Am I running our well dry or other issues?

[ocanuck]

New to living on a "small well"... it's 300ft deep with 1.5-2.5 gpm refresh and is considered a good well for the area.

We've been using a fair bit of water to try and get a lawn going and twice now I thought we've run out water...

I flip the breaker for the well pump and we instantly had water back.

What gives? Does our pump have issues? Does it hit an air bubble and turns off?

 

[Richard Cranium]

You pump the well dry and when you shut down the pump the well recovers some water.
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 gal per min. is not a lot of water.

 

[larry_g]

Think of your well as a hole in the ground that holds a volume of water. That volume can be pumped out fairly quickly running the reservoir dry. The reservoir refills from water moving through the ground at the rate of 2.5 gallons per minute. So you pump till the reservoir is dry and the pump shuts off, you hope*. While the pump is off the reservoir refills enough to allow you turn the pump on again and have water.

* to shut the pump down you need to have a low pressure cutoff on the pressure switch. If you don't have this the pump can run dry and burn up.

Rereading the post you say you flip the breaker, are you blowing the electrical breaker or resetting the pressure switch? If your blowing the electrical breaker then you probably not running out of water.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[djbmw]

Its also possible that your pump is undersized for your needs. You have a pressure tank with a pressure switch on it thats supposed to maintain water pressure. If the pressure drops below a certain level in the pressure tank, it kicks on the pump - just like an air compressor. However.... If the pressure drops too low, the switch has a safety that simply shuts it off completely until you manually cycle it to get the pressure back up.

This can be from lack of water in the well OR consuming more water volume than your setup is intended for.

 

[Norcal]

My pump has a Franklin motor, they offer a optional accessory Pumptec® that shuts down the pump for period of time (field adjustable) when it detects a no water condition, had it on my well but it did fail so it was removed & never got around to replacing it. If pumping more water then the well is capable of replenishing, that accessory would be a good idea.

 

[walrus]

Be careful, running out of water will ruin your pump and 300 ft of pipe is no fun to pull out of there

 

[Ironhorse74]

What Walrus said.

You really need a cistern if you want to try and water the grass like that. Well issues can be miserable to live with and new wells are very expensive.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

The OP may want to look in to a rain water storage system to pump from for lawn watering.

 

[ocanuck]

Thanks everyone. We're going to watch levels much more closely now.

Shouldn't need todo much more watering now anyway if the fall rains would ever show up. The lawn is actually white clover and fall rye, so will be fairly drought tolerant.

For a rain water collection system, how many gallons of storage would be required for a ~1000sqft garden with our usual Vancouver Island weather? It rains steady mid-October through mid-May and then pure sun June through September with highs around 75.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

.....................http://www.todayshomeowner.com/calculating-lawn-irrigation-costs/

 

[kbs2244]

It sounds like the rainy season is coming soon.
Tough it out.

 

[djbmw]

For a rain water collection system, how many gallons of storage would be required for a ~1000sqft garden with our usual Vancouver Island weather?

We're in Ottawa and decided to go with three 60 gallon barrels (180 gal; 681 L). Even with all that water, it's pretty easy to run them dry if it hasn't rained in a while! We have a 500 sq/ft garden by the way,.. so I would strongly suggest 6+ barrels.

The three we have can be filled within 15 minutes in a moderate rainfall,.. and we can drain them completely if we open up the tap for 30-40 minutes.

 

[toyotadriver]

Your well is very low flow. My well is 425 ft deep and it's rated to flow above 40 gallons per min.

 

[Falcon67]

My neighbor has one like that. I think he uses a timer on it when watering. Our well is only 100' away and i can run 6 big rotator heads for hours. Weird how that works.

 

[930dreamer]

Make sure the toilets don't run or they will drain the well also.

 

[Jess]

Thanks everyone. We're going to watch levels much more closely now.

Shouldn't need todo much more watering now anyway if the fall rains would ever show up. The lawn is actually white clover and fall rye, so will be fairly drought tolerant.

For a rain water collection system, how many gallons of storage would be required for a ~1000sqft garden with our usual Vancouver Island weather? It rains steady mid-October through mid-May and then pure sun June through September with highs around 75.

