On Jun 19, 9:35 am, dpb wrote:
Ook wrote:
On Jun 18, 10:57 am, dpb wrote:
Ook wrote:
I believe I have the intake for my well too close to the bottom. I
raised it, but apparently not far enough. It use to run nice and
quiet, but when I opened the outlet wide open, it seems to have sucked
up some sand. I can hear it going tink, tink, tink, as the pump runs.
It's not a lot, just enough that I can hear it.
How bad is this? My old pump always made that sound, and I didn't
realize it was sand until I took it apart and found the sand in it.
Can I run a bit and clean it when I get around to it? Or should I stop
and flush the sand out *now*? I have a screen on my foot valve, so
nothing bigger can get in, but it won't stop sand.
Lastly, are there any inline screens available? The foot valve has a
screen that has a small area, but it's a flat metal screen that won't
stop sand. I'd like to have a bigger and better screen that will
actually stop sand without restricting water flow. I can put it inline
somewhere so that I can service it as necessary. Any recommendations?
Can't imagine sand going "tink"...

There are sand filters for the purpose that go on the inlet but ideally
you can get to a water level that doesn't have sand. Of course,
over-pumping a well's capacity can lift sand/silt, too, where a slower
pumping rate will not.

Much sand will, as another said, certainly shorten a pump's life (by
impeller wear, mostly).

--

Maybe it's rocks - but the screen on the foot valve limits the size of
rocks that can get through to about 1/8 inch or so. I'd like to
replace it with a bigger and finer screen so not even rocks that small
can get through. I'll pull the drain plug tonight and see what comes
out. Could it be cavitating? Would that make a tink tink tink sound
like a small rock(s) going through the pump?

No, cavitation doesn't "tink". If it's intermittent I guess you could
pick up some small gravel pieces, but if the inlet is so close to solid
as that it's definitely too close.

--

I'm going to pull the intake up a few feet and see how it works. When
I bought the house, the previous owner had installed a 1 1/4 pipe with
no screen at all. The pump had a lot of sand and small rocks inside of
it because of this. There is a fine line between having the inlet too
close to the bottom, and having it so high the well runs dry in the
summer.

Is there any feasable way to extend the depth of a well by a couple of
feet? The original well pipe is 20 feet long, but it was replaced many
years ago, and today the bottom of the well is at 17 feet. I'm
guessing there is 3 feet or more of mud, sand, and gunk at the bottom
of the well - is there any way to pump this out? I tried it once, but
all I did was suck up a ton of sand and rocks into the pump, and
ruined the impeller. doh.