# Get to know your water well now – not later



## Waterboy

With uncertain times ahead, ensuring you have a reliable, non-electric way to get clean water from the ground is 10 times more important than storing food. Humans can live 30 days without food, but generally only 3 days without water (depending on outside temperature, health, physical exertion, etc.).

For centuries, people and communities relied on hand-dug wells for their drinking, cooking, watering and bathing needs. Hand-dug wells provided water that filtered through the ground, making it palatable, unlike rainwater or other stagnant water sources.

A common method was to lower a bucket into the well with a windlass and retrieve the water by rotating the windlass or by using a tripod and pulley. 









Hand-dug wells are shallow, with depths ranging from 16 to 70 feet, and seldom reaching 100 feet deep. They were dug with a pick and shovel just to the water's surface. For very shallow wells with the water table near the surface, a counterweighted bucket can be used to draw water. During dry spells, shallow wells often go dry as the water table drops.

Springs, ponds, creeks and other natural bodies of water also were used in years past to wash clothes or irrigate crops, but were generally unsuitable for drinking purposes. Those lucky enough to have a spring have access to the cleanest natural water source, although many also go dry during summer.

In the modern era, drilled water wells replaced the old hand-dug wells and wooden buckets. In rural areas without electricity, people used windmills, shallow well hand pumps and torpedo-style metal buckets to get water from these new-style wells.

Even those who had windmills or hand pumps relied on the well bucket when the windmill or hand pump was under repair. Likewise, solar pumps, generators and hand pumps are good to have, but if something breaks down and parts aren't readily available, how will you get water from your drilled well? Answer: Just like the old-timers did - with a well bucket.

As time passed, the electric pump retired the hand pump and tin well bucket, which were left to rust in the barn or put on display, adorned with flowers in the front yard.

Now, because of the uncertain days we live in, hand pumps and well bucket are back - but improved upon with modern materials. Be prepared for uncertainty. Get to know your well now. How deep is it; what's its diameter?

Shallow hand pumps cannot draw water from great depths. Deep-well hand pumps are used for high lifts of more than 50 feet, but are costly and relatively inefficient due to extra work needed to deform the diaphragm. Some manufacturers claim their pumps will draw water from 200-350 feet, although pulling water from that depth will take much force.

Well buckets are made of galvanized tin or PVC pipe, but not just any well bucket will work. Size matters. Modern wells are fitted most often with casings in one of three sizes - 6 inches in diameter, 5 inches or 4 inches.

Some wells also have a liner installed, which reduces the inside diameter to 4 inches. To determine if your well has a liner, shine a flashlight into the well. You will see the liner a few feet from the surface.

The bucket outside diameter must be at least ¼-inch smaller than the pipe's inside diameter. For example, a 4-inch well bucket will not work in a 4-inch well casing. A 3-inch bucket will fit, but only if it is made of thin-wall PVC pipe, not Schedule 40 PVC pipe.

Also, measure the depth of your water from the surface.

To measure the depth, tie a weight to the end of a string and lower it into the well. You will feel and hear when the weight hits the water. Mark that depth on your string, and then continue lowering the string until it reaches the bottom of the well. Mark that on your string, too, and retrieve it. You now have the measurements to determine your well and water depths. Have more than enough rope or cable to reach the water level. And, remember, water levels can drop.

To keep the rope and bucket clean, it is best to use a windlass that prevents the rope from coming in contact with the ground and your hands. A rope and pulley also can be used, but care should be taken to keep the rope clean to prevent contaminating your well.

Do not attempt to lower a well bucket into your well without first having the pump and pipe removed. The bucket could twist around the pipes and wires, and you may not be able to retrieve it.

If at all possible, have a 4-inch liner installed in your well to keep your well cleaner, less likely to collapse, and trouble-free bucket use.

If your water level is beyond the reach of a pump, then a well bucket is the most economical, reliable, and efficient way to draw water from a drilled well. You can buy or build your own bucket, but the important thing is to get one that is long-lasting, dependable and easy to use.

To learn more about how wells are drilled, check out the following site, which has an educational video about wells:


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## Well_Driller

I'm just going to add to this and say, if you have a hand pump on your well then you should keep spare parts to fix it if it becomes your main source of water, and if you don't know then you should learn how to fix them yourself. They are not that difficult. If your well supplies drinking water then a deep well type hand pump is the best option. No need for priming and the pump heads are designed to prevent contamination. If however you have to use a well bucket to retrieve drinking water, then you have to keep it clean and disinfected! Trust me, in a bad situation the last thing you want to do is contaminate your drinking water with nasty bacteria such as e coli.


