Well recovery rate Cancel The title field is required!

1. T Storie

   

   0 posts
   
   12/21/2011 2:12 PM

   Hello:
   About 10 years ago when we were building the course we drilled some wells. I am not sure, what all was told to the driller but I believe it was something to the effect, that we want as much water as we can get. This was for our irrigation pond. We wound up with a 1inch pipe coming up and judging by the stream about 20 gallons a minute. This is next to nothing compared to our needs. At the time I accepted that it was what it was. Since that time, I have found that most people are not aware of exactly how much water we use on a golf course. The driller mainly did residential wells. I am not aware of any documentation regarding these wells. If it has a 1 inch pipe coming up and produces about 20 gpm should I assume that's all it will produce, the well size looks to be about a 4 inch casing. Any insight anyone has would be helpful. Thanks.
   
   Junior Storie Supt,
   Centennial Valley Golf & C.C.

   
   
   
   
2. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   12/21/2011 4:12 PM

   In a 4" well, the most you can squeeze in is about a 10hp pump. You might already have that size though. We have several 4" wells that all have a 1" or 2" column pipe. But, these are for cattle troughs and landscape irrigation, not pond refilling. With a submersible, you also have to have enough room for the wire.
   
   I've been on two courses that had similar setups as you. Both had 8" and 10" wells and were running anywhere from a 30hp to a 60hp motor. We were producing anywhere from 300-600 gpm on these wells, open ended. They were drilled to about 280' with about 200 cased. In both these instances, the wells would run continuously during the day to refill the pond.
   
   Do the math: if you use 400,000 gallons a night, and the well would run 15 hours day, you would need to produce roughly 440 gpm. That's about a 40hp motor in a 6" well with a 4" column pipe.
   
   If you have to do a new one, put in a submersible. We switched a 30hp over to a submersible a few months back because we kept breaking shafts on a normal motor and pump setup. This was due to a crooked well and therefore the pump shaft being strained and crooked itself.

   
   
   
   
3. McCallum David K

   
   12/22/2011 6:12 AM

   We drilled 4 wells during construction to keep our irrigation lake(s) filled. Have since added one more. All 4" wells with 5-10hp submersibles.........the lines that dumps into our lake are 2". With the usual yearly rainfalls we get and the capacity of our main holding lake we often (as now) shut the down and only run them periodically to keep the screens from sanding up. WE just replaced our first pump and motor in one well a few weeks ago after 10-11 years of service. We're producing considerably more water than you are. Don;t think there is a cookie cutter approach to wells as different parts of the country wells will produce differently IMO.

   
   
   
   
4. Ashton Alan W

   
   12/22/2011 7:12 AM

   Junior,
   
   I was going to say the same thing David mentioned... it's a local thing. Here at my club, we just totally went through our well from the head down... $80,000 worth! With our summer time water needs, coupled with time of use restrictions (on-peak electrical rate goes to 3X!), we have to have our 250HP turning a 10 stage pump (set at 600') in order to get 1200gpm... we have to make hay while the sun shines...