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jluksic

Irrigation with Well System - Design Question

20 years ago

I have a 300 foot well, sumbersible at 220 feet, 40/60 pressure switch, 30 gallon bladder pump tank, about 10 gpm, etc... pretty standard 10 year old setup.

I know this has been discussed but I'm still not "getting it"...

I'd like to tap into the main line between the pump and pressure switch (i.e. tee off the main as it enters the house) to serve my irrigation system.

Why isn't this a good design? Should I add a pump relay?

If I HAD to I could tee off the water line AFTER the pump tank but that would require additional plumbing work (about 75 feet of 3/4 copper).

Please offer your opinions.

Thanks.

Comments (4)

  • 20 years ago

    Why is your presure switch that far from the pump? usually the presure switch is mounted ON the pump or very close to it.
    Arthur the Date Palm Guy

  • 20 years ago

    It sounds like you have a submersible pump in the well.
    I am just learning some stuff about shallow wells which may be relevant.

    If the pump sucks in some air it can lose the "prime".
    This happens with overuse in drought season.
    Repriming can be contingent on a working foot valve. After replacing my foot valve (and flushing out the jet on my pump)I called in a plumber who said it was a bad foot valve and installed a one way valve near my pump in the basement.

    Maybe a one way valve is what you need somewhere in your design, especially if you don't have a submersible pump.

  • 20 years ago

    As far as I know, you can do this, but you may get some water hammer.

    At home my well is 200 feet from the house. The bladder tank is in the basement. I open the tap, tank drains. Pump kicks in. Now I close my tap. Water is no longer exiting the system but there is 200 feet of water moving at 7 feet per second or so in the pipe from the well. The bladder absorbs the shock of that water, and slows it down.

    Now I put a T in at the well. One end of that T goes out to the nursery. I turn off the water at the nursery. 1000 feet of water in the pipe are still coming toward me, but there is no bladder where it can go. Oh, sure the bladder at the house end will absorb some of the shock, but the bulk of the water is moving away from that bladder, not toward it. net result is that all the bits of hardware at the end of the pipe have to absorb the energy.

    In my case this isn't much of a problem. I've done two things. One is that the end of my 1000 feet of pipe is about 50 feet from my last hose bib. This end of the pipe tends to collect air, and so acts as a buffer.

    Secondly, I don't have automatic valves, so the normal operation of turning off the valve is slow enough not to do damage.

    Thirdly, its black poly pipe, which has a certain streatch to it, and I've laid it out in a somewhat snakey manner. This allows the excess energy to wiggle the pipe.

    Most of the time water hammer in plastic plumbing is not a big problem, especially outside. In inside systems it is primarly a nuisance due to noise.

    It may be a problem if you use electric valvues.

  • 20 years ago

    You can T off wherever you want between the house and well as long as there is no check valve at the pressure tank. Most check valves on deep submersible wells are at the bottom of the well pipe, so you should be ok.

    Be sure to design your zones with as close to the output of your well as humanly possible (after measureing it with a pressure/flow guage available from Toro for $40). This will save your pump and motor from wear due to over cycling.

    Run your zone, and listen to your pressure switch to see if it is clicking on and off.

    Standard deep well procedure is to tap the feed line to the house from the well for water hydrants any place. You only need 1 pressure tank and switch.

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