We set the pump

[valley ranch]

We put the pump in. Daughter and I built an A frame.

 

[valley ranch]

And set up.

 

[valley ranch]

little by little.

 

[valley ranch]

380' of PVC, 1 1/2hp Gould pump. 380' #10 3 w ground.

 

[valley ranch]

Getting close.

 

[valley ranch]

She's in, you can see the pit less with the T handle not yet removed.

 

[Ashful]

That'll be fun to pull out some day, 15-20 years from now! I just did a 150 foot replacement at my house last summer. Starts to get real heavy on the extraction, after 100 feet, or so...

 

[valley ranch]

We pulled the pump to have the well deepened, the pump was at 300' then. After having it deepened by 100', we added 80' of pipe and lowered it in. The winch was a good addition, we used come a longs to remove it the first time. Another 80' of pipe and wire, the pipe filled with water. sure will be heavy.

If it last 15-20 years that sure will be nice.
Richard

 

[Ashful]

The wench was a good addition...

Are you referring to the young lady on the ladder, or did you mean to say "winch"?

How long do you guys get out of a pump out there? 15 - 20 years is common here, but perhaps you have more particulate issues, or just accelerated aging due to the extreme depths?

 

[valley ranch]

Yep, Winch! Thanks for coming back.

Richard

 

[mithesaint]

Wow. That's a deep well. IIRC, my well is 65 feet deep, and the pump is somewhere around 40 feet. On the other hand, I live in a swamp lol.

Nice job.

 

[Highbeam]

Wow. PVC? So what's going in there? Is that a bundle of wires plus a tether? What's the water level?

Threaded PVC joints or glued?

 

[valley ranch]

Greetings Highbeam, The teather is galvanized steel wire, only used in the unlikely instance of the pvc breaking. The wire is 4 lines of braided number 10, 3 with ground.
The water level is 290', the pump is set at 380' giving us 90' of water over the pump for draw down. The Gould pump is rated to pump 10gpm at that depth. There is a pump protector in line that would shut down the pump if the pump outran the recovery, the well can keep up with the pump. We installed 2 torque snubbers and 9 wire protectors, and taped the wire and cable every 4'. The pump has a check valve built in, and we installed anothere just below the pit less adapter.

The PVC is 1 1/4" schedule 80. Threaded and coupled, stainless steel couplings. The saving was over $3,000 and it was fun working together.

Thanks for your interest. Nice tractor!

Richard

 

[semipro]

Thanks for sharing valley ranch. I've long wondered how I might do the work on our well. Though its over 300Ft. (maybe 500') deep so I'll probably need a stronger a-frame, winch, and cable set up.
I've been told that using PVC works better because it absorbs the motor starting torque better than steel resulting in less wear on the motor-pump.
I've got 300ft of galvanized pipe laying about from when they installed PVC in our well. That was 12+ years ago. No problems since. In the 10 years previous to that the pump-motor had to be replaced twice.

 

[semipro]

The pump has a check valve built in, and we installed anothere just below the pit less adapter.

I can't recall where but I remember reading that redundant check valves can cause problems - not sure why.

Edit: maybe this was the site: http://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/submersible-pumps-and-multiple-check-valves.26301/
The issue, apparently, is not settled. Edit: actually maybe it is.

 

[Ashful]

I can't recall where but I recall reading that redundant check valves can cause problems - not sure why.

Edit: maybe this was the site: http://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/submersible-pumps-and-multiple-check-valves.26301/
The issue, apparently, is not settled.

I had the redundant check valve problem at my last house. Removing the second check valve solved the issue. In my case, the second check valve was in the house, so I was able to more directly observe the consequences of using two. The issue is that most check valves leak just a little, and if the check valve on the pump leaks ever so slightly faster than the one at the top, you develop low or negative pressure in the vertical line. When the pump initially kicks on, this causes a hammer type reaction, and you will notice all of your plumbing "jump", such as happens with water hammer at an appliance. Probably less of an issue with all new components, but becomes more of an issue as the two check valves age / settle in.

