“What do you recommend when there is only a little water in a well?”

When there is very little difference between the static water level and the bottom of the well, it leaves an extremely small buffer of water to pump that would be quickly exhausted if the well has a low recovery rate. The recovery rate is the speed, measured in gallons per minute GPM) at which the well refills after/during pumping.

Knowing this it would be prudent to be certain about the water level and depth of the well because there is so little margin of error for this particular well.

Try asking the person who drilled your well what the depth of the well is along with the recovery rate. If the recovery rate is significantly higher than 3 GPM (the capacity of our smaller 100L pump) installing that model in your well would work even with that very small buffer.

If this doesn’t make sense, another option would be to drill the well deeper by at least another 30 more feet.

Speaking with the/a driller, or someone else who understands or knows your well, is critical when attempting to answer another question. Does the water table/static water level fluctuate significantly throughout the year? For example, if the static water level is down at 90 feet (with the well bottom at 105 feet) but during the summer the static water level drops to 100, there is nothing you can do without drilling the well deeper.

“I have a buried water tank. What do I do?”

“Instead of a well I have a 550 gallon (or larger) tank buried underground. Can I use your pump for this type of installation?”

Yes. You would be able to use our pump for this type of installation.

To make Simple Pump work with an underground tank, it needs to anchored to a typical round well casing of 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 inches in diameter. This way the pump head is attached to the cap and the cap is affixed to a casing.

The well casing must be vertical from top (ground level) to tank, terminating at the top of the tank or within it. The series of sucker rods within drop pipe connecting the top (pump head) to the bottom (pump cylinder) would extend into the tank, ending very near to the bottom of the tank with the pump cylinder. Essentially it is a ‘standard’ installation except you install a well casing in your tank which the Simple Pump attaches to.

“I have a 7″ casing diameter. What do I do?”

They exist, but a 7″ water well casing is very unusual. Here’s what you need to know to make sure the diameter is accurate.

The standard in the water well industry is to specify a pipe size using INSIDE DIAMETER (ID). So if you have a standard 7″ pipe, the inner diameter (ID, measured from the inside edges of the pipe, viewed in cross section) would be 7″. The outer diameter (OD, measured from outside edges of the pipe, in cross section) would be 7 5/8 (7.625) inches.

“What do I do if the pump-house ceiling is lower than a length of drop pipe.”

“The roof in my pump house is shorter than the 9 foot drop pipe lengths. Are the drop pipes flexible enough to bend that much?  ”

The drop pipes, which are schedule 120 PVC tubing that have very thick walls relative to the diameter of the tube, are not flexible enough to bend that much. You will need to buy half-length drop pipes OR cut a hole in your roof that can be repaired and re-sealed when you are done.

Another solution you might try is to cut a 3 or 4 ” hole in the roof directly over the well casing, then place a short length of 3 or 4″ pipe and pipe flashing through the roof similar to what plumbers do to vent your household plumbing. When you are installing the Simple Pump, you can feed the drop pipe down through the pipe from on top of the roof and into the well casing with the help of a friend. Once you are done you simply leave the pipe in place inside the flashing and cap the pipe for future use. Just make sure you secure the pipe in place so it doesn’t move or fall out.

“My well has a low recovery rate. Can I still use the Simple Pump?”

If your well recovery rate is too low, you could draw down the water and end up sucking air. Unfortunately pumping air for any length of time can void our five-year warranty. When pumping air, after the seals disintegrate (which happens quickly) the piston starts etching scratches into the precision-machined pump cylinder. This is not good at all.

When installing the Simple Pump in a low recovery rate well, but with a tall column of water, the best solution is to use more drop pipes to place the pump cylinder further than usual down below the water’s static water level/surface.

“I have very little water in my well and a low recovery rate.”

Let’s consider a possible example of a 1 gpm recovery rate, with only 5 feet of available water, and a 4″ casing size. At about 2/3 gallon per linear foot, the buffer is around 3.33 gallons.

Even our lower-capacity 100L will quickly exhaust this buffer. Pumping at capacity, you will exhaust the available buffer in just over a minute. For such a marginal well, the only real option is to deepen the well.