First off I am new to this forum and its been a ton of help, so thanks.
I have an old well on my property that is not used anymore, my goal is to use it to supply the sprinkler system for my lawn. I removed all the old lines and pump, so everything is new.

I am good at plumbing but this is my first experience with any well.
The Well is a concrete circle about 3' diameter, the about a 1' hole at the bottom, I can see water at the bottom which is 14' to the water. the 1" pipe I put in the well is 28' long with a foot valve at the bottom (foot valve is 1.5"), it matches what I pulled out.

I bought the shown pump at HarborFreight (i know it might be garbage but this an experiment, so trying to keep the cost down to see if the idea works)

I hooked the pump up and turned it on (primed everything) clear water came out, for a few minutes then black water for about 10 mins, now I get clear water, its about the flow of a sink faucet 1/2 on (i need to measure the GPM)

I then put a check valve on the out put and hooked it to the sprinkler system. When I turn it on the pump will build pressure to 60 PSI then turn off, if I open the sprinkler valve one sprinkler will pop up and work for a few minutes then go back down. The pump turns back on and runs continuously, and the pressure on the pump gauge drops fast.

I checked the pressure in the tank- its at 30 psi

My question is this - Are my expectations out of line that this should work? Do I need a bigger tank? is the pump not big enough? Am I not getting enough water from the well to supply the sprinklers?

I was thinking I could get a few rain barrels, use the pump to fill them, then switch the pump from the well to the rain barrel.

Any help is appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forums.

A 1" supply line is probably too small.
Your pump is rated for 950GPH which equals 15GPM which is what you are demanding.
With a minimum lift your pump may be able to handle that but with 15' + the pump can't deliver max.

You don't need or want a check valve after the pump.
A check valve is only used to keep the line from the pump to the foot valve primed.
Your foot valve has a built in check valve.

You may have to run less or lower output heads at one time.
The pressure tank only keeps the pump from short cycling.... your pump should remain running on demand while the pressure drops. If the pressure drops to an unusable level.... the pump is too small.

 

Would the Rain Barrel I idea work, it would make the lift 0, I was going to try it with a few buckets as a test

 

They only hold 55 gallons. That won't go very far. It would be a lot of reconnecting work for not a lot of water.

 

At 15 gallons per minute the pump may be too fast for the well and, if let to run too long could start sucking air. There is no easy way to predict this.


Normally a household water system does not draw enough water long enough to overdraw the well, but irrigation systems can overdraw. If the pump is too fast and the application wants too much water then elaborate sensors and timers are needed to let the well "recover" and in the process the pump will do short cycles unavoidably.

 

I did some test yesterday and here is what I found:

Currently I am getting a flow of 1 gallon per minute - definitely not enough to run anything.
It took an hour to fill a 55 gallon tank, I don't think I am overwhelming the well, I could see the water level the entire time I filled the 55 gallon tank.

The pump shuts off at about 48 PSI, the pressure tank is at 28 PSI

Next test is to hook the pump to the 55 gallon tank, they are at the same level, so it should run the sprinkler system for about 3 minutes,

I think this will tell me if I have a pump problem or something else.

One thing I noticed but not sure if its an issue, the pump is a lot noisier than I thought it would, but I have nothing to compare it to.

 

The pumps height above the water in the well can have a impact on it's pumping ability. Pumps can push/pump water uphill very well and to great heights. But physics limit how high water can be sucked up. The absolute limit for any pump is about 33 feet. Even the most powerful pump on the planet can't suck water up any higher. If your water level started at 14' down, then the pump might be a few feet higher, and as you pump the water level in the well can drop slowing the pumping.

Also, any air leaks on the suction side (between pump and well) can dramatically hurt pumping performance. If air gets into the pump it can be noisy.

If you have a foot valve at the bottom of the well I would not use a check valve after the pump. It's unnecessary and reduces flow.