Well questions - drop pipe / deep well hand pump

Hello all - we have a 90' deep well, with static water depth ~45'. We're starting to look into possible options for installing a hand pump that can bring the water up without electricity in the event of a prolonged power outage. (A couple possible options include Bison deep well hand pumps and EPP Well Water Hand Pumps.) The outside casing is 5" PVC, and there's a 1" pipe in the center of that 5" PVC, that I'm assuming is the drop pipe that I see referenced on the well details sheet (screenshot attached). That drop pipe itself isn't too large diameter-wise, but there's a larger something around 8-ish feet down that, as best as I can tell from up top, is where the water is pumped horizontally into the basement of our house. That larger something appears to be occupying most of the 5" diameter of the PVC pipe - when I was testing the static water depth a few weeks ago with an object-tied-to-a-long-string method, the amount of clearance between that larger "something" and the side wall of the 5" PVC seemed to be less than one inch. That has me thinking that trying to setup a hand pump within that limited clearance probably isn't feasible. So I'm wondering if anyone knows if the drop pipe can serve double duty - meaning have it continue functioning as it does now with the electric pump when we have electricity, but also allow us to setup a hand pump that could bring the water up when there is no electricity, but without damaging the electric pump? And if that's not possible, any educated guesses about what that larger something might be 8-ish feet down, and whether it could be replaced with something smaller to provide greater clearance down to the static water depth?

 

Since there is no visible water pipe..... that device in your way is called a pitless adapter.
It is the water connection between the pump and the house.
One half of the adapter is installed thru the casing.
The pump and its connecting (drop) pipe are hanging on the other half of the adapter.
This is done to keep the pipe from freezing and to make the pump serviceable.


Not much you can do there.
You could possibly tap into the service line to the house but it would require a valve that would need to remain closed when the pump was running to keep the hydrant from being over pressurized. Any pipes connected would need to be installed to be kept from freezing.

 

Thank you, Pjmax!! Is there some other type of well pump connection design that would still allow the pump to be serviceable, but also increase the clearance space within the outer well pipe casing?

 

I know of no other type fitting. After all, you've got a pretty unique request, so not a lot of sales volume to support a commercial product. Plus, the fitting you'd need to replace is well below ground so it would be a pretty major job to replace.

Working on a backup supply of power might be the next step to insure you have water during a power outage. Considering what you might spend (money & labor) on modifying your well a generator is not a big step.