Boreholes

[Canada]

I know nothing about electrics. But it sounds like you need a bigger breaker. We run our submersible (2 hp) off of a 30 amp....off of a generator.

Casing the first 6 meters (if even that) is pretty standard here. They say that they case it down to the rock and after that, you don't need it. That's what they tell me and I don't know enough about drilling wells to know any different, but I suspect it is just another Thai shortcut. Having said that, we haven't really had many problems yet with the wells we drilled last year. None of them were finished properly IMO. The problems that we do have are with wells that didn't produce well from day one. They were done by poor quality machines and personnel.

None of my wells have a proper casing, or a downpipe to the bottom with a well screen or gravel packs. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying what they done for us and how it works.

BTW. If you ned to raise your submersible, it's not that big of a deal. Hopefully they removed they one way valve, that'll make it easier to raise.

[farmerjo]

Update,brought a 80amp stepup transformer which does the job to get it working

The thing I don't understand with the casing is we hit water at 23meters so I can't see the point in them going to 60meters if its not cased to at least 23meters,anyway we have good water now and the missus is happy and the kids have clean water for their pool.

Win all round in the end'might look at shoving some 4inch casing down it soon.

[Canada]

Update,brought a 80amp stepup transformer which does the job to get it working

The thing I don't understand with the casing is we hit water at 23meters so I can't see the point in them going to 60meters if its not cased to at least 23meters,anyway we have good water now and the missus is happy and the kids have clean water for their pool.

Win all round in the end'might look at shoving some 4inch casing down it soon.

Isn't your pump 4"??

[farmerjo]

Not sure,its a 2hp franklin.

Wife was told the bore works better if used more often so will increase its hours shortly.

Pretty sure they out the check valve as it takes around a minute to get water out of pipe after starting.

Will do a bucket test and let you know flow rates.

[Canada]

Get a big bucket! lol.

It should be in the neighborhood of about 200 litres a minute. I fill 1000 litres in about 5 minutes.

[farmerjo]

Get a big bucket! lol.

It should be in the neighborhood of about 200 litres a minute. I fill 1000 litres in about 5 minutes.

Did a bucket test and getting about half of what you get,6000 litres an hour.

Will leave pump running for a couple of hours to see if it increases.

After 1 hour still have flow so all is not bad.

[joshstiles]

when you drill and first hit water, should you stop drilling? or should you drill 1, 2, 3 meters deeper to make sure you are well below the water table?

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[slapout]

when you drill and first hit water, should you stop drilling? or should you drill 1, 2, 3 meters deeper to make sure you are well below the water table?

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You need to watch the borehole cutting as you drill, when you hit water you look at cutting, if sand, keep drilling to give more reseivor to pull water from. Some areas you hit sand and then go into a pea gravel size water source (this gives good volumes) Set your casing pipe into the pea gravel. In our area we had about 8 foot of sand before getting into the pea gravel

Every area is different. some people will drill 20 or 30 foot below the water sand so as to have a reseivor to store water and set the pump below the sand .Now to answer your question. many people want to know how thick their water sand is thus they keep drilling until they are happy or they go out of the sand back to clay/shale.

Edited April 30, 2014 by slapout

[Canada]

The best well driller we have used so far drills to a depth of about 50- 60 meters. He said it depends on the amount of water that he is seeing and how many "holes" as they call them, he has hit.

[joshstiles]

what area of thailand are you living, canada?

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[joshstiles]

revar where are you livivg in thailand (province or city)?

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[Canada]

revar where are you livivg in thailand (province or city)?

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Udon Thani area. within 100 km

[cooked]

I have read through this thread. I am wondering why nobody around here (between buriram and Lamplaimat) has boreholes in the fields. Our domestic water certainly comes from a borehole.

I am told that on the other side of the road, in the rice fields, boreholes don't work, although no one can explain why they don't work. Outside of the rainy season, things get very dry, no rivers nearby, the reservoir gets emptied and you have to sleep beside the pumps so they don't get nicked.

What reason could there be that 'they don't work, nobody do'? Some time in August/September I will be going into this seriously but although I am acquainted with the Thai mentality I hesitate to spend a lot of money on something 'that don't work'. Thanks

[Canada]

I have read through this thread. I am wondering why nobody around here (between buriram and Lamplaimat) has boreholes in the fields. Our domestic water certainly comes from a borehole.

