"Jeff Guay" wrote
Hi,
Our house has a 1/2 HP jet pump for water. According to the guy I
bought
the house from the well is only 21 feet deep and the water table is at
11
feet. He installed a two line jet system because he did not want to
worry
about a point plugging up.

A two line/deep well jet isn't going to change the type of construction
of the well. All wells are of two types. Most common nationally is a
rock bore. Casing into the bedrock and then a hole to the depth of the
well. Or, a fully cased and then screened well, usually only used into
gravel and sand and ither 'drilled' or called a well point type which is
usually not more than 2" dia pipe. The samllest submersible pumps are
about 2.5" but usually 3" dia. so other type pumps must be used for the
smaller than 4" ID wells.. Screening and/or point screeing does block
up. As 'veins' in a rock well do also.

Anyways he also installed an inground sprinkler system, which did not
work
for me. The heads barely popped up and the pump sounded awful,
chugging
really bad, even started sucking water from an upstairs toilet.
The pump and everything is in my basement. It appears he put the two
pump
lines down into a 6 or 4 inch casing. My question is can I replace
this
setup with a submersible pump? Or should I try putting in a larger
jet
pump(3/4 or 1 HP) I talked to a local well driller who was drilling
at a
new house next door, and he said he got tons of great water at 40
feet. I'm
sure he hit water sooner, he just went down to 40 to insure he'd have
enough.
Any suggestions would be great.
Jeff

You parbably have a bad pump since it sounds awful; they normally don't
make nosie other than a motor running. Well they can if they don't have
enough water to lift out of the well. Bigger is not better and you don't
size a pump by looking at the hp. You size a pump based on the gpm
needed, the TDH (total dynamic head), including the pressure you want to
run and THEN select the hp to do that job. All pumps have two parts, the
wet end and the motor. The wet end couldn't care less what hp the motor
is because they all work based on the RPM, of the motor.

The driller has to provide storage space for the water he 'finds'.... so
how do you see him going past water to simply increase the bill? Most
folks mistakenly believe a driller drills until he breaks through into a
stream or pool of water. No so in 99.999% of water wells. A water well
is nothing more than a hole in the ground that is meant to collect and
store water for future use. The drill intersects many water bearing
strata and when they total a certain amount of recovery (minimum of 3-5
gpm) and based on the storage capacity of the well, based on the water
needs of the building, they quit drilling.

Go here for some info on pumps

You may need a new pump, new j-body in the well, they have to be
'married' for the pump you have, and check on the depth of the foot
valve and see how deep the water level is falling when you use water.
Depending on that data, then you'd look at cleaning the well or a new
well. Especially for that price for that deep of a well!!

Yes you can run electric to and down the well and install a submersible
pump. And I'd suggest you do that rather than a new jet pump. You'd sue
the larger line for the electrical to the well and the 1" (smaller) line
for the water. Look up pump guys in your yellow pages if you aren't into
doing this yourself..

Gary
Quality Water Associates