Wells, Sump Pumps and Septic Sewage Systems - Deep well questions

I'm new at this so please forgive my ignorance, Here is my situation.

I recently purchased some land with no well. My neighbor has a well and is willing to share it, her problem is that the well is 800' from her house and has to haul water in jugs.

The well puts out about 10gpm at the well head at fairly high pressure. It comes up a 1 1/4" pipe, but is terminated to a 3/4" hose. My first attempt was to connect the well to her house with 1" PVC. This works well and there is about 6gpm at the house after 800' run and a 40' net rise from the well head.

The first question is, is this bad for the well pump? I was going to (and still can) install a booster pump. Second question is, if a second pump needs to be done, where should it be located as the water is flowing down maybe 50', across a small distance and then up maybe 90'? The pressure is pretty high at the bottom as one of the pipes cracked (defective?) and the fountain was 30' high.

Also, I tried running the (240v) pump off of my 5kW generator. Maybe every 20 seconds or so, the generator would be dragged down to almost stalling and the water would stop, then things would go back to normal for a while. Using her 7.5kW generator, the flow remained constant, but I watched the amp meter and every 20 seconds, the current would drop to 0 and bounce back up. Is this indicative of anything bad? I thought of cavitation in the jet, but don't know how this will affect the electrical part.

Any information would be gratly appreciated.

I assume the well has a deep well pump down the hole. You did not mention a pressure tank.

Depending on the depth of the well, the pump might be pretty large and require more starting power than your 5k generator can produce. The pump requires a pretty good surge of power to get it running but then once it's going the power required will drop back to normal. Both generators seem to indicate that the pump is cycling on/off.

It sounds like there is no pressure tank in the system and the pump is cycling on/off every 20 seconds which is not good for the pump. A pressure tank would allow the pump to run for a longer period before turning off and when the pump is off water will flow from the pressure tank. Then the pump will turn back on when the pressure tank is nearly empty.

There's no pressure tank. This attempt is only to get water next to her house and storage tank which will then gravity drain into a pressure system.

Startup on the deep well pump on the 5kw generator is not a problem and was just a test to see if it would drive the pump. The 7.5kw generator is semi-permanently tied to the pump and will be the one that is always used, I just noted a similarity of the 5kw being dragged down and the voltage on the 7.5kw dropping at a similar rate.

My primary questions though are is it safe for the well pump to go the 800' distance ?

Thanks for the reply

Is there a pressure switch?

"My primary questions though are is it safe for the well pump to go the 800' distance ?"

I don't see why not. Pumps push better than they pull and if the outlet is wide open, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I think the problem with using a booster pump is balancing. You don't want the booster pumping more than the well pump can deliver. But I've never seen a booster pump used with a well, just with city water, where water capacity was never a problem.

No pressure switches anywhere.

"My primary questions though are is it safe for the well pump to go the 800' distance ?"

I don't see why not. Pumps push better than they pull and if the outlet is wide open, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I think the problem with using a booster pump is balancing. You don't want the booster pumping more than the well pump can deliver. But I've never seen a booster pump used with a well, just with city water, where water capacity was never a problem.

Thanks. Balancing is something that I wondered about and whether I would needed a small storage tank for this purpose.

The 800' distance makes no difference to the well pump at all. Most submersible mfg's recommend at least 1 gpm flow to properly cool the motor. As long as you have this minimum flow met, you should not cause any damage to the pump. It's not really a good idea to install a booster pump directly in-line with the well pump, because of the mis-matching flows' already mentioned.

You could...
1. Increase pipe size to reduce headloss from the long run.
2. Increade well pump capacity

or

3. Install a storage tank in your house....with a booster pump and pressure tank feeding your system. This is probably the cheapest, and what I would do.

The amp readings and generator problems suggest something is definitely wrong. Without more info, it's hard to say, but it could be the generator, the well pump, or the method that the two are tied together. A dry well will show low amp readings compared to normal pump operation. Electrical surges may be seen if the well is recovering and beginning to pump again while you are watching it...just a thought.

That is interesting. I have never seen a deep well pump used without a pressure switch. Depending on how deep the water is located you could have some crazy water pressure if there is no place for the water to go when the pump is turned on.