Hand Pump Wells .....Deep Dive

today we're going to put in a hand pump well I recently put in two hand pump Wells one completely failed the other one works perfectly I'm going to walk you guys through what went wrong on the first well and how we got things right on the second we'll take an in-depth look at all the parts and pieces that you're going to need how they go together what to use where to buy the equipment and ultimately hopefully everything you're going to need to know to put in your own hand pump well my name is Dave Whipple and you're watching Bush radical stay tuned [Music] now hand pump well is a very simple operation there's not a ton of pieces to it but there are a few we're going to start out by taking a look at each and every one of them let's get started with the well this is your well drive point this is for an inch and a quarter pipe shows the size of the mesh shows the length of the screen says right on it that it's a Well Drive Point not just a well point but a drive point you can see the outside of this drive point is stainless steel inside of it is a fine mesh screen now this screen is what lets the water in and keeps the dirt out on the top end nice set of pipe threads if you could see inside here if it wasn't dark it's just a solid steel piece of pipe and it's got large holes on the inside of the pipe and of course this stainless steel sleeve with the fine holes this is just wrapped around the outside and spot welded and it sandwiches the screen between this outside casing and that inside pipe with the larger holes it's all welded together at the end now you're also going to need two pipe wrenches they don't have to be expensive all they have to do is be big enough to handle inch and a quarter pipe every part of this well is put together with threaded connections and we're going to need an airtight watertight seal on those threaded connections to get those connections sealed we're going to need a good quality non-toxic pipe joint compound I like the Oatley brand make sure it's non-toxic and rated for water this brand kind has the consistency of soft serve ice cream here's a good look at the label where any two pipes connect we're going to need couplings notice it says Drive coupling not just pipe coupling Drive coupling these are the Water Source brand water source makes all kinds of parts and components for hand-driven Wells now standard pipe couplings are just made out of cast iron and they're too soft to be driven basically you're driving a well it's like driving a giant nail in the ground and at the connections these couplers take a lot of abuse so you need steel Drive couplers these Drive couplers cost about eight or nine bucks I buy them at Menards or Ace Hardware you want to buy one for every joint that's going to be in the well and one extra because you're going to smash one of them putting the well in once you get your pipe down you take that sacrificial coupler off you put a fresh one on make your joint now this is an inch and a quarter ball valve you don't need to use a ball valve in your hand pump well but they are really nice because what it'll do it will allow you to prime the pump and then lock the water in the pipe just like putting your finger on the end of a straw that's full of soda and the soda doesn't fall out of the straw without a ball valve water May seep past the leather gasket in the pump itself and lose its prime after a few days if that happened you would need to re-prime the pump and by the way this is the pump that we're going to be using once again it's the Water Source brand now the pump comes with an exploded diagram with a complete parts list so you can see not only what the parts called but where it goes and how it all goes together now I'm going to take and pull this pump completely apart so you can see all the guts inside of it what's up this leather cup makes the seal and actually does the pumping work of the pump basically you just have a leather cup that acts as your gasket to make the pump work there's a little iron check valve in here not much to be seen really just kind of a look at how that check valve works when this is pulling water up this valve is closed it's pulling all the water up but when this plunger is going down the water will push past this little check valve and you have this rod and just this little kind of basket that holds it all together inside the pump itself there's a leather gasket with a little weight on it and that axis check valve that lets water get sucked up into the pipe but then it'll close and not allow the water back down that's all there is to this so from that leather check valve down to the very top of your drive Point can't exceed 25 feet because that's about as far as you can draw water by suction you can see the point here Illustrated and that point is supposed to sit in water bearing sand the idea is to get this point down into a layer of water bearing sand now what I've been told is when you're driving well you're constantly measuring down the pipe with a tape measure to see where the water level is I have been told and I've stuck with this that you want to make sure that your water level comes up above this coupler by at least a foot I've heard people say three feet four feet but it has to be above this coupler because if it is right here at the