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## mojo4

When I was a kid my granny had a hand pump well. We used to play with it and it was great. I remember the pipe not being very large, maybe a few inches and I have no idea how far down it went. How would I install one? I've seen some videos but never have tried it and I want to put one in my yard. How do I dig the well?


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## lazydaisy67

I have to admit, our well is a complete mystery to us. I've tried teach myself about wells and water, etc. and it goes over my head so I quit looking because I get frustrated. All we really know about it is that it pumps the water up the hill to our cistern, then a pump in the basement draws the water into the house. We don't know how deep the well is, we have no idea how to get water out of it by hand, and the few things I've found to install are out of our price range. We've tried to talk to some "old timers" about windmills and what-not, but they either can't remember how they work, or think we're out of our minds to even want to know. We don't know if we have water right under our yard or if it's too deep under there for a hand pump by the house. The only answer I get is you have to hire a well digger to do it and even then not all of them can or will dig a hand pump well for you. My dad just about gets irate when he sees that we STILL haven't gotten hooked up to rural water. He cannot fathom that we would rely on the "rickety" well set up we have and not go "modern". I told him a $200 water bill is not in the budget for us, but he refuses to believe it would cost that much. 
I will keep trying, maybe dig out our mortgage paperwork and see if anything is in there that would tell us how deep the well is.


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## Well_Driller

Whether or not you could drill your own well depends on your area. You could use a drive point if there is a layer of water bearing sand or gravel, but with using a drive point you simply drive it down in the ground so if there's solid rock between you and the sand and gravel that's not going to work either. If you want clean drinking water, then I would pull water from a depth of not less than 25ft. For a deep well hand pump you need at least a 4" or larger casing. The pump cylinder has to fit into the well casing. The area I drill in requires a full sized rig to drill the wells. We hit bedrock at depths as shallow as 20ft and our water is typically down anywhere from 30 to 70ft into the shales and or sandstones. Those little rigs you see probably would not do the job here. Any driller can drill you a well for a hand pump. It's still done the same whether your installing an electric pump or hand pump. The hand pumps are not that hard to install. A good one is not cheap, but they will out last any electric pump out there. We normally install the Baker Monitor pumps on wells that have only a hand pump on them, and the Bisons are good for wells that have electric pumps in them because the base of the pump is offset to allow it to go down past the electric pumps pipe and wires. A typical deep well hand pump consists of 1- The pump head which is what you see on top of the well casing. 2- Drop pipe the goes down the well. 3- The pump rods that connect to the pump handle and goes down the center of the drop pipe and connects to the plunger which is placed below your water line. 4- The pump cylinder which is always set below your water level, attaches to the end of the drop pipe and contains the plunger that actually does the pumping. 5- Another 20' of pipe that screws onto the cylinder with a foot valve at the bottom. They still use leather cups in the pump cylinders, they are proven and are the best cups. They typically have a 20 year lifespan depending on how much the pump is used. You can measure the depth of your well by putting a small weight on a string and carefully drop it down until it hits bottom. Be careful not to get it tangled up in the wires and pipe of your electric pump or you might get it stuck. A well built deep well hand pump can pull water up from 200ft. The Baker Monitors I use can do this. Your well can be 400ft deep, but it's where the top of your water is that is important. So if your well is 400ft and its only 60ft to the water then you can still use a hand pump. You don't have to put the cylinder all the way to the bottom. For example my well is 110' deep and the water level (called static water level) is only 30ft down. The pump cylinder for my hand pump is set at 60ft which puts it 30ft under water, and then I added another 20ft of pipe onto the bottom of the cylinder with a foot valve which allows me to draw the water from a depth of 80ft. However, the water level in the pipe will equal the level in the well so the pump only has to push the water up 30ft to get to the top. With the Baker Monitor pumps you can run a windmill on those. Also if your in a climate that freezes in the winter, don't worry, you simply drill a small weep hole in your drop pipe 1/16" to 1/8" size, and you place the hole at a depth that is below your frost line. I drilled mine at 4ft down from the the surface of the ground. Hand pumps are very reliable. I used 1" schedule 80 threaded PVC for the drop pipe. The cylinders are brass and if you use stainless steel pump rods they will never rust off. Biggest maintenance would be replacing pump leathers, keep several spares, but they will last a long time. Initial cost may seem a bit high, but when I put in electric pumping systems for a house those systems cost just as much and people don't think twice about it, but for the majority of people I put hand pumps in for, they are more worried about having clean water in an emergency situation than they are of the cost. My pump gets used on a daily basis, but most people actually think it's just a yard ornament because that's what most people do with them around here. Little do they know it's actually a functioning pump. Mine is pictured in my avatar BTW... Andrew.


