Those of You with House Wells

[Ben]

Do any of you with house wells have a variable speed / constant pressure submersible?


I just recently drilled a new house well and my pump guys are pulling me in that direction with a 2HP Grundfos. Probably initially set around 300' (drilled to 400). They rave about them and say they've been going that way with a majority of new wells / pump replacements. Apparently they only need like a 4 gallon tank (I currently have a 200 gal tank). It's supposed to be like city water pressure with no pressure drops as the tank gets low, or hesitations when the pump kicks in.

I'm just curious if anyone here has one and what you think of it?

[Jim147]

I'm shallow well so not much I can tell you except there is plenty of water around here.

[Firethorn]

Do any of you with house wells have a variable speed / constant pressure submersible?

Sorry, constant speed shallow well jet for me.  My well isn't even wide enough in diameter to fit the 'foot' down it for deep well stuff.

My tank is like 30 gallons and gives me steady water.

[never_retreat]

Ya just would I would not want a vfd on a well pump.
Go standard pump and big tank.

Chance of that thing getting fried would be a pain in the ass.
Most vfd's are very sensitive to incoming frequency. So forget running it on a small generator.

[Ben]

Chance of that thing getting fried would be a pain in the ass.
Most vfd's are very sensitive to incoming frequency. So forget running it on a small generator.

That's a good point to consider. The current pump has no problems running off my generator.

[K Frame]

You have a 200 gallon pressure tank?

Do you have low well flow or something? Or is it an old one?

My Grandparents had a house built in the 1950s and they had an old style pressure tank. It was big, it only had an air cushion at the top with no separation bladder, so once a year or so I'd have to help Grandpa pump the tank to replace the air cushion to keep water pressure up in the house.

It was absolutely fantastic water.

[grampster]

Well is around 150 feet down.  We had a new pump installed last spring.  We have an older sizeable pressure tank.  I've had to bleed it and re-pressurize it once.  Probably need to replace that one of these days.  I think the KISS system works best with things like getting water from an on premises well.

[Ben]

You have a 200 gallon pressure tank?

Do you have low well flow or something? Or is it an old one?

My Grandparents had a house built in the 1950s and they had an old style pressure tank. It was big, it only had an air cushion at the top with no separation bladder, so once a year or so I'd have to help Grandpa pump the tank to replace the air cushion to keep water pressure up in the house.

It was absolutely fantastic water.

The old well is older, but got a new pump back around 2005. The big tank is more to keep the pump from turning on and off. As per the pump guys, it's better to reduce the times the pump has to switch on and off (especially at depth apparently because of well head) either by letting it run (as we do with the ag irrigation pumps, though they are surface turbines) or else have a tank capacity that reduces the number of times the pump has to kick in.

These constant pressure pumps are supposed to be soft start, so kicking in is supposedly not bad. I've never looked to see if there are soft start standard pumps.

[Nick1911]

Most vfd's are very sensitive to incoming frequency. So forget running it on a small generator.

I've found the opposite.  Most VFD's I've come across couldn't care less, as the first thing they do is throw the incoming power into a bridge rectifier anyway.

It's a bit of a myth - old school PSC and three phase motors care much more about line frequency then the vast majority of electronics.

[Kingcreek]

I have a 515' well with conventional pump at around 300'. Big pressure tank size I don't recall. I like that I can still get a fair amount of water if the power goes out.
If the well guys are good, they probably know what's what. I've got a good well guy and I know some I wouldn't let on the place.

[Ben]

I have a 515' well with conventional pump at around 300'. Big pressure tank size I don't recall. I like that I can still get a fair amount of water if the power goes out.
If the well guys are good, they probably know what's what. I've got a good well guy and I know some I wouldn't let on the place.

My guys are good. They've been servicing the domestic well for the life of the house (we use a different outfit for the big ag turbines).

So yeah, I generally trust that they're not going to sell me a pig in a poke. But your point is good. Around here, especially since the drought, fly by night drillers and pump guys have sprung up all over the place. A couple of years ago, in the middle of the drought, established drillers were quoting six month to one year waiting periods, so I'm sure a lot of the new guys got the, "I need it now!" business, and my well driller told me there were a LOT of bad wells drilled during that time.