This will be a very long post so if I need to break this up into multiple posts I will be happy to.

I own a house built in 84 in the southeast on the gulf coast, and previous owner had either a well put in or did it himself. My backyard has a creek at the backside of it so close to water table. Pump never worked and neighbor "helped" me fix it by burning it up, as in literal smoke coming out of it. Original owner only had one sprinkler head running off of it. Here is what I discovered pulling everything out. Was using what appears to be a vertical Sta-Rite pump with pressure tank. The pump was mounted directly onto the PVC casing of the well. The casing of the well appears to be 2 inches. I am calling it a casing, but there was another pipe inside the 2" casing. This pipe is about 1.5 inches in diameter and approximately 25 feet in length made of multiple sections. It does NOT have what I think is referred to as a "well point" at the end. Instead the second to last section has this iron suction? piece in line with the next piece of PVC. I have never seen anything like it in watching every well video and reading every article I can find so not sure exactly how it worked. It is not a pump inside the well and there is not much to it. I will post pictures of all of this:


Strange iron piece almost at end of 25' pvc pipe inside casing. This piece was not at the end but the next to last section of PVC. The very end piece broke off of it removing it from casing

Here are several pictures of the pump. While the pump is on its side it was originally standing upright vertical on top of the well casing.



Here is the underside of the pump that was sitting on top of the casing. You can see the small pipe broken off inside.




Finally here are shots of the well along with the longer inner piece of PVC I pulled from the casing:




Now for my insanely long list of questions:

When I pulled up the inner pipe water came up, and if I look down into the casing I can see water. Regardless of what size/speed pump I replace it with, can I go with the well point option that I see so many people demonstrate? If no, then what are my options?

If yes, can I just run it down inside the existing casing?
If that is yes then what diameter of well point would I use?
Obviously it would be smaller diameter than casing so how would I seal or cap the top of the casing but still allow the inner pipe to extend out to pump. Assume they make a cap for this sort of arrangement?

I currently have a 6 zone sprinkler system. I am sorry but I don't know pressure requirements or flow rate or whatever I know you are going to need to know, but I can find out. It is currently running off of a city meter which has been a disaster financially. My irrigation leaked and the city charged me 2K for it. Obviously I would like to size a pump that could run the sprinkler as well as still run that one or two faucets in the back of the yard. What information would you need to recommend anything.

Finally, pressure tanks. These confuse the hell out of me. Everyone I know in Florida for their irrigation simply have a pump, still not clear if these are considered well or irrigation but they are typical ones you see at Lowes/Home Depot. Again no pressure tank. If my mom wants to use her hoses she has to turn on one of her sprinkler zones. If that is the only drawback then I am fine without having a pressure tank if that is possible.

Thank you for everyone's time and again sorry for the novel, but was hoping to give as much detail as possible.

 

No, I didn't read all that.

I don't see a foot valve anywhere. I'm hoping that isn't what broke off down in the well. The foot valve is a check valve at the bottom of the well string that traps the water in the vertical pipe & pump when the pump is not running and maintains the pump's prime.

 

You have a well casing that has a perforated pipe that allows water to enter and the supply pipe which goes inside the casing to suck water from the well. The pressure tank is nothing more than your own personal storage tank so when you open a valve the pressure doesn't instantly drop to zero.

As Dane mentioned you need a foot valve at the bottom of the suction pipe to prevent the pump from losing prime when it shuts off.

What you have is likely better than what you will get with a well point. I would start by pushing something down the well to see how deep it is and also to see where the water level is. Then you will know how much suction pipe with a foot valve you need to drop down the well.

 

It's not only what you want to run. It's what is the well capable of delivering without constantly running dry. Typically in a shallow well setup a 3/4 HP pump would be a good choice. Pressure tanks aren't always required in irrigation systems. A pressure tank is there to keep the motor from constantly starting and stopping. Ideally you want to match the pumps output to the sprinklers demand. If you want the system to stay charged for faucets.... then a tank is needed.

That may be a foot valve in your first picture. If you're in a sandy area..... the point will be purposely kept off the bottom so as not to pick up sand.

If you have any neighbors with a similar system.. see what they use.

 

Apparently the mystery piece in my first picture is some style of foot valve as I have seen others although they seem to be used in "deep wells". Here is one example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuRw-kNE0y4

The piece that broke off was nothing more than about another foot of plain PVC with a cap on the bottom. I don't know if this is keep the valve at a certain level in the water?

I ran a string with a weight on it and hit water at about only 8' depth, although the original suction pipe was almost 25 feet long. This concerns me in regards to using the Home Depot/Lowes cone shaped foot valve that everyone talks about. The original pipe seems like it was embedded in quite a bit of orange clay type mud. How far do I need to push this foot valve down and how would I tell. I assume there has to be some risk of the mud clogging up the perforations in the screen of the foot valve?

Also if I don't get a pump that sits directly on top of the casing and instead run the suction pipe out of the top of the well then I am going to need some type of well seal? Maybe like this:

https://www.completeplumbingsource.c...hoCqwgQAvD_BwE

 

When you run the pump it will suck down the water level in the well. Then it becomes an issue of how fast water can flow into the well. The deeper the suction intake the faster & more water you can draw without getting air. As for the mud in the well you may need to flush it out so you have a mostly clean hole before installing your new pickup pipe and foot valve.

 

You shouldn't need to "seal" the well, just a proper cover so the well can't get contaminated.

The end of the suction where the water is drawn in should not be able to suck in the mud. It should be suspended in the water column.

Perhaps you might need a well company come out to clean out the well?