I have been giving a lot of thought to having a reliable source of potable water if faced with an extended power outage. I live rural and have a drilled well with a submersible pump. I had been exploring the various deep well hand pumps, like the Bison. They seem to be good units, although they are quite costly. Yesterday I pulled the cap off the well to get a measurement of how high the static water level was. I was shocked to find it only 11 feet down! I ran the water for 3 minutes at a rate of 7 gallons a minute, and remeasured after 5 minutes to recover. Still 11 feet! I did this process 3 more times and the final reading was 12 feet down from the top of the well casing. Apparently I have very good recovery rate. My question is, shouldn’t I be able to mount a standard pitcher pump on the well casing cap, maybe put the end of the pipe down 20-25 feet?
Does this water level fluctuate much based on how wet or dry conditions are? Here in Northern New York one thing we have plenty of is water, no matter the season.
Also, what is a good brand/model of pump? Also any books/articles you know about regarding any of this?
Everything I found online is useless garbage. A few YouTube videos, but they all pertain to a well point.

An old cistern pump? No idea where to buy one.

I don’t know what a cistern pump is, but a pitcher pump is easy to come by, but most of the ones online look like Chinese garbage that were made for looks more than function. I’m guessing you get what you pay for, and a $50-$70 pump isn’t going to be very good.

Check Lehman's. They have all kind of hand pumps. Deep well Pump Heads. www.Lehmans.com. Search for hand pumps

A problem with pitcher pumps, especially if not used regularly, is the leather drying out. If you include a good check valve to keep water up in the pump it helps with the leather, but now you have freezing problems.

A deep or shallow well pump (piston type maybe?) that keeps all the working parts below ground level and in the water table is a lot better choice for an outdoor occasional use pump. Yeah, they do cost more, but much more likely to work when you need it. Can't remember the brand, but it's what we used for leased recreational properties in the Adirondacks when I was involved in that kind of stuff many years ago.

Have no idea if you can put one in an existing well with submersible pump, don't know how you'd get power and water line pass the piston. I guess if existing well casing is large enough you could use a smaller inner pipe for the hand pump.

I suspect it would be simpler to pick up a small submersible pump that runs off battery or portable generator to drop into well if needed.

My choice is a generator plugged into house with enough capacity to include my well pump.

After my previous post I went and Googled "add hand pump to existing well", go figure, apparently lots of people have done it.

I googled it too, lots of articles that had almost no information in them. None of the questions I asked were answered. I was hoping someone here may have tried it out at their own place. I have a backup generator that is capable of running my whole house, pump included. I’m looking for something more dependable and simple. A long term solution for potable water if the grid craps out.

My sister has one in their well along with an electric pump. It will pump water but hers is hard work to operate

Don't "F" with the well. Drill/drive a point 25 ft. and u'll be good. Hand pump or your generator with a jet pump. Talk to the local well people for info.