New borehole - limited water

[Tom newby]

What was your agreement with the driller. Why did he stop. You pay per meter. So if you want 100m and are prepared to pay, then he has to drill 100m.

What are the specs of your pump. How long does it take to recover to rest water level.

The initial package is up to 50m, which I think would have been plenty, he says he stopped because he didn't want to push through the "river bed" and risk hitting another clay layer, you get told you are on plenty water though and wont have issues so you take the expert at their word

its a small pump, 0.37kw, but i'm actually impressed at its ability to pump water. With no output restriction I "measure" 40lt p/m when it is running good

I don't have a super accurate answer to exactly how long it takes to recover, but in my experience so far it seems to take maybe 3 hours before I can replicate the run time (I can only judge by the output side, I would only be able to tell properly I assume by taking the pump out so I can see down the hole.) Though this is a partly speculative on limited experience, I haven't done this continually enough, generally I am running it once a day or so at the moment then it rests the remainder of the day and night until the next day

[Richard Mackay]

I don't have a super accurate answer to exactly how long it takes to recover, but in my experience so far it seems to take maybe 3 hours before I can replicate the run time (I can only judge by the output side, I would only be able to tell properly I assume by taking the pump out so I can see down the hole.) Though this is a partly speculative on limited experience, I haven't done this continually enough, generally I am running it once a day or so at the moment then it rests the remainder of the day and night until the next day

What the drillers usually do to protect the motor from running dry is to install a phase angle switch. The motor's phase angle changes when under load (pumping water) compared to when it's not. These devices have a timer that then starts and when it times out it will restart the pump.
My experience is that these are flaky. It's better to install a high/low level sensors and wire to a level controller. This is more positive control.
https://www.em.co.za/LV1-230VAC

[bigboy529]

The initial package is up to 50m, which I think would have been plenty, he says he stopped because he didn't want to push through the "river bed" and risk hitting another clay layer, you get told you are on plenty water though and wont have issues so you take the expert at their word

its a small pump, 0.37kw, but i'm actually impressed at its ability to pump water. With no output restriction I "measure" 40lt p/m when it is running good

I don't have a super accurate answer to exactly how long it takes to recover, but in my experience so far it seems to take maybe 3 hours before I can replicate the run time (I can only judge by the output side, I would only be able to tell properly I assume by taking the pump out so I can see down the hole.) Though this is a partly speculative on limited experience, I haven't done this continually enough, generally I am running it once a day or so at the moment then it rests the remainder of the day and night until the next day

If the initial package was to 50m, it means you paid for 50m, drag his arse back there and let him drill down to 50m.

The fact that the contractor sized and installed a pump without doing a proper yield test, tells me it's not a very good contractor.

You are supposed to do a propper yield test before sizing the pump and if the yield test shows the hole gets pumped dry, the pump should be sized accordingly with the necessary dry run protection in place as well.

For example I have 2 holes on my farm, both of them delivering more or less the same, 3800 litres per hour. Difference is the main hole delivers 3800l continuously the level doesn't drop at all tested for 8 hours straight, where the other hole runs dry after a hour and then it takes around a hour for it to recover again.

I have a 1.5 kW pump on the main hole which pumps around 2500l per hour, the same size pump won't be suitable for the second hole at all, because it will pump the hole dry every hour.
I plan to install a solar pump in the second hole to fill my irrigation dam, I will size it for around 500l per hour so that it never runs dry.

Unfortunately should you drill the hole deeper and also drop down the pump deeper, chances are good that your water delivery will go down the drain no pun intended, worst case the pump won't be able to cope at all and even take damage.

Pump some more to see if your water clears up, after not being used for over a year, it took around 10000l for my borehole to clear up nicely.
Then get the water properly tested at a place like Waterlab to see if it can be used for human consumption or only in your garden.
And only then decide if you want to spend more money on a tank to store the water etc.


Oh and that story of the veins opening up over time which will give you more and more water almost trumps the BS story I heard last week, of a so called water diviner who shows water to people on their farms by taking a Google Earth screenshot and then hovvering a cable tie in each hand over his phone screen.

[Richard Mackay]

How do drillers quote? If they quote for 50m how do they know what they will be drilling into?
In the peninsula we have sand and rock: "boulder-rich scree"
Do they do a thumbsuck as to what they think they will encounter?

[bigboy529]

How do drillers quote? If they quote for 50m how do they know what they will be drilling into?
In the peninsula we have sand and rock: "boulder-rich scree"
Do they do a thumbsuck as to what they think they will encounter?