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## Tweto

The state of Nebraska as a web site that has water well info on all wells installed after about 1982. It's under the the Natural Research District, On the web site it tells you the depth, diameter, pump size, water depth, GPM, ground material that had to be drilled through and the owners name.

I would think that other states have this info somewhere or is Nebraska the only state that does this?


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## Waterboy

To prevent well water contamination, ensure hands, ropes and the bucket or other containers are kept clean. If the well bucket is contaminated with E. coli, the bucket is not likely the problem. Either the users did not wash their hands adequately before using the bucket, the bucket was dirty or the water well is contaminated with fecal matter, which can come from a variety of sources.

Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for food recalls, according to online sources. The harmless strains are part of the normal flora of the gut, and can benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2, and by preventing the establishment of pathogenic bacteria within the intestine.

E. coli and related bacteria constitute about 0.1 percent of gut flora, and *fecal-oral transmission is the major route through which pathogenic strains of the bacterium cause disease. *

Building an enclosure around the well head to keep out bird droppings and other critters is one method of preventing water contamination. Also, do not build livestock areas or outhouses uphill from water sources.
Using a windlass that keeps the cable or rope off the ground and away from hands when using a bucket also will help prevent contamination.

Also, if using a hand pump, ensure your water containers are clean and disinfected, as they also can transmit bacteria to your water.

I hope this clears up any concerns about water contamination.


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## Well_Driller

OH also offers well records publicly on ODNR's website. Some states however don't offer them to the public, but they are the best source of ground formations if they are available to you.


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## TopTop

In my county a well should have an ID tag affixed to the cap. Take that number to the health department & the entire record will be on file. If the tag is missing they can look it up by address & where the well is located on the property. I don't know how long that system has been used, but I'm sure it goes back at least 50 years here. Sometimes wells get drilled illegally without a permit. Not sure what kind of grief that might cause after you tell them about it. Another good source of info is the soil maps at the health dept. These are compiled from the info they receive back off the well & septic permits, perc tests, etc. They can overlay these onto the tax maps & you get a pretty good idea what is under your grass. It shows the approximate water table & some areas are restricted to seasonal perc testing. You can see the age & depth of wells around you, although look at them carefully. One driller, now out of business, always reported wells much deeper than everyone else. I know one home buyer that measured the well with a weighted string before the pump went in & would only pay him for what he could measure. The driller let it go & did not try to collect for the extra depth. I have had no need to look up that info in nearly twenty years, so I don't know how it may have changed or if it is online now.


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## Beaniemaster2

I can't imagine anyone with a well, not having a well bucket for backup, duh???


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## Well_Driller

Beaniemaster2 said:


> I can't imagine anyone with a well, not having a well bucket for backup, duh???


You would be surprised the number of people that never have a second thought about their well or water until they run out or something fails... Then they suddenly realize how important it is. Occasionally i'll get a call from someone all in a panic because their well is running dry.... I currently have 2 wells, but the other day I was thinking about drilling a couple more....


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## TopTop

Beaniemaster2 said:


> I can't imagine anyone with a well, not having a well bucket for backup, duh???


I guess I'm in that category. A drilled well over two hundred feet deep. Not much water flow either. Officially it meets the 3gpm minimum, but in reality I think it would come up short. I could not get a bucket down there without pulling the pump first. I have a backup genny for short term use, the longest has been a week without power, but for a long term event I figure I could pull the pump & make a pvc bucket then. There are a couple large creeks within a mile, but I'm sure they will be quickly over run with people & polluted. I use a gasoline pump & a big water tank to fill the grandkids pool in the spring, it takes about a dozen trips. Way cheaper than a tanker delivery. The illegals that work on the local orchards, tree farm & winery use the creeks for bathing & laundry & get their drinking water from a nearby spring. I guess I could learn spanglish & blend in. lol


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## Well_Driller

TopTop, does your well currently meet your water needs or do you run out? I drilled a well deeper a while back for a guy, it only made 1GPM and I took it down to 300ft, still only made 1GPM but when it recovered it held enough water in the drilled hole to meet their daily needs and it could recover ok during the time no water was being used.


