"Roger Moss" wrote in message
...
"John" wrote in message
...
If the last section of galvanised pipe lasted twenty years whats wrong
with
some more of the same?

I like the thought of "permanence" (house has been there for a couple of
centuries, & apparently there was a pele tower there before that). I
don't
want to be wondering in years to come whether it's all rusted away!

Roger

I can appreciate your desire for permanence, but I presume you also want
cost effective! You could end up with a pump that's rusted away on the end
of a permanent pipe! Pumps (and wells) are engineering not architecture -
they expect tlc and regular maintenance.

Galvanised steel pipes are fairly normal for putting submersible pumps down
holes. I certainly wouldn't use copper. Putting a pump down on plastic pipe
is also fairly common, in a shallow well the mechanical strength of a
plastic pipe is likely to be acceptable, in deeper wells plastic may not be
strong enough to support the pump and its pipework. A problem with plastic
pipe is how to make up the joints - as you need to be able to extract the
pump for maintenance - but as your well is shallow handling a 4 metre length
of pipe is probably acceptable.

I can't see anything other than properly engineered flexible hose giving you
the long life you would require (think stretch, think connection
corrosion) - something like
http://www.flexiblepipelines.co.uk/w...llmaster.shtml
would do, but I have no idea what it will cost.

If your well is really only 4 metres deep you could use a surface mounted
suction pump, which would make a plastic rising main much easier to engineer
(although I somehow doubt it will last 100s of years).

Andy McKenzie