Once upon a time, there was an incongruous little building. It lived alone in the desert and didn’t seem to do much. Lately, it was doing even less than usual.
In the building there was a pipe. In the pipe, there was a lot of stuff. The stuff didn’t work.
There’s your problem right there.
Actually no, the pump still works just fine. THERE’S your problem.
Having cleaned up the pump inlet and cut away the crimped pipe, stick the pump in a bucket of water and see if it works.
It’s a rather long pipe…
Back down the hole. About 150 feet, very carefully.
Wire it back up, and hope for better results. Since the flow rate is so low even when everything’s working fine, definite report of results won’t be in until tomorrow. At best.
Thanks for the look at your system, Joel. That’s the part in your book I’ll be most interested in.
If you check around local electric companies they’ll often just give you a wooden spool or two that might help you keep track of all that wire and tubing in a way that would help preserve it better.
If you don’t mind – what gauge wire are you using – and do you guys have any idea how deep that system could draw to? (beyond the 150′ you mention)
I believe it’s 10-gauge, or at least twelve.
The well is a little over 250′ deep, and as I recall the pump will draw to 200′. Artesian pressure keeps the water level at about 120′, and judging from the goo we found on the pipe, cable and rope that’s pretty stable. So the pump is normally submerged about 30′.
FWIW, the pump is a Sunpumps SDS model D unit, and runs off a 200W solar panel.
Thanks for the info – the both of you. I’m more familiar with the more expensive, but stouter, conventional deep well. I like the trade-offs involved in your system as far as not having to take the roof off your shed and being able to hand-pull the works. (though that propelyne cord would probably make me nervous!) I couldn’t help but think that a Pex like hose would perform a lot better – but it would probably cost 3 times as much.
My static level is around 350′ – and the pump is around 420′. Probably not so easy to hand-pull! Not having a hill to drop the water from – we use a jet pump for pressure and tanks to take some of the on-off again load off the well pump. I’m not seeing why solar couldn’t be used for the lift to the tanks. I’ll have to look into that again.
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