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## TopTop

Before I bought this place the owner had problems. They pulled the pump & pitless adapter & drilled down another hundred feet or so, don't really remember the details. We do ok with what we have, just need to be careful. I have four households living on my property, (My house, inlaw apt, two trailers) plus I keep a few steers, chickens, turkeys, a couple dogs, who knows what else. An open water line will pump the well dry in about 35-45 minutes. That has happened a few times. It will recover enough to start using it again in about 20 minutes. I have a safety on my pump pressure switch so the pump stops running if the pressure drops. No one is allowed to do laundry except my wife. They can pay her or go elsewhere. No car washing unless we know about it first. Since everyone else works & no kids except the ones my wife keeps they are really not here that much. We can spread things out over the entire day & never have a problem. I would like to have another well, but really can not justify it. Good water is hard to get here. Most of my neighbors have low flow & bad water to boot. At least mine tastes good. Plus it is just a question of time until the county runs services past my place. I will be forced to pay for each foot of road frontage, plus a hook up fee & must fill in or be heavily taxed for my own well & septic. Shallow wells are no good & the useful water lies below a layer of granite. One of those toy machines would be worthless here.

When I was a little kid, maybe 5 years old I was not in school yet, my Dad had a well drilled. An old pounder of course, it took several weeks & I watched every day. lol My old man had his sawmill out behind our house, so I was no stranger to big equipment. Log trucks & lumber trucks coming & going all day. I was operating skidders, loaders, & driving a log truck before I ever sat on a bicycle. Anyway I remember they hit a small stream at 200 something feet, then around 360 feet the bit hung up. He tried to blast it loose with dynamite then broke the cable. He came back to the first stream & drilled a hole through the casing & figured with all of that reserve it would be ok. As I remember, it ran the house fine but could not run a log wash system. That takes a LOT of water. Another mill my old man operated had a well over 800 ft deep with multiple pumps set a couple hundred feet apart to supply enough flow & pressure for the log wash.

Wells are an interesting subject & I enjoy talking to people like you that have actually been in the business. I don't know much about it, but I'm a good listener.


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## Well_Driller

Doing a quick calculation, being based on a garden hose which can typically flow about 6GPM I come up with about 270 gal water storage between the tank and well bore. It sounds like you do make good use of it to get by with all that. Most of my area wells will usually produce in upwards of 10GPM and the water is usually good, but there are some places where it just goes down to nothing or the iron content is high. When I drilled my well I got 10GPM at a total depth of 110' out of the white sandstone. I went across the road and drilled a well on the farm across from me, there's probably not much more distance than the length of two football fields between my well and the farm well. The formations change somewhere between those two wells. I had to go down to 265 ft and ended up with 8 GPM but good water. Sometimes you never know. From what you told me, if I were going to drill another well, I would probably go with an 8" well at the least knowing there's low GPM, but then again you never know, you might end up with a 10GPM well too. 8" will cost more, but better to have a bigger hole with a low yield. Granite is hard to drill. We don't get into it here, but I have drilled flint and that's no fun either. We have a bit called a star bit for drilling hard stuff like granite. The regular chisel bits just don't do very well in something that hard.


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## dahur

Well_Driller said:


> Whether or not you could drill your own well depends on your area. You could use a drive point if there is a layer of water bearing sand or gravel, but with using a drive point you simply drive it down in the ground so if there's solid rock between you and the sand and gravel that's not going to work either. If you want clean drinking water, then I would pull water from a depth of not less than 25ft. For a deep well hand pump you need at least a 4" or larger casing. The pump cylinder has to fit into the well casing. The area I drill in requires a full sized rig to drill the wells. We hit bedrock at depths as shallow as 20ft and our water is typically down anywhere from 30 to 70ft into the shales and or sandstones. Those little rigs you see probably would not do the job here. Any driller can drill you a well for a hand pump. It's still done the same whether your installing an electric pump or hand pump. The hand pumps are not that hard to install. A good one is not cheap, but they will out last any electric pump out there. We normally install the Baker Monitor pumps on wells that have only a hand pump on them, and the Bisons are good for wells that have electric pumps in them because the base of the pump is offset to allow it to go down past the electric pumps pipe and wires. A typical deep well hand pump consists of 1- The pump head which is what you see on top of the well casing. 2- Drop pipe the goes down the well. 3- The pump rods that connect to the pump handle and goes down the center of the drop pipe and connects to the plunger which is placed below your water line. 4- The pump cylinder which is always set below your water level, attaches to the end of the drop pipe and contains the plunger that actually does the pumping. 5- Another 20' of pipe that screws onto the cylinder with a foot valve at the bottom. They still use leather cups in the pump cylinders, they are proven and are the best cups. They typically have a 20 year lifespan depending on how much the pump is used. You can measure the depth of your well by putting a small weight on a string and carefully drop it down until it hits bottom. Be careful not to get it tangled up in the wires and pipe of your electric pump or you might get it stuck. A well built deep well hand pump can pull water up from 200ft. The Baker Monitors I use can do this. Your well can be 400ft deep, but it's where the top of your water is that is important. So if your well is 400ft and its only 60ft to the water then you can still use a hand pump. You don't have to put the cylinder all the way to the bottom. For example my well is 110' deep and the water level (called static water level) is only 30ft down. The pump cylinder for my hand pump is set at 60ft which puts it 30ft under water, and then I added another 20ft of pipe onto the bottom of the cylinder with a foot valve which allows me to draw the water from a depth of 80ft. However, the water level in the pipe will equal the level in the well so the pump only has to push the water up 30ft to get to the top. With the Baker Monitor pumps you can run a windmill on those. Also if your in a climate that freezes in the winter, don't worry, you simply drill a small weep hole in your drop pipe 1/16" to 1/8" size, and you place the hole at a depth that is below your frost line. I drilled mine at 4ft down from the the surface of the ground. Hand pumps are very reliable. I used 1" schedule 80 threaded PVC for the drop pipe. The cylinders are brass and if you use stainless steel pump rods they will never rust off. Biggest maintenance would be replacing pump leathers, keep several spares, but they will last a long time. Initial cost may seem a bit high, but when I put in electric pumping systems for a house those systems cost just as much and people don't think twice about it, but for the majority of people I put hand pumps in for, they are more worried about having clean water in an emergency situation than they are of the cost. My pump gets used on a daily basis, but most people actually think it's just a yard ornament because that's what most people do with them around here. Little do they know it's actually a functioning pump. Mine is pictured in my avatar BTW... Andrew.


Good info. I live in the desert of New Mexico. My well guy said, (and the old timers here too), that the Tularosa Basin we live in has all kinds of water. That won't do any good if we can't get it though. My well is 200 ft and static level is 70. I am going to get a simple hand pump to slide in beside the submersible. I've watched the video's, and am confident it's something I can do. Yeah $2000 isn't cheap, but as you said, water is all important. I'm going to dig up the pipe that goes from my well casing underground to my well house where the pressure tank is. I may hire a plumber to install the check valve, and pressure gauge, we'll see. But I want to be able pump up my pressure tank off the simple hand pump. That's my plans for this year.


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## Well_Driller

Dahur, if you can screw two pieces of pipe together than you can install it. Both bison and simple pump come with the right length drop pipe and matched pump rods. The pumps like I normally install the baker monitors, I just buy the pump head and cylinder, and the rod, and drop pipe I get from my local supplier. I run 20' sections but those installations while not difficult, you do have to cut the pump rod off at the right length and thread it once you have it all in. The only thing i'm not to sure about on the simple pump is the fact they use fiberglass pump rods. While these are much lighter than stainless steel, I have to wonder how well they hold up, and wether or not the fiberglass will start to splinter off over time. I would not want pieces of fiberglass in my water.... I tried to call them last week because I wanted to question them about this but all I got was voice mail. If you do get in contact with them, i'd ask them about this. The other thing i'm not so sure about is they do not use leather cups in their pump cylinder. I wanted to question them on this too. Most hand pump cylinders still use real leather. At least the good ones do. It is my opinion that leather still makes the best plunger cups. I believe it can stand up to more abuse than the synthetics. Simple pump says you can't pump the cylinder when it's dry or it will damage the seals. This usually does't hurt the leather cups. That's one reason why I question it, but as far as that goes, you can use any pump cylinder with their pump head if you prefer. Same goes with pump rods.... As far as pumping into a pressure tank, you may or may not like it. I've done it and I would not want to for too long. It can wear you out if your trying to use a good bit of water, but it will give you a good workout. I use my pump on a daily basis, it's not hard to pump, but I have noticed that my arms have become more defined since I use it so much.... If you have wind, then a windmill would be a nice way to do it. It could be setup to keep your pressure tank pressurized automatically.....