 

[valley ranch]

semipro, This pump is at 380'. It will be heaver when full of water and/or deeper, but a 4" X 4" Timber Tripod, if you read Smoleys book of logs and rhythms should lift anything your cable and winch will lift. When we removed the pump it of course was water filled, and we did it with come a longs. The weakest link is the cable, than the winch body. The winch is rated 1000lbs. The tripod timbers are being pulled length wise, like trying to make a ten foot timber shorter, no stress across the width. We had to nail a block to stop the rope lashing, being pulled down to the winch. The block can be seen in the picture of the winch on the ground. If I remove it again, full of water, I'll install a heaver winch.

Joful, I worried over installing additional check valve or valves, I have them and many say the should be installed. I've also read of, water hammer, as you wrote in your post, I decided almost last minute to go with the check valve that is built into the pump and one more at the top of the line, that the way I had it and that's the way I reinstalled it, but I did consider adding other valves as some suggest.

We used poly pipe in our well up at the mountain place 60' deep, which was easy. But as the length gets longer, we the poly pipe will stretch and twist with the motor kicking and maybe the pump would try to come off the barbed fitting. Also the makers of the poly gave their pipe a low pressure rating at increased depth. I had a pressure gauge set in line in front of a restrictor and before the check valve, the pressure was high enough to distort the, 0-130 lb/sq inch gauge, and I've read of pressures increases as depth increases.

Hope this isn't more answer that you asked for.

Richard

 

[bholler]

Why solid pvc here we use flexible well pipe just curios? or wells are not nearly that deep here though deep wells here are 200'

 

[Ashful]

Why solid pvc here we use flexible well pipe just curios? or wells are not nearly that deep here though deep wells here are 200'

Same here. Black stuff, comes in a very large coil. Typically 1" to 1-1/2" ID. Our typical well depths are 150 - 250 feet deep, although we do see the occasional 400 feet around here, too.

 

[valley ranch]

Hi, We use poly pipe at our mountain ranch, the pump is 70'. The pump in the above pictures is 380' at that depth the flexible pipe begins to stretch. The 1 1/2hp motor causes wiping even with snubbers. Also the manufactures of poly pipe rate the ID pressure to lower than possible generated pressures at that depth as well as the pump coming off, there's a lot of weight to a 1 1/2 hp submersible. I very much wanted to use Poly Pipe, It's easer to install and remove, but taking evey thing into consideration, I chose PVC with stainless couplings.

I'd like to follow up on use of poly pipe in deep wells, PUMP DEPTH, like to know first hand, or better yet second hand. I think I'd use poly pipe to 150' maybe deeper.

Our lower ranch is within sight of where we put the pump in. The wells are much less deep. Our neighbor there used poly pipe. I'd use poly there without worry.

Richard

 

[t4driller]

That is one impressive pump puller. I work for a water well drilling company here in south west pa, and we regularly install pumps on 1 inch 160 psi black roll pipe up to depths of 450 feet. Sometimes a little deeper. Never have any problems of pumps breaking off or any other problems. I do mostly all drilling but also get to help install them also. In the op position we would also probably put the pump on stick pipe because of the size of the pump and where the water level is at. How many gp m does the well make and is it a 6 inch hole? For every foot in a 6 inch hole there's 1 1/2 gallons of water. So if it's a 6 inch hole you have about 135 gallons of water in storage.

 

[BrotherBart]

I called a "pro" company because I didn't want to pull my 120' pump. They couldn't pull it and I had to get them to lug my manual forklift over to the well and pull it myself with the thing. Did it reduce the bill? No.

 

[valley ranch]

t4driller, Glad you came by. Thanks for the input on: Black roll pipe. what is meant by: op position ?

Bart,''They couldn't pull the pump'' Why?

Richard

 

[BrotherBart]

It was stuck on something down there.

 

[t4driller]

I ment in your position we would have done the same. We also only use one check valve on top of the pump. Brother Bart I cannot believe they couldn't get your pump out and also would not give you a discount for you helping and using your tools. Must not be a very good company.