Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Digging a water well for my pond

Would someone give me some suggestions on this!!!!

Yes! Hire a professional well driller. Get several estimates and go with who you feel is the most knowledgable and feel confortable with. Similar to picking a pond excavator. Your yellow pages should have several.

One advantage to a local well driller is they know what the water potential of your area is and any peculurartities. I wouldn't even consider putting one in myself. Not worth it.

Tony,

Just in case there is a misunderstanding of what I said, when I said I would not consider putting one in myself I was referring to doing the actual drilling vs. hiring a well driller.

I have a well I use 24/7 for trout culture in the summer. It's 88 feet and the total cost including the submersible well pump was about $2000.00. I had a quote for $4000.00 initially, but that well drill would never show up.

Around here, Well Drillers charge by the foot, usually with one price for cased (with a steel, welded-together pipe casing driven around the hole - necessary for going through dirt, sand, and softer rock) and another for uncased (OK after they get down to hard rock and still haven't found a good vein of water yet). One of the larger local outfits is infamous for overcharging by lying about the depth of the well. I have several neighbors in the subdivision next door who were all charged for about 300 feet of cased hole and 300 feet of wire and pipe going down to their pump, but who only had about 150 feet of pipe and wire to be pulled out when they had work done on their wells due to problems later on (I kinda figure the holes are only 150 feet, too). The same infamous outfit did all their wells. So it might pay you to check with older customers who could maybe verify the accuracy at which different Drillers measure depth.

Here in North Alabama it is 15.00 per foot and that includes a 20 casing for the top section until the limestone is reached.

Bob

Thanks everyone, I got the well drilled for $10.00 a foot. It is 112 feet deep with about 35 gals a min. I would like to thank everyone for the suggestions. My cost for the well was $3,100. I hope this helps my problem with the water level.

Hey Tony if they charged 10.00 a ft and it is 112 ft deep should have been 1120.00 where did the other 2 grand go?

The 3,100 included the casion, wire, 1-hp.pump,presure tank.

I drilled a 75 foot well with lots of water and a 3 hp pump at 60 gallons per minute. Total cost was $4200 which included coring for my pond which I would estimate at $500. We pumped over 2 million gallons of water almost with out stopping, we also checked with a 5 gallon bucket timing how long it took to fill--the well held up good.

i have a well already dugg near a half acre pond, but i don't know how old the pump is. i would like to leave it running but i was afraid it would burn up the pump. are there pumps out there that will shut off if the water stops; therefore, letting me run water as much as i would like.

Actually with a high quality pump running it 24/7 is easier on it than having it switch on a off. Additionally if you are just pumping it into the pond I would forgo the pressure tank as it is not needed.

Cecil, I interpreted GUNNER to be worried about having the pump running when the water level in the well dropped too low. I think you are correct that running a good pump 24/7 is allright IF the well provides sufficient water to keep the pump submerged 24/7 (repeated starting & stopping with the associated surges being hard on motors).

I have lost one submerged pump that ran way too much while "dry" due to a faulty pressure switch. I also had an above ground pump on a shallow well (13 feet) that somehow miraculously ran dry for 10-12 hours after horse boarders left a hose running (the heat from the pump running had the temperature in the pumphouse up over 100 degrees; it was simply amazing that the pump still worked and the barn didn't burn down).

I have tried to eliminate the possibility of that happening again by going to a deep well and a submerged pump at the barn. I am not aware of a way to have the pump shut off if the water level drops too far, but suspect something ought to be available out there.

Theo,

How about a simple pressure switch on the outflow pipe? When the water pressure drops, the pump shuts off to prevent it burning up. If you knew how long it took to recover the water level you could add a timer to turn it back on when enough water was available.

Dan

You may be on the right track, Dan.

Your post made me recall that there are pressure switches that, in addition to the "turn-on" pressure (say 30psi) and "turn-off" pressure (say 50psi) setting, have a "no pressure safety" setting. When the pressure drops to (near) zero, it shuts off and will not turn on until MANUALLY reset. This is what I will install if I get idiot boarders leaving hoses running again (I have one laying around that my brother-in-law used to pay back a late night pressure switch loan).
It might be useful in GUNNER's situtation.