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## dahur

Well_Driller said:


> Dahur, if you can screw two pieces of pipe together than you can install it. Both bison and simple pump come with the right length drop pipe and matched pump rods. The pumps like I normally install the baker monitors, I just buy the pump head and cylinder, and the rod, and drop pipe I get from my local supplier. I run 20' sections but those installations while not difficult, you do have to cut the pump rod off at the right length and thread it once you have it all in. The only thing i'm not to sure about on the simple pump is the fact they use fiberglass pump rods. While these are much lighter than stainless steel, I have to wonder how well they hold up, and wether or not the fiberglass will start to splinter off over time. I would not want pieces of fiberglass in my water.... I tried to call them last week because I wanted to question them about this but all I got was voice mail. If you do get in contact with them, i'd ask them about this. The other thing i'm not so sure about is they do not use leather cups in their pump cylinder. I wanted to question them on this too. Most hand pump cylinders still use real leather. At least the good ones do. It is my opinion that leather still makes the best plunger cups. I believe it can stand up to more abuse than the synthetics. Simple pump says you can't pump the cylinder when it's dry or it will damage the seals. This usually does't hurt the leather cups. That's one reason why I question it, but as far as that goes, you can use any pump cylinder with their pump head if you prefer. Same goes with pump rods.... As far as pumping into a pressure tank, you may or may not like it. I've done it and I would not want to for too long. It can wear you out if your trying to use a good bit of water, but it will give you a good workout. I use my pump on a daily basis, it's not hard to pump, but I have noticed that my arms have become more defined since I use it so much.... If you have wind, then a windmill would be a nice way to do it. It could be setup to keep your pressure tank pressurized automatically.....


I didn't know that about the fiberglass pump rods. I for sure would not want fiberglass splinters in my water..! I'll have to check into that.

Another $800 will get a 12vdc motor that fits on the pump. You could use a car battery or solar. (I might do solar)

What do you think about a solar application filling a large storage tank during the day, and something to fill the pressure tank from that...? I have enough room in my wellhouse for a storage tank.


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## Well_Driller

For drinking water I would prefer keeping the water in a closed pressurized system. With non-pressurized tanks you have to keep them clean and keep insects out, but you could use it for everything else, and get drinking water directly from the well. A closed vented non-pressurized tank is ok, but you just wouldn't want the water to sit there, but in everyday use and having been disinfected it should be ok.


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## Emerald

I've been looking at those Bison pumps and drooling.. want one!!! I have two well pipes as our "old" well was 4 feet too close to the septic so they had to drill a new one when we bought the house. So I want to put the Bison on that old pipe.. but I would have to put an extension pipe on to get it above ground as it is now in a pit with the old tank/pump. but since it is right outside the back door and is the same darn water source and tests fine still I'm not too concerned about it being 4 feet closer to the septic. 
I was wondering about the static water level.. both of the wells are about 116 feet down and if the static level is higher then the pump I want would be cheaper as I wouldn't need as many lengths of pipe. 
Are they really as easy to install as they claim? I would love to have some feedback from someone who has put one in...


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## Berta

I have lived here for almost 2 yrs and this is my first experience with having a well. It is fully enclosed, when I lift the lid to my "wishing well" it covers the actual well and all I can see is the pump.

We live on 4 acres and we have subdivided 1.5 acres for my mother in laws house that is in the process of being put up. This week we are having her own well drilled rather then have her tap into ours. I had to get a permit for the well and just sent all the info to the driller. Is there anything in particular I should ask for/look for when drilling a new well? I admit, I am completely clueless.


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## Waterboy

Berta said:


> I have lived here for almost 2 yrs and this is my first experience with having a well. It is fully enclosed, when I lift the lid to my "wishing well" it covers the actual well and all I can see is the pump.
> 
> We live on 4 acres and we have subdivided 1.5 acres for my mother in laws house that is in the process of being put up. This week we are having her own well drilled rather then have her tap into ours. I had to get a permit for the well and just sent all the info to the driller. Is there anything in particular I should ask for/look for when drilling a new well? I admit, I am completely clueless.


Berta,

If possible have a liner installed in the new well. A liner will help to keep the water cleaner and help prevent cave in.

Do you have any records of the well from the previous owner?


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## Emerald

Berta said:


> I have lived here for almost 2 yrs and this is my first experience with having a well. It is fully enclosed, when I lift the lid to my "wishing well" it covers the actual well and all I can see is the pump.
> 
> We live on 4 acres and we have subdivided 1.5 acres for my mother in laws house that is in the process of being put up. This week we are having her own well drilled rather then have her tap into ours. I had to get a permit for the well and just sent all the info to the driller. Is there anything in particular I should ask for/look for when drilling a new well? I admit, I am completely clueless.


