Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Pumping well water vertical then horizontal

The property I own has a 100' well recorded in the TX State records, it was built with 6" casing around the 40's. I'm in the process of determining if it's a viable source of water for maintaining water levels in my pond. (June thru September) There are variables here since I don't know the well production numbers at this time, but here goes.

"If" I have the pump set at 90', and it that can produce 20-30 GPM, what kind of drag would it produce pushing water from the well another 500' horizontally to the pond? (i.e. approx 100' vertical & 500' horizontal?) Can a 115V pump push this, or would I need 230V?

I know this is vague, but is typical submersible pump with 1 to 1 1/2" drop pipe typical for this application?

I am pretty certain that you cannot get 20-30 gpm delivered from 90' with a 115vac pump. I have 2 wells with the pumps set at 80-90'; both use the largest size 115vac pump I can find (1/2 hp, IIRC) and have 1" pipe. They deliver 10-11 gpm at the top of the vertical rise. Output should increase very slightly if I had 1.5" pipe, but no where near another 10-20 gpm. Therefore I think you will need to go to 230vac pumps, probably at least 1 hp.

I think Cecil's trout pond pump delivers about 30 gpm, although I think his well is not quite as deep as yours will be. But he should have pump & pipe sizing closer to what you will need.

FWIW the delivery decrease from a 500' horizontal run will be quite severe IF you are sending it through too small a pipe as well. My 11 gpm drops to 2-3 gpm when run through 500-500' of garden hose (which is very restrictive wrt the 1" riser pipe. So I suspect your horizontal run should be through pipe just as big as your well pipe is (and I bet it will have to be in the 2" - 3" range).

Disclaimer: This was all shadetree, seat-of-the-pants thinking, and a good hydrodynamicist will likely prove it to be good only for fertilizer.

Also, remember that 19 GPM will only add 1" of water to an acre pond running 24/7, if you don't have any evaporation. In reality, pumping that amount of water will probably break about even with evaporation.

Thanks guys, I'm running out there this weekend to get some measurements as to the depth and where the water line is inside the well, I will probably have more iffy questions when I get back. Down the road I will most likely try this, I would like to offset some of the evaporation during the summertime.

The static water line in your well is almost certainly higher than your pumping water line will be. Be sure to take this into consideration.

Theo's flow numbers look pretty close to me. Submersible water pumps are made to run on 230 volts. Most manufacturers carry a 1/2 hp pump that runs on 110. However, you can't get the flows you want with only a 1/2 hp pump. I suspect some specialty pump manufacturer does make a larger pump that runs on 110. It will probably be very expensive.

In my opinion (don't know much about electricity), it would be much cheaper to have an electrician run 230v off your panel. Buy a cheaper standard submersible pump that is sized correctly, and make up the cost of the electrician in enery savings alone in one year.

The 500 foot section of horizontal pipe is almost no pressure drop if sized large enough for your flow rate. Bigger pipe is pretty cheap if you are not restricted by some other factor.

Eastland,will your well produce that much water?Im just east of Corsicana,my well is 100 ft deep and only produces 4-5 gpm.

Hey Tom, my well only produces 1/2 gpm. I have a 2,500 gallon holding tank.

Shoot, DD, with modest usage it only takes 4 days to fill that tank!