Temporary & Emergency Water Systems   PumpChamber

  
 

The Problem

This is the well system for a State run group home. It consisted of 2 wells, one 750’ deep that produced 0.1 gpm and a second well (depth not known) that produced about 1 gpm. In addition to the two wells there was a 500-gallon atmospheric tank buried in the side yard – the jet pump and large tank in the center of the picture were connected to that tank.

This building was home to six mentally challenged young men and a live-in councilor. The residents were all employed off site. The problem was that some of the men did not understand the consequence of leaving for the day with a toilet running. Once the wells and tanks were empty, it took a long time to get things back in operation and, on several occasions, resulted in a burned out pump in spite of the motor protectors that were installed.

The Solution

All of the existing equipment was removed and replaced with a duplex Well Manager system with 440 gallons of storage. The Well Manager collects water from each well according to its ability to contribute.

This Well Manager® incorporates a Stop Loss System™ that shuts off the toilets and hose bibs if storage gets too low. It is now impossible to use up their supply inadvertently. All other plumbing works if the Stop Loss™ turns off the toilets and the items disabled by the Stop Loss come back on automatically when stored water returns to the proper level.

There is a reset button on the Stop Loss that permits the toilets to be turned back on for troubleshooting as long as there is enough water that the low float is up.

The original “system” held over 600 gallons of storage and presented problems constantly. The Well Manager holds 440 gallons and is rarely below ½ full.

This New Home in the Country came with some bad news!

The people that sold this home to a family with 5 adults forgot to tell them that they had been getting water deliveries to fill the well. The new owner moved in shortly before Thanksgiving 2003 and ran out of water almost immediately.

The plumber they called installed a second pressure tank to “give them more storage” but that helped very little. Once they called for help and all the facts were gathered, the picture looked pretty dim.

There are two wells on the property. One was so poor that a pump was never installed and the second was producing 0.1 gpm. The neighbor’s well wasn’t much better.

We installed the Well Manager® on the right and contacted a hydro geologist to study the situation and suggest a new well location. The well has not been drilled yet due to weather but we know one thing for certain; if the new well provides a quart per minute or more this family will be able to function normally.

While they are waiting to find out if there is more water in their future, they are surviving on a 0.1gpm well.
Mike Guglielmo, President of Fineline Plumbing & Heating, Inc., Hillsborough, NJ. standing next to a recent installation. This system collects from 2 wells and delivers consistent pressure.
This 220 gallon Well Manager (tank barely shows on left of picture) used a Herculan ConstaBoost booster pump package because the owner wanted everything readily accessible for service. Foremost Plumbing from Dover, NJ sent George to install this unit. He did a great job, as you can see.

  This 3-tank unit was built for the United States Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. It was designed for a campground in Gunnison National Park.

For more on this, see http://www.wellmanager.com/latestnews.htm

A local contractor installed this system in the campground well house.

 


You Want Me to Put it Where?

What do you do when your 6-gpm well won’t supply enough water to run the 8 bathrooms in the main house, the bathroom in the pool house apartment, the poolside shower, and the horse barn and pasture water trough fillers? To add to the problem the only remaining space for mechanical equipment is in this quaint little well house! But what are the options?

You could drill a new well but with the prospect of a 750’ to 800’ well and no guarantee of finding a reasonable amount of water you’re going to think twice before you start drilling.

That was the dilemma facing this owner when he called to ask if there was an alternative to prospecting for water. There was!

The ivy covered well house in the picture above was the entrance to a well pit that measured 63”x 63”x 84” deep. Inside the pit was the wellhead, an assortment of equipment, pressure tanks and a few snakes.

We were quite pleased to find the roof was removable. Once it was removed and the pit cleared of everything that wasn’t essential, including the snakes, there was room for the necessary equipment.

The picture shows the result. The well pit now contains an electrical sub panel, a Well Manager® pump control, a 220 gallon tank, a 1 ½ hp jet pump and a pressure tank we removed from the main house.

The owner says “we’ve accomplished what we set out to do,” which is quite a compliment when you consider the background story here.

In 1992 this owner had an addition put on his stone farmhouse. Before the architect started to draw the owner told him he wanted to be able to use several bathrooms at the same time, and do the wash or start the dishwasher while he was in the shower.

This same request was repeated when the builder was hired and once again when the plumber came on board.

When the job was complete the new stonework matched the original and all of the carpentry and other finish workmanship was of obvious high quality. 

The only problem was every time someone turned on a barn hydrant or washing machine while the owner was in the shower there was a tremendous drop in water pressure in the shower. He was stuck with the one thing everyone had assured him would not happen!

Over the next eight years several contractors attempted to fix the problem without result. With a Well Manager® system in the well house he now has the home he had asked for in the beginning.

A Country Home is Everyone’s Dream

I’m sure anyone would be proud to call this home. The only problem here was the 4 gpm well could not keep up with the 8 bathrooms and landscape sprinkler system. Beyond that, the beautiful master bath shower did not perform like the one in the showroom photograph. It was not possible to run the two showerheads and eight body sprays at the same time. You could run one or the other but not both!

The Well Manager® system below took care of the problem. There is now enough water and pressure to run everything at once!