putting an old well to new use

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jonp9576

jonp9576

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i live in an old farm house and there is an old pump right outside my back door. we dont use it since we have public water.

i want to use it to run my immersion chiller.
does anyone have experience with old wells?

i really know nothing about them, but i assume i can remove the pump, and just drop in an electric pump with a garden hose attached.

i want to remove the old pump any way since its right where the new deck is going.

if i can get that water out of there i can cool my wortand i wouldnt feel bad about wasting water.
 
Excellent Idea. Shallow wells can be pumped very easily. Put a pump in the bottom and go to it. Suspend a foot off the bottom so you don't get all the sand and silt.
On a side note, have the water tested. It is very possible it is better for brewing than what you are using now.
 
If the old pump in the well still works you might just want to leave it in there and save your money on a new pump. You would need a new pump with a good lift cap if your well is very deep at all and those are a little pricey. You could just in stall a valve on the discharge of the old pump to throttle back the pressure a little for your chiller. Plus the old pump would give you a good cheap supply for watering the grass or garden, etc if needed. Most well pumps go to a tank to help hold pressure so the pump doesn't need to run all the time but I think it would be fine with out it. Of coarse if you can't make your deck work with it then rip it out lol.
 
It is going to depend on how deep the waterline is, the amount of sediment in there, and the type of pump that you have in mind. Most "garden" pumps won't have enough head to lift water out of traditional well shafts. The info below is on a circulation pump that I used to use in my marine aquarium. You'll notice that the available head really isn't that great.

Pondmaster Pond-Mag 5 Pump, 500 gph
Head Height (in feet) Gallons per Hour
0' 570
1' 480
3' 425
5' 325
7' 205
10.5' shutoff

This submersible will get you to 15 ft for ~$65.
http://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...submersible-utility-pump/p-1448212-c-8673.htm

This jet pump will get you to 25 ft for ~$150.
http://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...-hp-shallow-well-jet-pump/p-136158-c-8673.htm

Without getting into big money, you won't be able to lift water very high and still have enough pressure to pump through your chiller.
 
Welderbydaybrewerbynight said:
If the old pump in the well still works you might just want to leave it in there and save your money on a new pump. You would need a new pump with a good lift cap if your well is very deep at all and those are a little pricey. You could just in stall a valve on the discharge of the old pump to throttle back the pressure a little for your chiller. Plus the old pump would give you a good cheap supply for watering the grass or garden, etc if needed. Most well pumps go to a tank to help hold pressure so the pump doesn't need to run all the time but I think it would be fine with out it. Of coarse if you can't make your deck work with it then rip it out lol.
Click to expand...

i guess i should have mentioned that the pump thats there now is a hand pump. its about 3 1/2 feet tall. and i dont think i want to run the pump by hand for the 20 minutes or more it could take to get the wort down to temperature.
 
pvtschultz said:
It is going to depend on how deep the waterline is, the amount of sediment in there, and the type of pump that you have in mind. Most "garden" pumps won't have enough head to lift water out of traditional well shafts. The info below is on a circulation pump that I used to use in my marine aquarium. You'll notice that the available head really isn't that great.

Pondmaster Pond-Mag 5 Pump, 500 gph
Head Height (in feet) Gallons per Hour
0' 570
1' 480
3' 425
5' 325
7' 205
10.5' shutoff

This submersible will get you to 15 ft for ~$65.
http://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...submersible-utility-pump/p-1448212-c-8673.htm

This jet pump will get you to 25 ft for ~$150.
http://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...-hp-shallow-well-jet-pump/p-136158-c-8673.htm

Without getting into big money, you won't be able to lift water very high and still have enough pressure to pump through your chiller.
Click to expand...

so i guess my next step would be to find out how deep this thing is.
 
I agree, gotta find out how deep it is. Best bet I can think of is to take the hand pump out and you'll probably see a water-line on it. You could also just tie a piece of string to something that floats and let it down the hole (you should be able to see where it stops using a flashlight) then you can measure that. Easier than loosing a tape down the well.
 
We had a well once that had to be drilled deeper. The house type pump in the shallow well could not even pump the water out of the deeper well.

You will need a pretty good/expensive pump.
 
Do you have kids? Leave the hand pump and add a holding tank at ground level. Make filling the cistern before brew day one of their chores. Then you can use a cheap pump to get the water from the tank through the chiller. If it's not sitting long, it may not even warm up that much. ;)
 
I have the exact situation, an old brick lined shallow well that was never used due to having town water. Since going all grain I have been using it to cool down my wort with a counter flow chiller.

The water is always cold and one pass through my 20' CFC brings the wort down to 60F. My well is 12' deep, about 2.5' in diameter and all I use is an old sump pump. I just dropped a couple of patio blocks down there and lowered the pump on top of them with an extension cord. I plug the extension cord into my control panel so I can turn it on and off with a switch at my brew stand. The only other thing you will need is to install a vertical pvc stack with a garden hose attachment.
 
wrench said:
Do you have kids? Leave the hand pump and add a holding tank at ground level. Make filling the cistern before brew day one of their chores. Then you can use a cheap pump to get the water from the tank through the chiller. If it's not sitting long, it may not even warm up that much. ;)
Click to expand...

Sure, then after they're warmed up from pumping the water, you can have them hand crank the grain mill! That way, you not only save water, you save electricity and help keep the kids physically fit! Sounds like a win-win! :mug:
 

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