Submersible Pump Plumbing

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Drop pipe (n) The plumbing (pipe or tubing) that carries the water up from the submersible pump to the surface

Rigid pipe vs. HDPE &#;black poly&#; pipe

Traditionally wells have been installed with rigid pipe. First it was galvanized steel pipe (heavy and difficult to install without a boom truck as each 20&#; length needs to be suspended and screwed together). Next rigid PVC replaced steel, being much lighter and partially flexible, but still needing to be screwed together in 20&#; lengths.

The down side of both kinds of rigid pipe is that most of the time, a well owner will need a well pump professional or someone with a boom truck to pull their well pump, leaving them beholden to a contractor to help them. The magic of poly pipe is that it can be installed easily by one or two people depending on the depth of well; it&#;s lighter, can be dropped by hand, and doesn&#;t corrode in your well. It gives the customer control over their well.

Pipe length, diameter, and pressure ratings

Most people set their pumps 20-30&#; below the water level. If you know your well is a good producer and won&#;t drop down at the pumping rate, then you can go even shallower. If you have a really slow recharge rate on your well, we recommend going the full 80&#;, which is the maximum allowable submersion depth for these pumps. For the water volumes of most of our kits, we recommend 3/4&#; pipe. As frictional losses increase with gallons per minute and distance, usually only so when 15 gpm or greater, so while some people prefer 1&#; pipe to 3/4&#;, it doesn&#;t really gain you much for our systems. If traveling 300 or more above ground, 1&#;+ is more ideal generally. Here is great link for Pressure drop due to Frictional loss calculations.

We do recommend at least 160 psi as it is more rigid-walled and doesn&#;t kink as you work with it. Over 160 psi is fine, too, it&#;s just heavier and needs to be heated up more with a heat gun when using barbs and hose clamps.

Frictional head loss over distance of poly pipe*

 

Diameter

Length

1/2&#;

3/4&#;

1&#;

1-1&#;4&#;

1-1&#;2&#;

100&#;

20&#;

5&#;

1.7&#;

0.5&#;

negligible

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Water Well UPVC Filter Pipe. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

500&#;

NR*

27&#;

8.5&#;

2.3&#;

1.1&#;

1,000&#;

NR*

54&#;

17&#;

4.6&#;

2.2&#;

The amount of total pump head (shown in feet) increases due to friction over long horizontal distances of poly pipe depending on the diameter of the pipe. Smaller diameter pipe adds more head to the system. *Calculated using an average flow of 5 GPM at 70°F
NR* = not recommended

 

Getting a tight seal with poly pipe on a barb coupling

To make the tightest connections possible between your barbed coupling and your length of poly pipe, it is best to apply even heat from a heat gun or a lighter (if you&#;re careful!) to warm up the poly pipe so it&#;s more malleable to fit snugly over the barb, and for the hose clamps to tighten more firmly around the barb.
Tip: use a socket set on the hose clamps instead of a flathead screwdriver for a tighter fit.

Do I need a check valve?

If you are doing a pressure system or pressure shutoff then the answer is always yes. The pump has no check valve and one is required to build pressure. If you have a really long run on the surface then adding one just above the pump is ideal. If just going into a storage tank at the well head, then often customers do not add one as it allows water to drain from the drop pipe and prevent freezing above ground. Freezing is another topic outlined on the site but general letting the water drain back is the most foolproof system without a check valve.

How deep should I place my pump?

This depends on the productivity of the well generally and on the water volume you want to pull each day. Lower producing wells usually drawdown more so lower pump set is ideal. If you have a high volume (GPM) rated well you can get away with only 20 feet below the surface. Your system comes with a low water shutoff to prevent the pump from running dry as well.

I briefly touched on this in my first post I think it was. Grundfos pioneered computer submersible 'demand' pumps in this country. They had two models, the SQ and the SQE. The SQE was a full computer pump that 'talked' to it's solid state controller. The system relied on a pressure transducer and small pressure tank. The pressure transducer would sense any level of demand and spool up the pump appropriately from barely working to full output. Obviously, that has tremendous implications for not only pump life, but electricity saved. If you're wondering, there was no pressure switch. You set the max pressure you wanted the system to have and the computer controller did the rest. I usually set them @60PSI.....that mostly emulates city water pressure, although you could go higher if your well allowed.

As an installer/dealer, the real world installations were mixed. The pumps/controls were made in Denmark. The pumps were sent over here supposedly set up for our 220 and 115 volt mains. Something was lost in translation, because I had some of the pumps just die and I had to replace. Grundfos replaced the pumps for free, but I gave my labor away to set up and re-pull/install. With a remote aimed at the control box you could find out how many times the pump cycled within a specific time period, the temp of the pump during use, the output of the pump and you could even change the output of the pump with the remote(like if you wanted to scale down the max output because the well stats had changed...less water).

Pretty amazing in the late 90's. So in the early 's, due to dishonest well drillers that I was working with, I left the business and did something else. But the hand writing was on the wall.....the cry for demand pumps was heard. But the pump companies did not want to do the R&R Grundfos did....sooooo they figured out that they could accomplish a similar goal with a very expensive pump controller working with a conventional pump. The controller therefore spools up the pump depending on the water demand. I've seen these in place and working properly. The controller's solid state gets hot and so a built-in fan and air space is needed. I can't tell you anymore than that because I was never an installer of these.

Back to Grundfos.....weirdly I was doing the plumbing on two different rural homes(I was a plumber before a well pump installer) and in both scenarios, the pumps didn't need to be set very deeply. So we bought the Eagle SCH80 threaded pipe and I called my old pump supply contacts in Spokane. I had them sell me both new Grundfos SQE's and their control units. I asked about the failure problems of yore. They said the electric motor parts were made here in the States now. I had some backing plates made and we set the pumps off pitless adapters I installed in the well cases. Everything is still going today....that was over 15yrs ago.

I'm pretty high on the Grundfos SQE's, but they are limited in size and won't do really deep well applications with high output....unless they have bigger pumps now.....don't remember. I've not personally installed any of the new solid state controller boxes as I mentioned above. The advantage there is that you just use a conventional submersible.

Well, you might say I'm behind the times because I left the business in the early 's.....but I still see new submersible, traditional pumps being put in all the time with sized pressure tanks. So computer pumps haven't taken the world by storm and either have the expensive solid state controller demand systems.

Kind of the KISS principle here;do you want the the very latest in demand pump systems or do you want traditional longevity?

Back to the Grundfos SQ......which is a computer run pump also, but does not have the same controller that the SQE does. I would put those in a well that had to cycle more often than normal.....usually a low volume well, and pumped water into a buried concrete system for reservoir storage. Once the concrete vault was filled, I had electronic sensors in the vault that cued the well SQ pump to turn on and shut off as needed to keep the vault filled. Because of the low volume well, those SQ's ran for very long periods of time. I never had an SQ fail, just the SQE's. Inside the vault, I usually had a SQE horizontally placed on a pitless adapter on the bottom to deliver pressure to the homestead through the regular computer controller. With that vault as their water reservoir, they could irrigate and do anything they wanted at full pressure and have a truly demand system as well. Pretty slick. Had to use a cooling sleeve though around the SQE.

Kevin

For more information, please visit HDPE Dredging Pipes for Philippines.