coupler if you draw a lot of water and it creates a void where there isn't any water it'll start sucking air through the screen and it won't pull water same goes for a drive coupler if a drive coupler has a pore seal it will start sucking air and that brings me back to pipe dope I've always been told to use a pipe dope not Teflon tape a lot of people have mentioned to me before you should use teflon tape Teflon tape might work it might not but I do know one thing you're doing so much pounding when you're driving a well I think it's a really good opportunity to lose the Integrity of the tape it's no longer just sitting there in between the threads making a nice tight seal it's been just beat silly where the pipe dope it really doesn't care of course you could try Teflon tape if you want I'm not saying it's not going to work I'm not saying it is going to work all I'm saying is I've had good luck with pipe joint compound so that's what I'm advising you to try first this pump is also made by water source so if you can't find one of these in your Hardware or box store you can always just contact the company and they'll have a list of dealers and they'll let you know where the closest place you can go around your area to find one of these pumps now one question I get asked all the time is how do you know where the water is at I don't really know about witching or dowsing I know people do that I know some people say it works some people say it doesn't right now we're in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan everything is sand the water's straight down and the only question is is are you going to hit water in that 20 25 foot range that the pump is actually going to be able to pull up if the water's deeper than that you're gonna have to do something different now where my cabin sits right here it is really close to a ridge you look just beyond that Ridge that drops off about 20 feet now on the other side of this Ridge it's actually a steep drop off at the bottom of this drop off there is standing water that's the water table so we have these two different elevations now I know we can go down there find a high spot in that flat down on the bottom of this Ridge and we can drill a well but I really don't want a well there I want to well up here but the cabin so the question is if I drive a well here am I going to hit water before I run out of pipe or before I'm too far down to where the pump is not going to pull the water that far now I've been told before not to think too much in those terms because a lot of times the water will follow the Contour of the land so technically even though we're 25 feet above the water that's down there at the bottom that's obviously the water table it's a very good chance it might not be that far down up here it might only be 10 feet to hit the water so there are no guarantees in life and we don't really know that we're going to hit water especially on the higher portion of this land so all we can do is give it a shot I picked a spot that I like where I would like the weld to be located we're going to drive it down and hopefully we're going to hit water soon enough that we're not too deep the time we'll grab ourselves a chunk of Drive pipe you can see this is an inch and a quarter by 60 inches long it also says right on it well drive pipe the reason I'm pointing this out specifically you can't grab any kind of pipe it's just not solid enough to take that force of driving a well I would also say some local hardware store stock a pipe that they will tell you is Drive pipe I would buy it from Menards or somewhere else that will allow you to bring it back if it fails I've had nothing but good luck with pipe from Menards but I have a friend who has broke a lot of threaded ends an inferior pipe you have to be really careful when it comes to pipe you can't drive any kind of galvanized pipe it's just not strong enough for it it needs to be well drive piped buy it from some place that's going to stand behind it at least you're not supposed to break it if you start breaking it it'll generally break right at the threaded end good heavy Drive pipe shouldn't do that so make sure you either get the right thing first or if you're going to take a chance on something because it's handy and local make sure they stand behind it now I've made it a point to prep all my pipe by cleaning it out with soap and water I've shown that process in another video in detail I'll leave that link in the description I've been told before in the past to stay away from these last couple threads just to keep any of this paste out of the water flow itself not only does this paste seal all these threads it also helps lubricate this joint so they can actually get tighter than they would without it I've also washed out the inside of this point so that any oils or cutting fluids or anything that's a byproduct of the manufacturing process can get cleaned out of there so it doesn't end up in your water [Music] foreign why I was digging a hole with a post hole digger when you have one stick of five foot pipe and the Well Point together you've got eight feet of pipe you got to get it far enough in the ground so you can actually work with it notice I'm putting on that beat up old coupler we'll take this coupling Beat It To Death getting the pipe in the ground then we'll