I am told that on the other side of the road, in the rice fields, boreholes don't work, although no one can explain why they don't work. Outside of the rainy season, things get very dry, no rivers nearby, the reservoir gets emptied and you have to sleep beside the pumps so they don't get nicked.

What reason could there be that 'they don't work, nobody do'? Some time in August/September I will be going into this seriously but although I am acquainted with the Thai mentality I hesitate to spend a lot of money on something 'that don't work'. Thanks

The only reason that I can think of that is "does not work" is that what they mean is that it is not "economically feasible" to farm rice with a well for water. Another thought is that during an extended drought in our area, the static water level in the wells drop beyond what a surface pump can pull up. There comes a point around here where there just is no water to be had. Farmers in our area use surface pumps almost exclusively. Some people will manually dig the well down another 3-4 meters to get their pump down closer to the water level. We've recently done that for two of our holes, but haven't tried them yet. The rains have started. There are a couple who are installing turbine pumps, but they are expensive for your average thai farmer, and you need a pump per well.....as far as I know, whereas a submersible can be moved relatively easy (but require electricity).

That's all I've on this one.

[cooked]

Thanks. I was thinking that a submersible pump was the answer? We have enough rain for one crop of rice usually but I was thinking about a follow on leguminous crop as soil improver and ground cover, followed by something or another. We already have a vegetable garden that is about 4 meters below the surrounding ground, and this is where I was thinking about putting the hole.

[Canada]

Thanks. I was thinking that a submersible pump was the answer? We have enough rain for one crop of rice usually but I was thinking about a follow on leguminous crop as soil improver and ground cover, followed by something or another. We already have a vegetable garden that is about 4 meters below the surrounding ground, and this is where I was thinking about putting the hole.

Doesn't that low spot fill with water during the rains? Why would you drill there? Do you have electricity?

[cooked]

No it doesn't. A fish pool another few metres deeper does, but it empties pretty quickly. And no we haven't, a generator will have to be part of the set up. I never lived in a country where I needed a borehole so obviously I am talking out of my borehole.

[Canada]

Have you got an "iron buffalo"? If you do, I'd recommend a turbine pump rather than a submersible....unless you need to service multiple wells. Turbine pump goes down the hole and just the head of it is above ground and you hook your iron buffalo up to it. They work pretty good from what I can see. You still have to run your motor at little high, so your fuel consumption is higher than it would be of you were running a centrifugal pump, but you are pushing water up, not sucking it. A generator in itself is expensive if you are dedicating a motor to it, cheaper if you can rig up a generator to an iron buffalo if you already have one and overall expensive on fuel. You do not want to power your submersible with a gasoline powered generator for any length of time. They consume a lot of fuel. I have one and have tried it.

How much irrigation do you have to do??

[patongphil]

What about wind power? Plenty of it and for free once you pay for the initial setup.

[joshstiles]

What about wind power? Plenty of it and for free once you pay for the initial setup.

I have been looking for some costs / figures for wind as well.....do you have any?

[patongphil]

What about wind power? Plenty of it and for free once you pay for the initial setup.

I have been looking for some costs / figures for wind as well.....do you have any?

Sorry but cannot help. I tried a bit of a search for something similar to what they use all over Oz and Africa but not much here by the looks.

If someone has any info/ leads I am very interested. Have a bore that produces very little so am after some form of free method to get the water to surface having paid for capital/installation costs.

[BSJ]

If you want to try out a wind power water pump 'do it yourself' folk can build a Savonius type for very little money.

[fezzy]

[aWellttachment=259464:DSCN4250.JPG]

Well,missus wanted a bore put down so i let her go.

Even after reading all the advice on here so the story goes.

They drilled down and hit water at 23 meters but keep going to 60 as they advised us to buy a 2 hp submercible.

After failing all the rules what i read about,especially being by their side,i came home from golf today to find-

Liner only 6 meters down,pump 48 meters down suspended by 1 wire rope not 2 and thats after i gave them extra money to buy rope as they said it lasts longer.

So next they hook up the electrics which they said they would do properly only to find out only test not permanent,pump trips.

Get out my multimeter,have 230 volts but drops to 170 on start up,their solution is they plug in generator giving 286 volts back to 230,all good.Our power the problem.

Dont want to sound bad as we got them to dig a bore and find water,which they did of good quality.

Besides the liner and 1 wire rope holding it up i was pretty much happy.

Well the wifes not she has a bore she cannot use and to her credit a little bit the owners of the rig recommended to her what was required in way of pumps,pipes,etc.

