Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Well point clean out

A buddy and I drilled a sandpoint at my cabin last weekend, we eventually got pretty decent water flow but my well point needs to be cleaned out. I've called every rental place in town to try and find a diaphragm pump but struck out and I'm not about to shoot a round down the pipe , that's not an option. So what other options are there to clean this thing out?

Sand screen or perforations?

My buddy made the well point by welding a carbide point and he cut slits in the side of the pipe to allow water in.

Do you remember the approximate size of the slits?



You think that its silted in or the perforations are plugged?


Couldn't be minerals this soon I would imagine.

We had that issue with a sand point, but we ended up pulling the pipe and going to a finer mesh screen. That was in a new well and it reads like yours may have been in for a while and your aquifer might have gone dry and you need to go deeper or have a drilled cased well.

Same well as I reread it. Why the slits? We were getting fine sand with that 60 mesh, but a 90 mesh screen solved the water issue. Is yours a hand pump? If that is the case then running it hard with an electric pump might be easier than pulling the point and it would clean up with more volume.

Yep, depending on the formation you are in......likely fine material, it might take a long time to actually develop the well........if it ever cleans up.

Out of curiosity......why does it need cleaned out?


Quit producing?

Like I said, my buddy made the well point and he's got one exactly like it at his cabin and it works great. He suggested I get it cleaned out using a diaphgram pump to get the area around the well point free of any minerals/silt/sand. We timed the flow at about 5 gallons a minute, which is pretty decent considering what we're dealing with but he said we could get better flow if we cleaned it out. Last time I ran it there was a little bit of silt still coming out but it may get better once I let it settle but who knows for sure.

I'm headed there tomorrow to collect water samples to see if it's good to drink, it's clear and has no odor but I want to make sure it's good water before I drink it.

Sure....that would qualify as developing the well.


A good idea if the formation will allow it.


Just be careful because if you draw too hard it may never clean up.

As far as drink ability......it might take some time for your body to get used to it.

Interesting

true with mouthwash for sure.

Why don’t you blow it out with an air compressor? That’s how the well drillers developed my cased well after they drilled..... i think they call it air lifting..... might need to rig up an adapter for the top of the well but it sounds like a small well so it wouldn’t take much of a compressor to blow it out?

I'm having it tested on Friday and will know the results sometime next week. So what are your thoughts Jim, should I just leave it alone or make an attempt to try and clean it out?

I would try to clean it up.

How deep is the well?

Ha! Thats a pisser!


Have you run the well for a long period of time before? Like hours and hours?


What is your pumping level? Where is your pump in relation to the perforations? Just wondering if the casing is silting in or if its just pulling random bits through the perforations.



I would be worried about pulling too hard on the formation with a big pump. Being very shallow and with cut perforations you might not get the silt to stop coming in. Its kinda like a vacuum brake bleeder. If you squeeze too hard and fast....bubbles always show up in the tube....even if you are completely bled.


Personally I would pump it slowly for a long time and see what happens. That would be my first thought.

Well is 25 feet down, we hit water at 15 feet and we drilled it on the side of a hill which is where my cabin is located. I talked to a guy that's lived out there for over 30 years and he told me that at one time there was a glacier in this area and I confirmed that when I dug the holes for my shop, i hit glacial gravel/silt about 4 feet down but that was on top of the hill. We ran the pump for probably 3 hours total time, water came out slowly on Saturday evening, I got up Sunday morning and fired up the pump and the flow had increased 10 fold.

I am drawing the water out of the pipe with a well pump, believe it's a 1/2 hp pump and seems to work good though I think the check valve located on the pipe going to the pump might need to be replaced and he my buddy told me it was an old one he got from his house.
I've got a video of the process but I need to figure out how to post it, then you'd see what i'm talking about.

You said that you had timed it a 5 gallons?

Is that what you draw all the time or do you have a restrictor?



A general rule of thumb is to draw a well at 70% of max flow.

Going over that number can cause silt to be drawn into the casing or formation. Simply slowing down the flow may stop your silt problems.


You are having a hard time maintaining prime in the pump?


Is there no foot valve in the submersible?



I have had foot valves fail and been able to add an inline.



Full disclosure!

I am not a well driller.....but have worked very closely with a well driller for many years.

Where I live is dry with poor water.......we have tried all the tricks and failed most of the time!

We have bailed wells, acidized wells, used blasting caps on wells, even done the ole '06 trick.

Submersible or a jet pump?

Might just run it with some back pressure on the well pump for a while and see if it settles down.

We had an 8 in well dug and it would pump over 200 gal.per minute with some sand.

Back pressured the pipe and slowed the flow to about 170 and it cleaned up quick.