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I just had a well Drilled on my property in Arizona.
They hit water at 190 ft @ 3 GPM
at 303 ft it was 5 to 6 GPM
at 325 ft it was 15 GPM
People in the area have some wells at 80 GPM
So I got Greedy and had the Drill Company continue Drilling in the hopes of getting more GPM
I had them stop drilling at 428 ft they estimated 15 + GPM.
Static water is estimated at 200 ft and possibly will jump to 190 ft

Now that you have the Particulars

I am planing on Building a Water house 8 ft X 12 ft with the Well Head inside of the House.
I will make the House disassemble so that if I need to get the Drill Rig back in I can do so with out taking the entire Shelter down
Treated wood foundation & Gravel or stepping stone floor.

I have a Friend in the area that says I should drop the pump at 250 ft.
I was thinking with more water over the pump it may be better for the pump and I was thinking to drop the pump to 300 ft.

For the guys that have Well Experience
Am I over thinking things or do you think that I am on the right track.

Any Advice would be appreciated.

If sand is not an issue, I'd hang that pump deep, everything above the pump will be 'storage capacity'. Now that we are going 3 rd world, you can't count on power and down the road you may want to have aboveground reservoir for when the power is off.. Just sayin'.

^ ^ ^ This.

If the extra funds are available I'd also buy a windmill and tower for possible future use.

We have a 463 foot drilled well, with a 3 horse pump on 300 ft of plastic pipe.

Sound advise here.

15GPM Is quite adequate. You can fill any storage you want slowly, say 1 GPM, and it will fill in no time. I would go with what you have, pump about 10-20 feet above bottom.

What they said.

My well is 505’, with the pump at 490’. I’m at 3.5 gpm but a great static level.

Math says the volume of a pipe 1 foot tall and 6” diameter is 1.47 gallons, call it 1.5 gallons.

So multiply the static level to the pump by 1.5 and that’s the size of your reserve.

Unless you have a big family doing laundry, taking showers, and flushing 24/7 you’ll probably never even need the 15 gpm.

Irrigation might not be a good idea, though.

I Built my own Solar System this Summer
Power is 7 1/2 miles from my property and I will not pay for it to reach my property so I have to supply my own.
I am debating on whether to use what I have Built 30 amp 240 V or (2) poles of 30 amp 120 V.
I can expand my system with little effort to a 60 amp system.
Or
I could go with a full on Water Pump Solar System.
My Friend up there says that several people he knows of are having issues with their Solar System Water Pumps and is sugesting I just use what I built.

I have plenty of back ups at the present time.
an 8750 Watt 220V/120V , 12K Watt 220V/120V Gas Generators and a Diesel 17K 3 ph ; 11 1/2 1ph 100% duty cycle welding machine

Sand is not an issue My well has Basalt , Red & Tan Clay and Red ,White & Black Granite
No Sand if I understand the Geo part of my report to the County

It doesn't matter to deep you are picking up.
Water pressure will equalize level.
If the water level is at 200 feet, that's what you have to lift.
Doesn't change if you are picking up at 300.


Why the worry about gpm?

We have plenty of water around here, but you rarely hear
of that amount of production.
I know folks who aren't neat 3gpm.
The have decent reservoir, and rarely ever run out.

This assumes a single family house.

We'd have less iron with plastic caseing.

The irrigation in the future is my concern and that is why I had them drill deeper in the hopes of bringing the GPM up.
I installed a Composting Toilet so no flushing and I get to generate my own soil for growing stuff.
I already have an 600 gallon tank up on the property that we take water up and dump in for wash and construction water.
I plan on adding a larger tank in the future.
Everything I do up there I try and make expandable for future use because you never know what is going to come up.

Oh also, although 15 gal is damn good, if your driller punched that with a rotary, I'd bet if you pump that down to below the 325' foot several times, where the strata seems to be, you will get a significant gain on your recovery time. Rotary rigs as wonderful as they are ,can pack the fractures with drilling mud and cuttings in certain formations. Black shale and schist are bad for that, but your driller probably knows the geology pretty well.

When they pulled in to drill our well, the knew within 20 ft how deep the well was going to be.

The Well has a 6" sch 40 Steel Pipe for the first 25' and a 4 1/2" sch 40 PVC Pipe the entire 428' down
I do not have to worry about Steel pipe rusting in the static water.

What part of AZ and what would you be looking to irrigate?

They Drilled the hole with little water and a Huge amount of air.
The dust was flyin everywhere and I commented to the Operator that if he was in Commyfornia he would be shut down but there was nothing stopping him in Arizona.
When he hit water the dust went away and he blew the water and muck out with the air.

No foam? All the air-hammer holes we drilled used a tub of water with basically soap in it to blow out the cuttings.

North Arizona up in the Hills about 5400 ft elevation not the Sand Box
Some day I would like to have my own Orchard with a wide variety of Fruit & Nut Trees. & a Large enough Food Garden so that we would not have to go the hour and a half each way to town to get stuff very often.

I plan on digging a fish pond as well. I have already started it but it is a very pong way from water yet.

If I got real desperate I would have to find a way to possibly Drill another Well but I need to get this one up and running first to see exactly what my Well can produce and what my real Water needs are going to be.

I have been involved with a 100 or better Auger drilled Caisson Footing holes that used Bentonite Gell to hold up the hole walls while Drilling.
This Drilling for my Well was a first for me being a Dry Hammered hole.
They had a very small water tank on the Drill Rig that when the Bit heated up the Operator would squirt some water down the shaft to cool it and after it was cooled off back to the dry Drilling until he hit the water then I think he turned his water tank off.
Not sure but I think that is what he did.

Having spent 36 years drilling wells and setting pumps and having every license available, I do have some advise. Ditch your plans for a well house. They are nothing but trouble and actually outlawed in many places. They are dirty and insects infested. Every single time I had to get a drill rig back over a well in a well house, major problems and expenses followed. If a person absolutely has to have a well house because that is what grandpa had, for Gods sake place it well away from the well itself. Well houses were made obsolete in the 1960's by a $45 dollar pipe fitting call a pitless adapter. Fitting name for a product that made well pits obsolete. Simply dig a ditch from the well to the house and bury a water and electric line and forever forget about it. A small pressure take in the utility room, where it will be convenient to replace in 20 years, and you are set and have a clean installation without the cost and trouble of installing a home for rodents and insects.

Orchard is going to be a challenge. I'd use the hardiest, dwarfiest trees I could find, lots of mulch. Wind will be an issue, as will late frost. Garden, forget about traditional rows and go with sunken pits or raised beds with solid walls to mitigate evaporation and provide the best opportunity for custom soil amendment. Again, lots of mulch. If you're in juniper-piñon woodlands, chipmunks will be public enemy #1. Rabbits too.

Separate your grey water plumbing from your sewage and use as much of that to irrigate as possible. Most states/counties have some sort of legal guidelines. Get Brad Lancaster's books Rainwateer Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Vols. 1 & 2. These detail passive ways to multiply what rain you get using earthworks, etc.