Sediment problems - how high should I hang the pump?

[Joelk]

I am having a sediment problem, probably clay(no sand) and am looking for a low cost solution/s. The sediment fills up my 10" x 4.5" filter pretty quickly. The well supplies a garage/shop, not a residence(no septic), but I may build a house there some day.

My well is about 8 years old, 221 feet deep, has 180 feet(+ drive shoe) of casing, flows 15 GPM(per the driller) and the pump is 25 feet off the bottom. The water level in the well is 110 feet below the surface of the ground.(100 feet above the pump)

The water has been run for > 24 hours continuously several times with no long term effect on the amount of sediment in the water.

I originally installed the pump 15 feet off the bottom of the well, but I raised it about 10 more feet last year to see if that would help the sediment issue. It seemed to help for a little while, but soon returned to about the same amount of sediment as before I raised it.

My pump is a Water Ace, Model R203A. It is rated as 1HP and 10 GPM. I am using 1" Poly Pipe(pump has 1 1/4" fittings) and the well is about 100 feet from my pressure tank.

Is there a good probability that raising my pump will at least help with my sediment issue?

If so, how high can I safely raise the pump?

How deep would you recommend that I install the pump?

Thanks, Joel

 

[speedbump]

We discussed this on my Forum. I said raising the pump won't help at all. Lets see what some of the others here say.

 

[Joelk]

Any other/additional opinions on this?

I am thinking that I will try raising the pump so that it is a few feet up into the casing.

I can raise the pump myself(w/free help) with no cost except for a few wire splices so I think I will try it unless someone explains what harm it might cause.

It may not help, but it seems to me that this may reduce the turbulence in the water where it is entering into the well and let some of the sediment settle to the bottom of the well instead of being sucked up by the pump.

The only negative I can forsee, is that, IF, my theory works, it will fill the well up with sediment faster than it would if I am pumping the sediment out.

Any other potential negatives to doing this?

 

[waterwelldude]

Your well makes more water than you are taking out. That is a good thing if you are considering raising the pump.
Raising the pump will not hurt anything, just so long as the water table in you part of the world never drops within twenty feet of the pump. That can cause the pump to cavitate(suck air). I would never put a pump any less than fifty feet under the water level.( thats just me) And that is me knowing how much water the well made (vs) the pump I was using.

Will it solve your sediment problem? Maybe.
It can, and has work before.
Without knowing the make-up of the land,or the well construction it's hard to say for sure.