Wells, Water Pressure

[meledward23]

Looking for some help here.

I have a well. It is not adequate. It is 14 years old, 114' deep. It's pressure has dropped over the years. I had the little pressure box replaced and the pressure is supposed to be set at 50psi. Well if it is then there is either a block in the line or the GPM is no good.

My well service man has no concern over the pressure. He's basically retired but the only person to work on the well in the last 14 years because he installed it. I ask him about it but we always end up on a different subject.

What I need....

1) If I call a well person out of the phone book, can they do some preliminary investigations without charging me alot ?

2) Should I just build a resevoir tank with a pressure system. I need more water to keep a riding ring wet.

3) Should I build a pond ? and pump out of it ?

My primary focus is to figure out the best approach to deal with the well. I know absolutely nothing about the well and it's function.

[bczoom]

mel,

Welcome to CBN.
Not a well guru but have one.
Can you clarify a couple things for me.
You say the pressure has dropped. Are you saying you're not getting the GPM you used to?
This may be a dumb one but what's a "riding ring" and how much water does it use?
Do I assume you would use a pond for the riding ring?

[jimbrown]

It is hard to tell from your description what the problem is. Setting the pressure switch to 50 lb does not mean you have 50 lb all of the time the switch has a turn on and a turn of point. Normaly this is 20-40 or 40-60. So if yours was turned up it is probably something like 30-50 now. if the pressure is low and flow is down I would first suspect that the pressure tank has lost its charge and has no air in to pressureize the water. It has to have air in it. You can compress air but not water. Their are two different kinds of pressure tanks one has a rubber bladder in it full of air and the other has no bladder and the top of the tank must be kept full of air. The bladder tanks are relatively new 10 yrs or so and the non bladder have been around for ever. If yours is a galvanized tank it probably has no bladder and is water logged. Turn off the well drain all of the water out of the tank let fill up with air and then turn your pump back on. This may fix your problem. If your well pump has been in the ground 14 years it is probably wore out. Average life is about 5 to 6 years. If you have a bladder type they are usually not galvanized and are painted steel. It should have a valve on the top just like a tire stem valve. Check it with a tire gauge to see if it has any air pressure. It should be about 25lb of pressure. If not add some air. A bycicle pump will work if you have no other way. If it will not hold air the bladder is broke and you need a new tank. I personally pump into a storage tank 650 gallon and then into two 50 gal pressure tanks. I would think you need a couple hundered gallons a day for the ring. another possibility is that a 14 year old well has simply sanded in and is no longer producing much water for the well pump tp pump.

[gsganzer]

I second JImbrowns advice. Check to see if your waterlogged. If it's the old style (no bladder), which I suspect it is, there's another way to tell if your water logged. Stand out at your tank and watch the pressure gauge. Then have someone turn the water on somewhere. If the pressure drops rapidly and the pump comes on, or the pump continues cycling on/off it means your water logged. Turn the pump off, drain the tank and then turn the pump back on to refill.

[jimbrown]

Riding Ring = a confined area where you ride horses. Can be round or oblong somtimes called an arena or show ring. You wet it to keep the dust out of your eyes.

[meledward23]

Okay,

So far some excellent information.

Yes the riding ring (Horse Description) is correct. I would figure to put down around 1200 gallons per application at the high point in summer. Probably two or three times per week.

As far as the well. I have never seen the tank you are describing. Would/Could it be buried? I now where the well is a 6" PVC Pipe running into the ground. Shorty there after is my backflow. The only obvious things above ground.

Replacing a well pump, I presume is a job for a professional? I realize many factors including size would effect pricing but anybody have a range ?

Thanks for all the replies to date, and in advance for further information it is all appreciated.

[jimbrown]

The tank could be any place in the water line. i have never seen one that was buried. It could be in the barn or a seperate well house. It sounds like you maynot have one and have more of what I would call a irragation well. You confused me when you said it had a pressure switch. Most irrigation or open wells do not have one and only have a well motor controller to turn the pump on and off. Does the well supply water to anything other than the ring? If not I still suspect is just old. Another posibility is that there are leaks in the line and you ae losing water and pressure that way. If it is old iron pipe that has been in the ground a long time I would suspect that to be true. Also wheere aare you?

[meledward23]

No, this well does not supply the ring right now. That is an addition I would like to make.

Currently this well supplies four (missing the word at the moment) upright spickets, as well as the barn office bathroom and sinks.

Pressure switch. It is a little box has two springs. One small cable that decends down into the hole and hits a cap of some nature about three feet down. It has 220volts running to it. I know this becuase a wire had been broken and I watched the repair guy, the 82 year old, replace this switch. You set on spring for low pressure (never touch it he says) and the other spring for high pressure.

I have never seen the tank. There is a water hydrant (spicket) adjacent to the well (about three feet away) turns out has some decent water flow. The further away you get the less pressure. Obviously simple law of physics. Thing is you used to be able to run three lawn sprinklers of three hydrants. Now one barely runs at an acceptable level.

My point on the Hydrant next to the well is that I do not see a tank near that point. so it could be after that hysrant I suppose which would put it in the barn. But I have never seen one and I would have no idea where they could have hidden it.

[donh]

Here's a picture of my pressure tank. It's right next to the well. Mine is pretty big; they are most often a lot smaller, but are still about 3' tall. The purpose is to pressurise the system so water can flow without having the well pump run. If you don't have a pressure tank, the pressure switch is probably used for nothing more than turning on the pump, and the pump continues to run until you turn off the water. If your pressure has dropped, the pump may be shot.

[Pat]

As regards burying a water tank. Of course the diaphram pressure tanks are steel and are not usually burried. Storage tanks from which you would pump water are often burried. I assisted a neighbor in Baja California Mexico bury a 2400 gal tank. It was relatively thin plastic for its size and so we exercised some caution in the backfill operation. As we backfilled the hole we added water to the tank so it had water in it at or a bit above the level of backfill. We also used a lot of water added to the fill to aid compaction (backfilled with sand - no big or sharp rocks.)

We cycled through a little backfill, a litle water in the tank, a little water in the backfill, then more backfill, and repeat. We put a concrete pad in the botom of the hole before placing the tank. We also erected cement block columns at the 4 corners up to grade level (or a tad more.) After everything was checked out we formed and poured a slab, suspended by the 4 columns, over the top of the tank. (Plenty of rebar in columns and upper slab and lower slab.) The upper slab became the floor of a shed to hold the batteries and inverters and water filters and such for his solar powered instalation.

Some folks in the area buried much larger tanks. Plastic tanks and plastic pipe in relatively stable ground last indefinitely. Just make sure you do a good plumbing job. Maximise your chances of success by using cleaner, primer, and the best glue specified for the pipe used as diging down to look for problems and do repairs would not be fun.

An advantage of a storage tank is that even a slow flowing well can be used since you don't depend on the wells flow rate, only on its production over time. Another advantage is that you have a safe secure emergency backup suply of water in case of some catastrophe or well pump failure. You can always add bleach to ensure purity during a long term storage situation and then remove the bleach (chlorine) with an activated charcoal drinking water filter like a Britta (sp?) or whatever to improve the taste. The instructions are on the bleach bottle for addind it to drinking water at levels that do not require filtration prior to use. I like to filter it because I HATE the chlorine taste of treated water.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]