass bearings I might be able to cut out.
I go into town today and they are digging up the a new section of street on the same street having water pipe problems. I seem to be the only one concerned about this. No its just water. Ha! Until you don't have it.