Cost 40,000 for bore,2,000 for food,27,000 pump etc which i thought was alright.

Now for the help,can anyone help us overcome the power issue,ie bigger breaker?

Also i asked if they soldered the wires down at the pump to be told they where twitched and thats how they do them all.

What to do,cheers. .

use larger cable to compensate for volt drop mate , which will lower the resistance of the cable and let more voltage and amps flow.

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[fezzy]

If any one is off the grid like my farm is then power is the key, we have set up our pump using an electrical bicycle wheel drive motor which draws of the solar panels direct during the day drawing down from 20 meters...check valve at the bottom of the 2" helps.

More water than ever needed for the Moo's and Aqua adventure's as we store it in holding tanks..

If you look close you will see the hand accelerator beside the junction box, if we are stuck with bad weather it can be converted back to the Kubota

Attached some pics.[/quote

Hey BurriAussie love your setup , what voltage and wattage is your brushless hub ( at a guess 24v and 500 watt) and did you buy it in Thailand, if so, where , how much . Im looking at doing the same at our farm for our well to feed our gravity tank setup . Have you had any problems with it too .

Cheers fellow Aussie I'm from Perth

Fezzy

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[Marijan]

Hello everyone,

I plan to do a borehole just 5 KM west of the main road Korat- Khon Kean, opposite the junction to Phi Mai, to supply 13 Rai of land for whatever ( still doing research ). There is a proper road to it and electricity to be pulled for around 50 meters. According to uncle in law there is water at around 25 meters depth, but got a sceptic opinion from a friend that water might be salty !!! Could it be fixed by reverse osmosis and is it too expensive ? Any opinion or advice would be appreciated , thanks

[Canada]

Hello everyone,

I plan to do a borehole just 5 KM west of the main road Korat- Khon Kean, opposite the junction to Phi Mai, to supply 13 Rai of land for whatever ( still doing research ). There is a proper road to it and electricity to be pulled for around 50 meters. According to uncle in law there is water at around 25 meters depth, but got a sceptic opinion from a friend that water might be salty !!! Could it be fixed by reverse osmosis and is it too expensive ? Any opinion or advice would be appreciated , thanks

Check with locals to see what their water is like. If they are farming around you I would think that the ground water is fine.

[slapout]

One of the members, Bosida, has or can tell you where to go to look at maps which give a indication of water quality in most areas. He has also been involved in drilling, plumbing, and putting on line many boreholes. You might try to contact him as he can point you in the right direction.

[Boksida]

Hello everyone,

I plan to do a borehole just 5 KM west of the main road Korat- Khon Kean, opposite the junction to Phi Mai, to supply 13 Rai of land for whatever ( still doing research ). There is a proper road to it and electricity to be pulled for around 50 meters. According to uncle in law there is water at around 25 meters depth, but got a sceptic opinion from a friend that water might be salty !!! Could it be fixed by reverse osmosis and is it too expensive ? Any opinion or advice would be appreciated , thanks

I don't really like your chances for any sort of good supply. I'm guessing the junction to Phimai you are talking about is Talad Khae? There used to be several brothels behind the gas station catering to truck drivers and other travellers there back in the day, don't know if that is still the case but it is the only description I remember. About 2 kilometres to the east of that intersection is the largest salt solution mining operation in Thailand (http://www.trs.co.th/) - not conducive to the siting of freshwater wells. The whole area is underlain by rock salt layers over 100 metres thick. I guess the good news is that there is potash on top of one of the layers of salt which might be helpful for agriculture. You might get some usable water at depths not over 25 metres but I would not expect it to be reliable or plentiful.

TRS produce about 1.5 million tons of salt a year there and generally add around 6 production boreholes per year.

Are you in the Ban Prasat area and, if so, is there any way you can get water from the Moon River?

[patongphil]

I have just put down another borehole on our property and am now looking for a submersible pump to supply the water.

Looking for something that can deliver about 2 litres/sec at 80m head from a 200mm hole.

Khon Kaen or Maha sarakham area.

Thanks for any ideas where I can find.

[Boksida]

I have just put down another borehole on our property and am now looking for a submersible pump to supply the water.

Looking for something that can deliver about 2 litres/sec at 80m head from a 200mm hole.

Khon Kaen or Maha sarakham area.

Thanks for any ideas where I can find.

Thai Pipat Hardware in Khon Kaen will have them or can get one for you.