Drill contractors usually know the areas in which they operate from experience. The guy who operates in our area for example charges a different rate per meter here than what he charges at some places in Pretoria.
I assume some of them, especially in the city put together package quotes, 50m hole plus casing plus X size pump and installation, especially if they know from experience other holes in a certain area is around 50m deep.

[RedWolf]

Good morning

Beginning 2019 I drilled a borehole at my house in Pretoria.

Initially the guys drilled to 40m and said I had enough water. I told them to come back and drill to 72m. So, they did but only cased the first 25m. I let the hole rest for a week, while I went to SA Plastikor and bought a pump. When I tried to drop the pump I couldn’t get past 35m. I took the pump out and took a fishing rod with a piece of lead on the end and still couldn’t get past 35m.

So, the guys came out again, re-drilled the hole and then cased the total 72m with my watching eye over them the whole time. We took a grinder and drill and made a lot of holes and openings in the last 6m section of pipe.

I then dropped the pump to 60m. It took about 3 days of continuous pumping before the water started to clear up. The thing is, the guys pressurise the hole to try and clear it and then push all the crap into the sides of the hole as well. It then takes some time before all the rubbish runs back into the hole before I could pump it out.

Anyway, after all the drama, the hole is still delivering very strong flow 5 years later. I can pump for 24 hours a day without running dry.

[RonS]

It is unfortunate that you had this trouble as a borehole is an expensive item.
You say you hit water at 16 to 20m and again at about 30 plus.
16 to 20 M is fairly shallow and can result in poor quality dirty water. I assume that this water is still running into the hole and joining with the deeper water at 30+ M? I am not familiar with your area but 30m is still quite shallow for a good borehole especially in granite.
As mentioned above there is not much water as it dries up after a short time.
If you need water just for the garden put in a tank and timer. A timer for single phase costs about R150.
If you need more water and drinking water quality drill deeper and fit casing to seal off the shallow bad water.
You may then need to resize your pump and motor.

[Gouritzi]

Any borehole , when started for the first time should be pumped at a minimum rate so not to produce sand and for the borehole to settle--You say the water is dirty--is it sand or something else---Like someone also said---not a borehole but a seepage from ground water--(Hope not it is the municipal main sewer)

[TracyS]

I was told the same. Haven’t even installed a pump yet. Has yoirs improved with time?

QUOTE=Tom newby;5271361]Hi All,

I noticed there seems to be some knowledgeable people around here and was hoping I could get some honest, experience input on an issue I am having.

I recently had a new borehole installed, they didn't really go down as far as I would have liked but rather stopped saying there is plenty of water, however I have had very dirty water coming from the hole and when I run the pump I get less than an hour of pumping (with a restricted output, i.e the valve party closed) during which the water gets increasingly dirtier until it basically dries up and I need to stop the pump so as not to completely destroy it.

The installer tells me the hole just needs time for the veins to open up and the hole to produce more water and that I should just keep running it on and off.

Does this sound right? I expected maybe in the beginning to get dirty water but I would have thought that if you are on the water correctly there should be no issue in volume, its not like I am pumping out KL at a time

Thoughts from experience anyone?

To add for context, there are several people with boreholes in the area, and they get the clearest water for hours on end at large volumes

TIA[/QUOTE]

[Richard Mackay]

I was told the same. Haven’t even installed a pump yet. Has yoirs improved with time?

QUOTE=Tom newby;5271361]

[/QUOTE]
Better to get a pump installed and pumping!
Boreholes can block up..

[NewLandy]

I have a similar scenario.

A very weak borehole, runs for 15 mins, 400l , and then dry. If I run the pump every 12hrs, for 15 mins I get about 1000l/day. This is based on the borehole test.

Was also told to keep running it and flow will improve.
We sit on granite rock, apparently not good for water, or so I'm told.

Did the water divining thing, followed by seismic tool. Hit water but it's not a strong borehole. Weephole sounds better.

We also have coliforms in the water, did a water test, so I have not installed a pump. That will just be another R20k wasted.

I would like to hire a pump for a month and just run.it to see if it flow and clarity improves..

I took the plunge and installed a tank, pump etc myself. I bought a controller that has float switch and timer. It runs every 5 hrs for 10 mins. Has not run dry yet. That gives me about 2500l/day. The only problem I have now is that there's nobody to water the grass to use the water I've collected. I need to test and check the actual yield but for now there's no real need if the water collected is not being used.

I had the water tested, its hard, too much CacO3 and Mg. I will run for a few months and then retest, maybe it will improve over time.