Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

[Monk]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

Hey, wanna know what's a fun thing to do with a well accumulator tank? Go out to the pumphouse in the middle of the night to search around for some tool or something you need, and tip over an old axle housing you had stored there, so that it falls onto the big 2" water pipe right where it comes out of the tank. And breaks off. That whole tank will unload in about twenty exhilarating seconds. Very funny, great story if you could hear the whole thing. : :D

Just got a visual

LMAO!

[Chassisman]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

Same here.... 400' well.....30K...God Bless Dry California.

30k?? :o :o :o

Wow, we went 320' tapped into two aquifers and paid $15 a foot for the drilling and casing. If I remember right when it was all said and done it ended up costing us about $8000.

YUP...it couldn't be drilled with a rotary due to the sandy soil....it had to be punched with a cable rig and the casing went in as they drilled.....very labor intensive.Not to mention STEEL casing....

[BangShiftChad]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

that sucks Ron.

We had a well when I lived in Northern California, but it just had a regular pressure tank. The one where it had the bladder inside and you adjusted your water pressure by how much air pressure was in the bladder. It worked great.

My grandpa and I replaced the pump one time when it went out. We pulled the pump out along with 300 ft of flexible plastic line, hand over hand together. Man it was a job. We made our own tools to grab the pip and pull. A ton of work, but we got it out, replaced the pump on the end, and fed it back down. Saved us tons of money by doing it ourselves. Plus, that was the kind of work I did growing up.

Kids are whiny f*%^ing bastards now, and don't want to do anything more than breath.

[Hemi Joel]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

The constant pressure system is relatively new. Instead of using a large pressure tank to store water under pressure, and a pressure switch to turn on the pump at 40 psi or so, and off at 60 psi or so, it uses a very small acumulator tank, and an electronically controlled variable speed pump. There is a flow sensor, and the pump runs at a speed sufficient to supply only the demand at any given moment. The benefit is that the pressure dosent vary up and down as a pump cycles on and off, and they also claim that the pump will last alot longer. The down side is that it costs alot more, and it is more complex so there is more stuff to fail.
It won't pay for itself in energy savings. It is a luxury, and it sounds like you are trying to conserve funds, so why waste $ on it?

Good luck! Joel

[BOOOGHAR]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

We use a pressure tank in the house up in Show Low and we haven't had any problems at all with it.

you have a house in Show Low ? I HATE YOU ! lol - btw I love that place in the summertime

[htrdharley]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

Hi Chassis man,
I am a General Contractor in North Carolina. We have done both systems (more conventional wells than C.V.) over the years. The constant volume is sometimes used in deeper wells (400' or more). The problem we have had with the CV systems is the computers that run them. I have had several failures, possibly due to lighting strike or some type of voltage surge.
When going to a deeper well, upgrade to a higher horsepower pump and you will have no problem.

They (CV well) are great when they are working, but when they quit it gets to be expensive...it is sort of like fuel injection vs. carburation. One is definitely easier to diagnose and fix than the other.

I hope this helps.

[Chassisman]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

Thanks all for your replies.... I think we're gonna go with the traditional set up. I'm not trying to save $$$....just trying to get something I can install and forget about it. My life is packed from before sun up to well after sun down and most of the time they blur together. So when I go home...I want that hot shower ready to roll.

Next up.....security system and cameras.......YAY.

[Chassisman]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

that sucks Ron.

We had a well when I lived in Northern California, but it just had a regular pressure tank. The one where it had the bladder inside and you adjusted your water pressure by how much air pressure was in the bladder. It worked great.

My grandpa and I replaced the pump one time when it went out. We pulled the pump out along with 300 ft of flexible plastic line, hand over hand together. Man it was a job. We made our own tools to grab the pip and pull. A ton of work, but we got it out, replaced the pump on the end, and fed it back down. Saved us tons of money by doing it ourselves. Plus, that was the kind of work I did growing up.

Kids are whiny f*%^ing bastards now, and don't want to do anything more than breath.

I've pulled the one up at our cabin by hand......lift like a mother f_______ then slide the shoe in their to keep it from rocketing back down as you unscrew the joint. Ours is only 175' up at the cabin. But did it twice in a weekend once.The 12yo man child helped me pull the old one at the new place...375'....and he never whined...he just kept telling me how old I was getting(we used a winch mounted on the bucket of my front end loader....LOL)
I grew up around well drilling my entire life. My grandfather was the only well driller allowed to drill in Yosemite Valley for 40 years. He also was responsible for developing deep well techniques in the 50's to supply water to the west side of the central valley. In 1954 National Geographic did an article on him. He used to witch wells with willow sticks.....and had a 98% accuracey rate on location and depth .....it was like watching a voodoo master.

[FoFittyFoSS]

Re: Water well...HELP !!!!!!!....I need experiences/opinions

If you put a pressure regulating valve between the tank and the house, and put the pressure switch between the tank and the regulating valve, you will have constant pressure using a fixed speed motor. 40psi regulating valve and a 40/60 pressure switch upstream of the regulating valve and you will always have 40psi at the house and anywhere from 40 - 60 psi on the tank. Just an example but you can set the pressures you prefer. A variable frequency motor will save energy but not necessarily money. You have to see how your power company charges you. If you are charged for "peak usage" then you are charged for the monthly peak over the entire run time of that motor from what I understand.