Just made my second failed attempt at getting a shallow well installed. The set-up is a sand point laid out with a 3ft point, 1/4" galvanized pipe (now at 30ft deep), good drive couplings, a "t" , a check valve, a Rand 3/4 HP jet pump. There is water at 25 ft down, in the pipe, which I have blown out with a compressor and air hose until water bubbled out clear.

Question: Should I have put water in the pipe and observed that the water runs down, into the water vain, to confirm weather or not I am in good water? I didn’t think to do this. Or should water stand in the pipe, which I should have filled prior to connecting the pump?

I have tried a hand pump which hissed when disconnected (so it had build some pressure), and tried hooking up the pump (primed, primed and reprimed and tried to bleed air out) running it for up-to a couple of minutes. It would not build over 15psi.

When pounding the pipe, I tightened the couplers and pipe every couple feet, and used pipe tape, too. Not sure what to try next.

Any advice is Greatly Appreciated!!!

 

You may need to remove the pump piping, but try to determine where the water level in the well is.
If it's down to 25' below surface, you'll have a hard time pumping water with a shallow well pump.
Find out where the level is, and we'll go from there.
Ron

 

1. You need to fill the pipe completey with water before a jet pump will pump.
2. 25' is about the limit of a shallow well pump. 30' is the absolute limit. If the water level drops below that when you start pumping this could be your problem.

 

The water, as measured via a tape measure from the top of 30' pipe, is at 24'. So there is 6' of water in the pipe above the Sandpoint. It could be that the water level drops further, not recovering when pumping starts, hitting the 25’-30’ limit.
I did not attempt to fill the 30' pipe completely with water manually, prior to attaching the hand pump or the jet pump. Sounds like I should have?
I have a union at the top of the 30' pipe, goes to a T with a plug on top, 90 degrease to a check valve, and 4" to the pump. I could pull the plug and fill the well side pipe if it would tell us anything…..

Thanks you guys.

 

I would put the hand pump back on, and prime it good (fill up entire pipe) and try to get some water going, so you can measure how much water is coming out.. If you cant get the hand pump to work, then you most likely wont be able to get your electric one going either.
6 feet of standing water is not a whole lot! A 3/4 hp pump may be to much for that well, what GPM is pump rated at?
My shallow well is 29 feet deep with about 18 feet of standing water, and I get almost 5 GPM with a 1/2 hp pump.

 

Thank You, I will give it a try this weekend.

If it still does not go with the primed pipe and the hand pump, I think I will pull the pipe up and move to a new location, about 100 ft away, which is about 15 ft lower, near a pond. Thanks again.

 

The 25' limit is from the top of the water column to the pump, not from the top of the water column to the ground. So if the pump if up hill you need to count that height as well.