take this one off put a new one on and then the next section of pipe and then this coupling will go on top of that pipe next we're going to build a homemade tripod doesn't need to be special just needs to be solid enough to use to hold up our weld driver this is the second time I've made one just the same way three poles these are Aspen I wrap a ratchet strap around the top of it just bind it down nice and tight and then that holds the top of the tripod together works perfect I'm going to tie a short section of rope to that ratchet strap that rope is going to hold my pulley and then my working rope is going to go through the pulley that's the Rope that's going to operate the well driver itself both of these chunks of rope need to be pretty strong well it's not much to look at but it's going to work I went 10 foot with these poles but 12 wouldn't have been a bad idea I don't have a ton of working room here this is our well driver just a big chunk of Steel with an eye on one end and a one inch pipe on the other nothing pretty obviously homemade now this wall driver is about 60 pounds one question I get asked all the time is can I just use a fence post driver you could but it's going to take a lot of work also a fence post driver is set up with two handles so if you want to work it with your arms I like a driver with that's got an eye on the top because even though it takes a little bit of time to set a tripod up like this takes a lot of the work out of it feels good to get started between the ropes and the pulleys and building a tripod it is quite a bit of a setup to get ready to drive a well this way but the tripod does take a lot of the work out of it so it is worth it foreign by the time you've driven a five foot piece of pipe into the ground you're ready for a break so it's nice to take that old sacrificial coupler off put on a fresh coupler and get set up to drive the next piece seems like I've made this video four times I've made several of these well videos this is a subject that I get asked questions about all the time people want to know about witching and dowsing and where to find the water and the simple truth of it is it's a Sand Point well you get you'll get through some small gravel maybe a couple decent sized rocks but if you hit a big rock with it it's not going through not unless it happens to be a real weak Rock and you split it wouldn't bet on that one of the best ways to find out how deep you got to go for Waters ask your closest neighbor if your neighbor's got 100 foot well and this is only good to 25 it's just not for you it's not going to work in clay it's not going to work in rock it's just a Sand Point I should have maybe made the tripod a little taller because there's not much room to work when you get started on the fresh piece of pipe foreign so here's where we're at I've got three sections of pipe down in the hole and the point I have about a foot left of pipe sticking out over top of the ground and I haven't hit any water yet I have one more piece of pipe if I put that piece of pipe on and I get down another foot and a half and I haven't hit water I won't be able to cover that point in a foot of water once I do hit water if I did hit water so I think at this point as happens doing this type of thing I think I'm going to have to pull that well and I'm gonna have to find another spot well I've never had to pull out a well before so it was kind of a learning curve I didn't have anybody here to ask my brother-in-law Scott is the well guy he knows all the answers but he's not here at the moment so we just kind of had to figure it out as we went I try to come along but boy it didn't really want to come out of the hole and I had that thing tight as a bow string it got kind of hairy I ended up using this method I'll chunk a log on another chunk of log with a pipe wrench I'd work it out a little bit at a time that seemed to be what worked the best considering what I had on hand to work with sometimes it came up really hard and other times it would come up easy it seemed to be keeping the pipe coming straight up was the key if it got a little crooked or sideways it didn't want to move at all well after two hours I managed to get it all pulled out of there not only is it heartbreaking to not get any water right here because this is where I really wanted the well but man it just kicked my butt getting it in was one thing getting it out my goodness man I was at it for two hours at least it's Reinventing the wheel trying to figure out how to get it to work right because man I tell you what it is not easy to pull a well and it's fresh I just stuffed it in you think it'd come right back out but it doesn't feet so what we're going to do is we're going to pack everything up we're actually going to go down the hill to the flat section below and I know that down there we're going to hit water I want to pick a spot that's away from any low spots where that water can collect when the table's High because I want to get the best chances of getting the best quality water in an area where I actually know there is water if you think it's no fun to drive a well and not hit water try pulling the pipe because that's no fun at all but what's even worse than that is to pick everything up and move it 200 yards over a cliff down to an area where you're going to