[cmrho]

I've tried a couple of different ways to deal with my low-producing well. The well is old. I've done a bunch of measurements/tests to characterize the production. The well can produce about 35 gallons of water before it dries up. It recharges at just over 1 gallon per minute. My current setup just resulted in a water-logged tank that looks to have a busted bladder. Here's the setup:
- 1 hp submersible pump
- pressure switch with low pressure cutoff (cuts-off pump when pressure is below 20 psi)
- 1/2 hp booster pump between the pump and the pressure tank that is tied to the pump (pressure switch activates both the submersible pump and the booster pump simultaneously)
- 86-gallon bladder pressure tank
- system at 30/50 psi

This is a backup well and I'd recently switched it over to test the capability. I noticed recently that the low-pressure cutoff actually never cut off when the well dried up but the system seemed to be working fine, so I let it go. With 4 people in the house (and 1 that takes really long showers), I think the well dried up, but the system never shut off, somehow leading to the pressure tank becoming water-logged. Normal water usage in the house didn't stress the system too much. It's only when my kids came back from their other homes (we have a blended family) that it seemed to have a problem.

I'm going to re-do the entire system. I've got an idea of what I need to do:
- remove the booster pump
- install new pressure tank
- replace pressure switch with standard switch (no low-pressure cutoff)
- install pump-saver

I think this setup will simply cutoff the water pressure when the well goes dry and prevent both the submersible and the pressure tank from becoming damaged. We'll lose water pressure occasionally, but at least the system will stay intact. As I said, this is our backup well so it's not critical. The only reason I like to switch to it on occasion is to keep the water moving in the backup well to (hopefully) prevent further scaling, etc. on the well screens.

Does anyone have any recommendations, or does my proposal sound like it will work? I appreciate your input.

 

[ChuckTin]

Are you certain there's still water to be had thru that well?
Sounds like your aquafer may have subsided.
How deep is that well? How deep is the other well?
Are you hilly there or flat land?
That booster pp puzzles me, never heard of that.
If your certain there's water from that well. You could try Muriatic Acid. Basically get a water hose that will reach to the bottom, cap one end and fill with acid from other end. Push uncapped end to well bottom and un-cap the hose. Best to pull the hose out quickly, leaves the most acid in bottom of the well. The acid could etch out the wellpoint screen or slots, even to enlarging the well cavity. YOU MUST TAKE CARE HANDLING ACID! ('nough said?)

 

[cmrho]

Are you certain there's still water to be had thru that well?
Sounds like your aquafer may have subsided.
How deep is that well? How deep is the other well?
Are you hilly there or flat land?
That booster pp puzzles me, never heard of that.
If your certain there's water from that well. You could try Muriatic Acid. Basically get a water hose that will reach to the bottom, cap one end and fill with acid from other end. Push uncapped end to well bottom and un-cap the hose. Best to pull the hose out quickly, leaves the most acid in bottom of the well. The acid could etch out the wellpoint screen or slots, even to enlarging the well cavity. YOU MUST TAKE CARE HANDLING ACID! ('nough said?)

Thanks for your response. The aquifer is good. The well depth is about 240 feet, with the pump sitting at 200. The table is good to ~150 feet. I used nuwell acid tablets to clean the screens and got it to where it is now. It's definitely a low producer, but enough to supply water if we need it. I was just asking about my proposed setup to see if anyone had any thoughts on it.

 

[AllanJ]

" ... does my proposal sound like it would work? ...

I don't know.

*************************

Here is another idea, one that I got from another forum.

Remove the existing well pump and install a slower pump, one that won't overdraw the well dry.

Feed the new well pump into a cistern (unpressurized storage tank). A float switch is used to turn the well pump off.

Put the original well pump in the cistern to feed the existing plumbing system and pressure tank.

Replacing the existing pressure tank with a larger one is optional. But a pressure tank with a ruptured bladder has to be replaced immediately. A larger pressure tank or a second pressure tank will improve pump operation but not help with preventing well overdraw.

 

[cmrho]

" ... does my proposal sound like it would work? ...

I don't know.

*************************

Here is another idea, one that I got from another forum.

Remove the existing well pump and install a slower pump, one that won't overdraw the well dry.

Feed the new well pump into a cistern (unpressurized storage tank). A float switch is used to turn the well pump off.

Put the original well pump in the cistern to feed the existing plumbing system and pressure tank.

Replacing the existing pressure tank with a larger one is optional. But a pressure tank with a ruptured bladder has to be replaced immediately. A larger pressure tank or a second pressure tank will improve pump operation but not help with preventing well overdraw.

Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately, replacing that submersible will be very expensive. I'd have to hire a well company to pull it. But, I do like the idea of a cistern and have thought about doing that. Then I'd use the current booster pump to simply pressurize the new pressure tank. I'm going to buy a pump saver anyway and would put that on the submersible pump controller. The float switch would activate when it needed to, but the pump saver would keep the submersible protected from a dry well condition. How does that sound?

 

[AllanJ]

Yes it is a good idea to have pump saver switches to stop the pump if the well runs dry.

Since it is difficult to swap the well pump when converting to a cistern system (2 stage system, just leave it and use it as-is. You might want to put in a delay timer so if the pump saver activates then time is allotted for the well to recharge before the well pump tries to start again. Also have a pump saver for the booster pump to stop it if the cistern should empty out.

 

[Ghostmaker]

Have the well pump to a cistern to store water. House water from the cistern.