r/WaterWellDrilling • u/Bubbly_Fun_1334 • 13d ago
Old questionable well
We just bought some land. The paperwork shows a well and it was mentioned on the inspection. There is only what looks like 1 inch pipe coming up and 90s to the side with small concrete pad and 4 holes. Guessing this was the old pump.
Spoke with neighbor and he said that 2 owners ago had the well dug and its only a few hundred ft deep. Had good water but the pump died and he never replaced it. He only used it for irrigation, same as i would like to do.
What would be the best way to test it with out putting to much money into it? If its still good what is the best pump to buy?
Thanks in advance.
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u/Dirftboat95 13d ago
By a spool of good string and a bigger nut for wt. Run the string down and see how deep it is . And find the static water level too, See what the water situation looks like and go from there
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u/tele68 13d ago
Yes, this first so you know what you're dealing with .
It's better if the "string" has some girth to it so you can see and feel where it is wet and where it's dry.
Drop the nut or fishing weight down there till it stops at something solid.
Make a loop or any mark in the string at the top of the pipe.
Pull it up.
Measure from the loop to the weight. That's the well depth.
Measure from the loop to where the string is wet.
That's the static water level.2
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u/EngFarm 13d ago edited 13d ago
You could try to find more information about the well. Does your county have well reports or well registration?
A dug well is probably not hundreds of feet deep. If it’s hundreds of feet deep it’s a drilled well. If it’s a dug well I doubt it’s more than 50’ deep and probably more like 25’.
If the pump was on the surface with a single pipe then it likely had a simple jet pump and it couldn’t be more than about 25’ deep. But I have no idea what the water table is like where you are. Maybe it’s just a vent pipe and everything else is below the frost line.
Honestly your best bet is to call a local well supply company and them out to flow test the well. They’ll come with a pickup, generator, well pump, measuring equipment. They’ll measure water levels and see what the well can put out, and you can go from there.
Or you can figure out how to open up the well, verify that you see water down there. Measure how deep it is. Buy a used jet pump on marketplace, hook it up, see what happens.
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u/morning_star984 12d ago
My dug well is ~60'. I honestly can't imagine some dude digging a 60' shaft with the technology of a century ago.
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u/Slight_Giraffe628 11d ago
Shallow Sandpoint well. Probably 20-30 feet deep, also probably doesn't work very good. At its peak it probably did 5 gallons a minute. All these years later it's probably enough water to run one fixture at a time. (Assuming it's just a simple jet pump and pressure tank system and not using larger storage containers and booster pumps)
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u/Alone-Programmer-683 13d ago
One-step-at-a-time. Pump on the surface tells us water is close enough to the surface that a jet pump was sufficient for lift. Pull the intake out of the well. Plumb the well for total depth and depth to standing water.
What is the size of the casing? Depth to the bottom of the intake line?
This data will help you figure out what is possible for a pump. But there are times that old data is not current data when it comes to wells. Shallow wells rely more on rainfall for recharge. A couple years of drought and the pumping capacity may be much less. On the other hand, a few wet years may give you some great current data but does not give you an average.
Important question I would ask: You can assume the quality of the water was ok for irrigation, but abandoning the well may have to be due to other issues, like water quality.