have a better chance of getting water now last night we put up a good fight but we lost but today I think we're going to win I know water is really close the only question is how far down are we going to have to drive to hit water and how is the quality going to be once we find it I have high hopes for both those when I pulled the well pipe the well that failed I left the Sand Point and the first section of pipe together because they really don't need to come apart I'll just make sure the joints tight and I'll step it back in the ground the other sections I'm going to have to put on one at a time so of course they had to come apart all this country through here is nothing but sand it's a digging another hole to get started that was easy moving all the equipment 200 yards and downhill to this second site that was a chore but no time at all we're all set up ready to start driving again now the water table here is real close and I think I'm into it before I hardly get started you can see that that pipe is just driving in there about an inch and a half a shot which is amazing progress a lot of times when you hit the water table it'll really start driving easy there it is now we're only four foot six inches into the ground here where the water's at that makes perfect sense because all of this ground through here is flat and if you walk that way 100 yards you hit the river and the river is obviously the water table there's standing water over here there's some standing water over here but this Sandy Knoll is about four feet five feet higher than everything else it's just good clean sand now I know I'm in the water I want to get that Sand Point down far enough to ensure the best quality possible now I have to be really careful with this pipe because after pulling it out of the ground yesterday with the pipe wrenches it is covered in razor sharp little barbs where the pipe wrenches have bit into it by the time I drive another stick down to about two and a half three feet above the ground I should at least be a couple feet above the top of that point and I think that would be good we'll check it when we get there foreign the bottom of the Well Point is 10 feet in the ground right now I'm going to throw the pump on and check the water quality now I have a really good feeling about the water table here at the well location I think the water quality is going to be good so I'm going to go ahead and install that ball valve I'm not just going to throw the pump on to check the water because I think everything's going to work out just fine we're going to give the Leathers in the base of the pump and that leather suction cup just a minute to absorb all that water now the pump is full of water this is the water we're using to prime the pump notice I keep my hand in front of the spout to keep it from spilling out just a couple pumps and the water's coming up the water always looks like this when you start pumping out a hand driven well the problem we'll just have to be pumping it until it clears up now if that's not clean water I don't know what is there's the first bucket I can't even see my hand in it it's ice cold wow let's see what the second one looks like [Applause] it's getting better there's the second bucket there's the third bucket there's a fourth bucket now we're at bucket number 10. I think there's nothing wrong with that I'm gonna flip this valve over because I can't quite open it completely I guess I put it on upside down I'm not going to get too crazy with this fitting in its final torque because it is brass I don't really want to crack it now what the ball valve does is it locks the prime the water can come up the pipe with the pump once you shut the ball valve it's like putting your finger over the end of a straw full of soda well not only is the well installed and everything is good but the water quality is actually really nice the water is clean doesn't have any taste to it it's just what I hoped it would be foreign about 13 pumps to get a gallon probably 10 if you don't spill half of it now that well is brand new it's pumped about 60 gallons of water and most of that is just cleaning out the pocket around the point getting all the sediment and dirt out of the point from being driven in just for curiosity we're gonna take a coffee filter one of these little drip baskets we're going to run a gallon of water through the coffee filter and see how much sediment there is in your average gallon of water now that the wells cleaned out here's the very end of it right there well now that all that water is filtered out you can see there is just a little touch of sand in the bottom that's not bad well the weld's in the water's good time to pack up the kit and be done this project is over well I hope you guys have enjoyed this video kind of a deep dive on how to drive a hand pump well kind of tools you need the kind of soil that it will actually work in how deep you can go etc etc I hope I've answered all of the questions that you might have regarding putting in a well by hand like this thank you guys so much for watching Bush radical my name is Dave Whipple be radical eh see you soon [Music]

Channel: Bushradical

Views: 103,147

Keywords: hand pump well, hand driven well

Id: EUKVX2k3AzU

Length: 24min 5sec (1445 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023