Whether you use your well water for domestic purposes or just for livestock or irrigation, having a reliable well water pump will be pretty essential to you, rather than having to man-haul or manually pump the water to the surface every time you need some. You’ll find hundred’s of models to choose from in your local DIY store, be it on the High Street or an online DIY store.

As you’ll be wanting reliability and durability in the well water pump, as much as finding a bargain one, then you’re recommended to choose one from one of the leading manufacturers that produce efficient and dependable well water pumps.

Water Pumps for Shallow Wells

A shallow well is roughly one that goes down to a maximum of 25 feet and the commonest pump used for these is a jet pump. Jet pumps can be located in any nearby building, whether part of the home or not. The advantage of having the pump installed in your existing buildings, especially inside your home, is that you don’t need to run an exterior power line to an outer building.

The jet pump works on a simple suction principle using atmospheric pressure. It’s rather like using a drinking straw, you suck fluid into the straw, it creates a vacuum above the fluid in the straw, thereafter the air pressing down on the surface of the liquid you’re drinking from forces more liquid up the straw to try and fill the vacuum.

So, the height to which a jet pump will lift the water out of the well is related to the air pressure pushing down on the water in the well; hence in principle they can be used on wells up to 25 foot deep.

Jet pump action is fairly straightforward, an electric motor drives an impeller, which is a centrifugal pump that moves the drive water, water already in the system to prime it, to pull water from the well through a jet nozzle; this causes the water-flow to speed up, as it leaves the jet nozzle a partial vacuum is created sucking more water out of the well and into the domestic water system.

Deeper Well Water Pumps

It is possible to use jet pumps in wells deeper that 25 foot by separating the jet from the motor and impeller and placing it actually in the well water. However, whilst this technique can be used on wells up to 100 foot deep actually moving the pump itself into the well is really recommended for anything deeper than 25 foot. This means the pump is then pushing the water out rather than lifting or pulling it and obviously requires a submersible pump.

Submersible pumps are typically long cylinders so there’s no problem of it fitting inside the well casing. The bottom of the cylinder is the sealed pump motor that sits in the water and needs to be connected to a mains supply by a qualified electrician. The pump itself will be a series of impellers, each separated by a diffuser that pushes the water up the piping to the domestic water system.

Being a submerged pump, maintaining a deep well pump requires more time and attention than a surface pump. Although a suitably experienced DIY/home enthusiast can install and maintain a deep well submerged water pump, it might be better to get an expert in.

Working deep down a well hole, even to just place or remove a pump might not be to everyone’s tastes - and you should always remember to approach every job with caution and safety in mind. Having said that, submerged well water pumps will usually work quite happily with a minimum of fuss for 20 years or more.

Photo by owensoft, Creative Commons Attribution License