Drilling your own well

The place to discuss irrigation systems, sprinkers and watering
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andy10917
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by andy10917 » July 15th, 2014, 6:44 pm

I can see the lawn via my high def IP camera system. Yes I actually verified how long it rained the other day and zoomed in on a few trouble spots with it lol.
Dude, you're in ST6 now - we could have changed the orbit of BL/ATY SoilSat to keep an eye on the lawn.

BTW, SoilSat says No-Go on the water well. There is too much oil that you'll have to drill through. Sorry!!

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » July 22nd, 2014, 9:54 pm

:lol:

Well, I'm going a different direction after running the real numbers on what it would cost to irrigate with city water, and how much it would cost to have a proper well and bladder tank setup + the extra electrical service I'll probably need to have installed in my shed to run it.

I picked up an inexpensive pump and am planning on turning my little water well project into a garden hose setup for the back yard kids' gardens and hand watering. Still a win!

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gtnike
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by gtnike » July 22nd, 2014, 10:42 pm

Where I grew up, we had well water. I remember the water tasted very good, but the water pressure was terrible. That makes me wonder if anyone here currently irrigates with well water?

FWIW, after they ran city water lines on our street my family got city water. They used the well for outside water until the pump failed. MY dad was not much into running the sprinkler, although he does now!

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » July 22nd, 2014, 11:05 pm

The challenge with a well is constant pressure given the volume of water you're putting down - in my case 20 gals / minute.

You'll burn a pump out really quickly if you're cycling it on every minute, meanwhile your watering is uneven because of the changing pressure as the bladder deflates.

I'd need to buy like a 100 gallon bladder and very strong pump to keep it going as smoothly as possible, which will require upgraded electrical service to my shed for all that.

So I'll just put in a $100 pump that will put out enough for a garden hose that can run a sprinkler.

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » July 24th, 2014, 9:37 pm

Dropped the well pipe with slotted well point tonight. The well point is sitting at 12 1/2 ' below grade. Filled in with larger, course sand, and then a little bit of tiny pea gravel. We'll test output next.


eric0919
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by eric0919 » February 15th, 2019, 4:01 pm

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:
July 24th, 2014, 9:37 pm
Dropped the well pipe with slotted well point tonight. The well point is sitting at 12 1/2 ' below grade. Filled in with larger, course sand, and then a little bit of tiny pea gravel. We'll test output next.
I know this is real old, but did you ever get output? How much? I'm moving to the Westfield, IN area in March and am considering trying this.

I've been using a shallow well jet pump to draw from a retention pond for years, but at the new place I am going to be a little to far away.

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Drilling your own well

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » February 16th, 2019, 5:12 pm

eric0919 wrote:
February 15th, 2019, 4:01 pm
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:
July 24th, 2014, 9:37 pm
Dropped the well pipe with slotted well point tonight. The well point is sitting at 12 1/2 ' below grade. Filled in with larger, course sand, and then a little bit of tiny pea gravel. We'll test output next.
I know this is real old, but did you ever get output? How much? I'm moving to the Westfield, IN area in March and am considering trying this.

I've been using a shallow well jet pump to draw from a retention pond for years, but at the new place I am going to be a little to far away.
We moved before I put a pump on it, but my sense is that it was not going to produce enough to run my irrigation system. I was planning to use it as a garden pump the kids could use.

Fun experiment for me though.

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