Here's a good guide book for rainwater collection. Lots of info and calculations for capacity planning. Most of the smaller islands have gone to rainwater as wells can't be depended on for heavy use.
http://www.rdn.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=3098

 

[thammel]

When you have a well you typically don't water the lawn. We will occasionally water our 25' x 25' veggie garden. This is a rarity. Ours is 200' deep and we have about an 8-10 gpm fill rate. When we looked at houses this was one consideration. I didn't want a 2 gpm well. This is considered the minimum fill rate here.

Tom

 

[M-technik-3]

I like that rain collection arrangement, we have one at each of our downspouts, but alas here in the NE we are in a pretty bad drought but not nearly as bad as California or OK/Texas region.

Odd as last year was very wet, cycles...

 

[PWC Repair]

The well water all depends upon the area. I happen to live on a plentiful underground aquafer. I can pump about 9 gallons per minute all day long. The last time I had an issue with my 98 ft deep well I had 96 ft of water in it. One time during a very wet spring the water came out of the top of the well casing and flooded my pump house. With yours I would definately save rainwater for the vegetation watering duties.

 

[chris142]

You pump the well dry and when you shut down the pump the well recovers some water.
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 gal per min. is not a lot of water.

I agree. That's a terrible amount! I'm down to 18ft or less and I can still pump 9gpm and I'm in the desert

 

[larry_g]

When you have a well you typically don't water the lawn.
Tom

That is a very area dependent statement. I water 2 acres all summer with an 80gpm well. We have farmers locally that water hundreds of acres from wells. It's all about the location.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[jives]

We can easily run our well dry if we leave things on, like the hose. Particularly true this summer in CNY where we have been under drought conditions. We have periodically experienced the problems you have, and given the low gpm flow of your well, it is likely the pump protector sensing low/no water. You don't really want that cycling on and off.

So. . .stop watering the lawn. Rain barrels etc., are a better option. We have a 275 gal tote we use to collect rainwater.

 

[Jess]

An important consideration when deciding to run garden watering from a well, is the capacity available. Many farm irrigation systems are pumped from wells but they have the capacity to sustain that heavy withdrawal. The OP didn't mention the static level of the well and may not have that information, but its important to know when you have a very low recovery rate.

My well is 100' with static down at 70', meaning I can draw almost 30' of water out of a 6" bore. Our recovery is very low at under 2 gals and hour, so no lawn and garden watering or long showers from the well. Instead, we installed 4 2500gal cisterns and fill them from the shed roof. These supply all non domestic needs including fire protection and with some care, have not been empty yet. This is in the same general area as the OP is located with season rains but little in the summer.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

If I could keep the barrels hidden somehow, these are great tanks to have for rainwater collection and use. Four or five tanks should do it, plus a pump.

http://www.lexingtoncontainercompany.com/275-Gallon-IBC-Totes.html

 

[WhiffySpark]

When you have a well you typically don't water the lawn. We will occasionally water our 25' x 25' veggie garden. This is a rarity. Ours is 200' deep and we have about an 8-10 gpm fill rate. When we looked at houses this was one consideration. I didn't want a 2 gpm well. This is considered the minimum fill rate here.

Tom

It's done all the time. Your supposed to water your lawn early morning anyway. All my sites start around 4 and generally finish by 6.

Worst case, I've given quotes to install wells just for irrigation

 

[Falcon67]

When you have a well you typically don't water the lawn.

That is all these wells are good for here. They could be used for house water with processing, but nobody in town does that. The football, baseball, practice fields, etc at the schools also use only ground water. The ground water is very high in nitrates so we don't drink it or give it to the dogs. It's for the yard and topping off the pool because the pH is right at 7.5.

If we had to use house water for the yard, the yard would be dead. City Water/sewer/trash - 3000~4000 gallons a month, just two of us, normal house use only - $104/month. I don't even wash the cars anymore, except the F350 dually and that one only because it would cost $65 to have it done.

 

[WhiffySpark]

We can easily run our well dry if we leave things on, like the hose. Particularly true this summer in CNY where we have been under drought conditions. We have periodically experienced the problems you have, and given the low gpm flow of your well, it is likely the pump protector sensing low/no water. You don't really want that cycling on and off.

So. . .stop watering the lawn. Rain barrels etc., are a better option. We have a 275 gal tote we use to collect rainwater.

We had a well drilled this summer. We have to leave the hose on for 3 days straight I think