Livestock well: screen

After lots of pumping it didn't look like the sand was clearing up in my livestock well.  I didn't want to wait days or a week to see if it cleared up.  If it didn't clear up that meant an expensive cost to bring the drilling rig back to pull the pipe and put a screen in later.

The screen was not cheap.  $500.  That is why I didn't make the decision quickly.  In the end having a screen would save money in case the sand didn't quit and ended up damaging the pump or clogging the sprinkler heads.

Paul had to order the screen and didn't get it prepared until a Sunday.  Yes, Sunday.  Later in the week Paul was leaving for France to play clarinet in a band for D-Day ceremonies.

Monday he pulled the well casing out of the ground and attached the screen to the pipe before pushing it back into the ground.  I didn't see this on Monday as I was clearing viruses off and fixing Tammy's laptop computer, and a rain shower came around the time Paul came in the afternoon.  By the time I finished with Tammy's computer Paul had pushed the pipe and screen into the ground.

The screen is stainless steel, 5 ft long and almost 6 inches in diameter.

Paul welded a metal section to the top of the screen.  Apparently this part slipped inside the well casing with the screen sticking out of the end.

A cap was welded on the bottom of the screen.

While the screen looked more solid than open, here is a view from inside.

 

Small gravel and sand from the bottom of the well.

The screen works well.  The water quickly cleared up and a five gallon pail of water only showed a few grains of sand.

The screen doesn't appear to have slowed the water flow down at all.  A 3 hp pump pumping about 50 gallons a minute for three hours only drew the water level in the six inch pipe down a couple inches.  When the pump was turned off the water level returned to normal within a minute.   It appears the amount of water I can pump may be more limited by the pump size and how much I want to spend on a pump.  Not a bad problem to have.  Still, the cost of pumps are not cheap so I will be limited from that end.

Now to install a pitless adapter and get a pump and pipe hooked up for the livestock water trough.  Another larger pump will be needed for watering the corral, etc.  That will have to wait until an electrician can look at my wiring.  While my uncles and I rewired the barn a few years ago, the wires leading to the barn do not appear to have a ground. With a larger pump it will be important to have appropriate wiring.  Plus the house's circuit breakers are very old.