Originally Posted by
15meter
Around here the pump goes in the heated basement, underground (4') line to well, only thing going down the well casing is 1"-1-1/2" pipe with a foot valve at the bottom. Works on suction. There is a limit on how far you can pull water up. With the water table being so high it doesn't take that much horsepower.
Shallow well pumps are way easier to work on.
And hand dug wells with the hand pumps never freeze, the pump section is actually down in the well 6-7 feet. Had one of those on the farm.
Only problem with them is when the leathers (seals or flaps were made of leather and they lasted almost forever) went bad. Then you had to lift the entire pump jack, down pipe, pump itself and the pipe and foot valve that reached down into the water as a single unit.
Dad on one side, me opposite, two pipe wrenches, dad reached down, put pipe wrench on the down pipe and lifted as far as he could then it was my turn. Alternated until the entire pump was high enough to lay it out on the ground and replace the leathers. Then reverse it to put it back in the well.
Did it twice over 30+ years, ain't never gonna do it again. Don't know what would give out first, my back or my ticker if I tried. Tried being the operative word because I certainly don't have the strength to even attempt some thing that silly.
Interesting to see some of these "homesteaders" or "preppers" deal with leaking leathers.
On the farm I grew up on 27' deep drilled well produced enough water for up to 85 head of feeder cattle and 900 laying chickens, depending on the year. How much the old man put in the barn depended on how much corn we had and more importantly, what he thought he could sell at a profit. Beef/egg market up, fill the barn, prices down, less in the barn and sell more grain instead of converting to beef or eggs.