I have a shallow well pump, single stage that I use to irrigate my lawn. It is a 1 hp shallow well pump from Harbor Freight. The well is 27 ft deep with a 2 inch casing and a 2 inch X 5 ft well screen. The foot valve is at 20 ft and the stagnate water or water level is at 8 ft. I have used it for 3 years and never ran out of water. At the begin of 2011, I had to replace the pump. Prior to this year, I had a 3/4 HP Harbor Freight pump but it would not pump at the beginning of the year so I purchased a 1 HP pump. The 1 HP pump will run two sprinklers, one in the front yard and one in the backyard. The pressure is set at 38 lbs and the pump comes on around 25 lbs. I measured the volume of water pumping by holding a 5 gallon bucket under one of the facets and timed the amount pumped. It is producing a little less that 10 gallons a minute.

My next project is to get a fresh water pump from a rental store, place a ball valve on the outlet, then measure the amount of water produced before the well runs dry. By using the ball valve, I can turn the water outlet down if it pumps all the water out of the well. This should give me the GPM this well will produce.

I want to put a under ground sprinkler system. I am thinking I would need about 20 GPM. Not sure at what pressure I would need.

My question: I believe I can wash a 3 inch casing with a 10 ft well screen down around 55 ft. Then put a 1 hp submersible in the 3 inch casing.This should give me all the water I would need.

OR I could wash another well next to the one I have and hook them together, put a Wayne WLS 1.5 HP irriration sprinkler pump. This should give me 20 GPM. With this pump, would I need a bladder tank or some other pressure tank or will it run OK with just a sprinkler system. I'm leaning toward the Wayne irrigation pump since the cost would be less. What is your suggestion? How far apart should the other well be from the first well?

Thanks for your suggestion!!

 

I don't think you can get to 20GPM without a "well field." Have you seen the instruction manual from the company in Florida called Brady Products? http://www.campbellmfg.com/brady/doc...stallation.pdf

This is a very densely written manual. It takes a while to digest it all.

I think that most of your questions can be answered in there.

In there, it says not to expect much more than 1-2 GPM per foot of screen exposed to water. Something to think about.

 

You can break an underground irrigation system into zones just like any other irrigation system. With zones you can work with your current 10 gallon per minute well and pump.