[Dean1234]

I helped my two neighbors install a shallow point well, working well no problem. When I did mine I find that the water pressure is very low, or the pump seems to be struggling to pull water from the point. It is 1/2hp flow jet with 1 1/4" galvanized pipe aprroxiamtely 18 feet in the ground. all pipes and fitting are securely fastened, the only difference is I am using an extension cord and theirs are hard wired. Is there any special i should be looking for? check valve seems to work well, just cant get enough water pressure, very discouraging since the others work well. Can it be related to slope of land? I dont kknow just throwing it out there, hopefully someone can come up with something i havent though of.
thanks everyone. for all the help in the past...

 

[Daniel Holzman]

The pressure in the line is determined by the head generated by the pump. If the pump is working correctly, you should have plenty of pressure, regardless of whether you have an extension cord or hard wired. I would examine the possibility that your shallow point well is unable to supply enough water for the pump to operate correctly. If the well can only draw a small amount of water because you installed it in clay, for example, no amount of pumping is going to produce pressure.

You need to run a test on the well to see how much water (usually measured in gallons per minute) it can deliver. This is often done by attaching a calibrated pump and pumping for several hours. After a few hours, you will know the safe yield of the well, and can determine if it is capable of delivering the required flow.

 

[joel v.]

Is this well dug or drilled? It don't matter a whole lot but if drilled to say a 4" bore you could drop a submersible pump in there. Submersible pumps tend to have a hell of alot less problems compared to jet pumps. Is there lots of water in the well? Do you have a pressure tank with no leaks? See what happens if you hard wire it. I'm not so sure about the extension cord. Well pumps draw alot of start-up current for longer than most motors and can get a 16 gauge cord warm. If 14 gauge or better never mind.