It is also possible that you have a "well pit" where they dig down and make a pit/pound the pipe for the well and what you see in the "well" is the tank/pump. I have this set up in the back and they made my mother drive a "new well" before we could buy it.


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## Well_Driller

Berta, You should call around to several drillers and ask them how deep they think the well will be. They will need to know where you are of course. If they know the area they can come up with a pretty close estimate. Compare the notes with the others. Ask them what size casing they use. If you put in a submersible pump the casing size should be a minimum of 5". Personally I like 6" or larger casing as it makes it easier to service and clean the well if it ever needs it. If you want a liner put in then you need casing that has an inside diameter of 6-1/2" in order to get a 5" liner in the well. If you're area is known for wells that can't produce enough water, say 1 to 2 gallons per minute then an 8" well casing would be a better choice. The bigger the well, the more expensive but a larger diameter well can hold more water. Also, when choosing a location for the well, put it somewhere where a rig can get to it later if it needs serviced. I always tell new well owners this. It never fails, I always get a call from someone that wants a well cleaned, and I go out and look at it and it's right up against the side of the house or a porch. Makes it really difficult to do the work and get a rig backed up to it. I even seen one that was right in the middle of the guys porch. There was nothing I could do for that one... Liners aren't always needed, but then again depends on the area. Where i'm at I rarely put them in, and ones that i've service with the rig, I have to pull out to work on the well, but that's only if it has to be drilled deeper, or i'm doing a major cleaning. Hopefully this info will be helpful to you.


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## Well_Driller

Emerald said:


> I've been looking at those Bison pumps and drooling.. want one!!! I have two well pipes as our "old" well was 4 feet too close to the septic so they had to drill a new one when we bought the house. So I want to put the Bison on that old pipe.. but I would have to put an extension pipe on to get it above ground as it is now in a pit with the old tank/pump. but since it is right outside the back door and is the same darn water source and tests fine still I'm not too concerned about it being 4 feet closer to the septic.
> I was wondering about the static water level.. both of the wells are about 116 feet down and if the static level is higher then the pump I want would be cheaper as I wouldn't need as many lengths of pipe.
> Are they really as easy to install as they claim? I would love to have some feedback from someone who has put one in...


Emerald, if you're handy with a pipe wrench then you should be able to install one. The lengths of pipe and pump rods come in 8ft sections. You should have at least one other person to help with the install, because you will need someone to hold the next pipe section up when you screw the pump rods together because they will be inside the drop pipe. To find the static water level, take a string and tie a weight on the end. Lower that down the well until you hear it hit the water. Mark the line and measure it and that's how far it is to the water. If you want to check the total depth let it go down until it hits the bottom. If there is still a pump in the well be careful, it is sometimes easy to get it caught on the pipes. When you add an extension onto the old well you want to make sure the joint is water tight. If it's steel casing, it should either be threaded so you can screw the extension on, or welded on by a good welder. I don't think 4 ft is going to make any difference. It's just ridiculous regulations. There's no middle ground with those people. If the well was cased properly it's not a problem, and if the new well is in that same aquifer it would also be bad if the old well was bad. I've seen that happen before. If the old well hasn't been used for a while, I would suggest you first put an electric pump in it and pump that well for a while to clean it up good, then you can install the hand pump and disinfect the well. Have the water tested after that to make sure it's good. Now drilling wells and installing pumps is what I do. I think hand pumps are easier to install than electric pumps. In fact I hate installing electric pumps, and I love installing hand pumps. No wires to mess with, no lines to bury etc. Just put the pump in and it's done.


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## Emerald

Well_Driller said:


> Emerald, if you're handy with a pipe wrench then you should be able to install one. The lengths of pipe and pump rods come in 8ft sections. You should have at least one other person to help with the install, because you will need someone to hold the next pipe section up when you screw the pump rods together because they will be inside the drop pipe. To find the static water level, take a string and tie a weight on the end. Lower that down the well until you hear it hit the water. Mark the line and measure it and that's how far it is to the water. If you want to check the total depth let it go down until it hits the bottom. If there is still a pump in the well be careful, it is sometimes easy to get it caught on the pipes. When you add an extension onto the old well you want to make sure the joint is water tight. If it's steel casing, it should either be threaded so you can screw the extension on, or welded on by a good welder. I don't think 4 ft is going to make any difference. It's just ridiculous regulations. There's no middle ground with those people. If the well was cased properly it's not a problem, and if the new well is in that same aquifer it would also be bad if the old well was bad. I've seen that happen before. If the old well hasn't been used for a while, I would suggest you first put an electric pump in it and pump that well for a while to clean it up good, then you can install the hand pump and disinfect the well. Have the water tested after that to make sure it's good. Now drilling wells and installing pumps is what I do. I think hand pumps are easier to install than electric pumps. In fact I hate installing electric pumps, and I love installing hand pumps. No wires to mess with, no lines to bury etc. Just put the pump in and it's done.


