Borehole Pump

[Lickey]

Re-planing the farm this year, plus the bore water was getting sluggish, so have decided to make a new hole for it,

Pulled it out two days ago and the intake filter was fairly clogged with a clay like deposit and evidence of a lot of sand in the intake chutes, ive cleaned it all as best i could, i held open the outlet valve and hosed clean water through it while gently tapping round the body with a piece of flat wood,more crap fell out!!, so before re-intalling it in its new home, i would really like to make sure its clean inside, anybody think a bit of caustic soda would help or harm it? i cant find anything on the net to help,,,

Its a Franklin 1HP,

Thanks for your views, Lickey.

[Scully]

There are people out there that clean bore holes for a living, make it as good a new. However beware of the cowboys.

[slapout]

Lickey all we ever did was clean the filter just as you described you have done. If your sure it was clay on the outside of the filter you may try raising you pump depth a little , as it may be picking up mud from the bottom of the borehole. I am basing this on the assumption that you have a larger pipe/casing set to total depth of the well.

[Boksida]

Most of the small submersibles have plastic impellers so caustic soda may not be very good for them. Is there any chance that the clay-like deposit could be iron? If so, soaking it in a chlorine solution might help. You might want to think about putting chlorine down the well overnight and then pumping it out as the screens or slots may be plugged if you are using steel casing.

[Lickey]

Thanks for all your replies,

The pump is still in our back garden awaiting my attention, we havent had the water "diviners" on the farm yet as its too early before the wet season to think about a new borehole, im sure we all know the best time for a new borehole is near the end of the dry season,

I think one of the main problems with the original hole was that as soon as they finished drilling, they pushed the pump in [23mtrs] and run it flat out for an hour, ive recently found the pump manual and it says to run the pump on 1/3 open tap till water is clear, then 1/2 till water is clear, then open fully till water is clear, but with the new bore, i will insist they leave it for 2 days to let water settle and clear itself, and also do depth measurments to make sure its situated in the right place,, this is something else they did not do previously, just pushed the pump in and started it, Ok, it worked for 3 + years, but now i realise it could have worked better!!

Your hints and tips have been logged, Thankyou,

Sometimes we forget our roots, by trade, im a diesel engineer, and a sudden thought came to me, Rad Flush, looking on the net it seems i can use a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water to clean out the pump, so will do this in a day or so to see how much more crap falls out,

Cheers, Lickey...

[xerostar]

We had a submersible installed 3 years ago. Still seems t be running OK.

I noticed early on that they didn't install a one-way valve anywhere. (back-flow prevention)

So when the pump stops, all the water in the pipes (about 50 Metres or so) runs back down through the pump.

It seems to be a very in-efficient waste of energy when you consider that all that water has to be

pumped back up again before the tank starts filling.

We do get a thick build-up of very fine mud in the bottom of the tank which has to be cleaned every 6 months or so.

Having read your post, I thought maybe the water running back down the hole might be a good thing

as it must be flushing out the pump each time ..

Then again, it probably stirs up all the mud each time too, so probably it's a no-win situation.

I found a nice one-way valve in Australia (Philmac). Unlike the Thai ones it really does shut tight and won't leak.

I showed it to my BILs but they questioned why I wanted to install it .. "No Nee Wow! .. No Nee Wow!"

hmmm how to explain it?

[Lickey]

Hi Xerostar, My Franklin submersible/borehole pump certainly has a one way valve fitted in the outlet at the top of the pump, if its not used for a week or so, the water does run back, whether there was a fault in the lift pipe i dont know,

But the amout of sand/clay ect ive got out of mine, i wouldnt be suprised if this was the problem, perhaps holding the valve open a little,

Also, powerfull pumps need anti-torsinal brackets fitted, start-up torsion can un-screw the top pipe fitting or crack the plastic pipe,

By all means fit a one way vavle, it will help, make sure its automatic, not manual, deadhead your pump and its history,

Cheers, Lickey..