# questions about good well rate GPM



## pcdreams (Sep 13, 2003)

Been talking to a well driller a bit and I'm trying to get an idea what a good rate of water in GPM is.

the surronding area wells run from about 40 ft down to about 400. avg rate is 3-4 gpm with some as high as 60.

3-4 Sounded kind of low to me but the driller says thats good for up to a family of 4.

Opinions?


----------



## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

3 to 4 GPM is adequate. You can compensate if you think you need more water by installing a larger storage tank. I serve 5 mobile homes off one well with 3+ GPM


----------



## sheeplady (Oct 31, 2003)

I would love 3-4 gallon minute!  We had a well put in last year. At 300 feet we were getting one gallon a minute. 100 feet later still getting one gpm. So we decided to just put in a 400 gallon storage tank in the cellar, put it on a timer to fill at night and be done with it. So far, no problems. plenty of water for us and our 40 sheep. So 3-4 GPM would seem to be adequate. You could also put a storage tank in your cellar, although could be less capacity than ours. Kate in NY


----------



## desdawg (Jul 18, 2004)

My well produces about 10 gpm and is considered to be real good. I have an underground storage tank set up with a float switch. When the tank gets down about 300 gallons the float turns on the deep well pump. When the tank is full the float turns the pump off. The tank actually holds about 2100 gallons so I have plenty of reserve. By only pumping 300 gallons at a time my deep well pump has much less wear and tear and should last much longer than if it were attempting to keep up with a constant demand. I then have a second pump & pressure tank to supply the house. The second pump uses water from the storage tank.


----------



## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

i know here in montana the drillers do not register a well producing less than 6 gpm.


----------



## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

I would think 3 to 4 gallons per minute would be adequate. My well had to have some sort of "reducer" put on it to cut the flow back as it was producing too much water per minute and I have a very small storage tank. The well company said that the reducer cut the flow back to 8 gallons per minute but I am not sure what the "reducer" thing is, only that they said if I didn't have it, my pressure would be too much for the household piping? My household piping is 2 inch PVC and the well digger said that the joints would stand the pressure if the flow rate wasn't reduced.

I like to have enough pressure that I can fill a five gallon bucket of water in less than 2 minutes, as I have a lot of buckets to fill twice a day for the horses in the barn.

Sidepasser


----------



## pcdreams (Sep 13, 2003)

that truly is good news then. I was worried as I know very little about wells.

do they make a dc or solar pump that would be capable of pumping down to that depth?

the driller estimated average well would run around $6k complete with pump. only thing is I'll guess that's an electric pump and there isn't electric within a 1/2 maybe more.


----------



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Yes, there are several different DC solar pumps avail. Depends on well depth and static level which one you will need.

Check with www.backwoodssolar.com


----------



## moonwolf (Sep 20, 2004)

At the time I had a well drilled , The professional well driller said 5GPM should be the minimum. Luckily we got more than, but it was a flow of hard and iron water. Also at the time the rate was about $45 per foot to drill before any pumps, or filters, or fittings were installed. That was about 12 years ago.

The head well driller guy told me a story about the job he was drilling for a rural school that required 5 GPM minimum flow. They were at 400 ft. and could only get about 3 GPM. They had to either keep drilling until they had 5 GPM, or start a new drill site.


----------



## Mudwoman (Dec 19, 2002)

Here in our area of Arkansas, the lowest acceptable rate is 20 gpm. Our well puts out 60 gpm.


----------



## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Though not solar, here is an inexpensive means of pumping water using a small gasoline engine and a air pump. http://www.quantumlynx.com/water/back/vol2no2/v22_st5.html


----------



## pcdreams (Sep 13, 2003)

Mudwoman said:


> Here in our area of Arkansas, the lowest acceptable rate is 20 gpm. Our well puts out 60 gpm.



this is about what my dad's well runs and I though that was about average as well. Guess every place is different.


----------



## Mudwoman (Dec 19, 2002)

Most all well pumps are 220 volt electric. If you don't have electric, then you are probably going to be limited to getting a windmill and a tank like in the old days. I don't know what the terrain is like where you are at. I know here in the Quachita National Forest area, the terrain and trees would make having a windmill rediculous for us as we hardly get enough wind on a consistant basis to make something like this possible------although we have discussed that we would love to have this sort of set up. Would take a really BIG windmill because the pump is down in the water and you have an encased rod that would go from the windmill to the pump to work the pump and pull up the water. A hand pump would not be strong enough for a well this deep. Better price a windmill before going further. Could be cheaper to run electricity!


----------



## SouthernThunder (Jun 3, 2004)

I have recently discovered that there aren't a whole lot of problems that a little TNT woun't solve. If you don't have a casing yet, run a full stick down that well and I bet you double your GPM. There is a slight risk of colapsing the well but a little more TNT should open it back up.  Oh yea, be careful.


----------