We just haven't used it for years and a friend of mine who is also a neighbor is the local well driller! Plus one of my sisters married a well driller.. they have both told me that my old well is safe to use and probably only needs be primed to run again.. I haven't told my BIL about my plans to buy a hand pump.. he is kind of a snob.. would probably laugh at me.. but the friend who is the local well guy told me if I decide to get one he would come help me just to see how it is and if we like it. The old well is right outside the back door and the plan is to put a wooden deck out there anyways so putting in another pipe to bring it up to the deck level is in the plans we are working up. 
I was thinking about using one of my big fishing weights(I use it to test cast when I fix my fishing rods) and my stash of kit string to test how deep the static level was. 
Now this may be stupid but if it is under say.. 30 feet could I get away with one of the small pitcher pumps? or say the smaller cheaper bisons? or would it be in my best interest to get the good deep well bison and put it deeper than the static level by a good 30 or so more feet? 
I'd ask the BIL but like I said before my sister is a bit of a snob now that her and hubby make more money than the rest of us poor folks(I still love her tho) and they all think that I'm goofy for making my own foods and soap and other things from scratch.. Good golly they don't even like to grow their own foods.. said that they had to do that growing up and will not do it now that they can buy it at the store. 
But ya know what? they all rave over my tomato sauces and lasagna.. and then say I don't give them the recipe when theirs doesn't taste the same.. told them that growing my own and canning my own sauce is the key.. Oh and maybe making my own ricotta..


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## Well_Driller

Emerald, a pitcher pump can only pull water up from 25ft or less. They also have to be primed in order to get them pumping. They are not really a good solution if the well is supplying drinking water because the top of it is open, and this can leave it vulnerable to possibly introducing harmful bacteria into the well. The deep well pump is the best way to go and it keeps the issue of contamination to a minimum because the pump head is sealed. You never have to prime those because the pump cylinder is set below your static water level so it's always ready to go. On a dedicated hand pump well, you should use it every so often to keep the well in good working order. You don't just want that water to sit there all the time. With hand pumps you should keep some spare leather cups on hand for replacement if needed, but they last a long time. The leathers in a deep well pump will last longer than pitcher pumps because they're always submerged in water and they don't get dried out. It's good to learn how to install them and maintain them yourself. If you ever really have to rely on it, you should be capable of repairing yourself to be self sufficient. Remember in such a situation, you may not be able to rely on anyone but yourself. I hate relying on anyone for anything. I do all my own maintenance and repairs on my equipment. I also have a machine shop and make my own parts. I've come to realize I can get it done faster myself than having to rely on someone else to do it or get me those parts. If I break something on my rig, it could take weeks to get it. I can make it myself in a matter of hours and finish the job where as others would be down.


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## Berta

Thank you for all the information, very helpful! 

We have never had a problem with our well and my neighbor hasn't either. I didn't want to take any chances with having my MIL tap into ours so I think it's a good idea to put a second well on the property.


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## Well_Driller

Yes, you're right, better to have two separate wells for two houses. I've seen two houses hooked to a single well before and it can be more hassle than it's worth, besides if one of you has a well issue, you know you have someone close you can get water from....


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## mojo4

So driller, how much do you charge to drill a well?


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## Emerald

Thanks so much for all the information!


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## Well_Driller

mojo4 said:


> So driller, how much do you charge to drill a well?


Last well I quoted based on other well depths in the area:
-Estimated depth 140ft (I usually figure a little deeper than what I think for estimates) with an estimated casing length of 80ft of 5" steel pipe come out to $2942.00 to drill the well. This doesn't include any pump installations. This is a fair price, i've seen some ridiculous costs on wells in talking to people in other states though. BTW I charge a flat rate of $1100.00 to go in and clean and or drill an old well deeper.


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## dawnwinds58

Here's a video on making a bailer bucket out of inexpensive materials to access your modern well in times of emergencies.


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