Acceptable Residential Well Flow Rate ?

[Sparks45]

SWMBO and I are building two houses on 5 acres in Carroll County, Maryland. One for us and one for our son & family (wife and two boys - 3-1/2 and 18 mos). Per code, each house must have its own well. First one was done yesterday, hitting water at about 130', and the driller estimates an 8-10 GPM flow rate. Is this a reasonable amount of water? This will be my first experience in well water - always been on 'city' water before now. Seems to me more than enough volume to me but curious what you all think.
Thanks,
Charlie

 

[CalG]

fine

what depth you drilled to and how much water is above the pump may be more important. Also, flow in a dry September might be nice to know.

Keep your pump 100 feet below the water line, and you won't see a problem.... It's got all night to refill ;-)

The wife and I could get by on 2-3 gpm without issue. Heck, the pump doesn't put out much more than that. The volume in the well trol answers most every domestic need. At times the garden gets to be a big user.

When supply is pushed to the limits. we get sand in the inlet filter.

 

[dmccarty]

8-10 GPM is plenty. We are lucky that we have 15 GPM if I remember right. Most of the neighbors have 5 GPM. Most the wells are around us are about 200-250. Our is 223 which provides a quite a bit of reserve. We have low flow faucets and toilets while the dishwasher and clothes washers use no more than 10 gallons. I doubt we use 200 gallons a day and the real number is most likely closer to 100 gallons per day.

Later,
Dan

 

[oldpilgrim]

When I built my house, I was getting 14 gpm at 140 ft. Six months later my neighbor drilled a huge well to flood his cranberry bog. His reservoir wasn't doing the job anymore.

My well went dry.

I had the drillers back and they went to 500 feet and were only getting 1.5 gpm. After calling in the frackers, I was getting 2-3 gpm.

The driller said don't worry as at 500 feet there is nearly 750 gallons in the pipe at any one time...and it's refilling at the rate of 2-3 gpm. He said it was VERY unlikely that I'd run out of water.

20 years later, he was right.

 

[Sparks45]

Thanks for all the info. I'll rest easy now. I don't know how deep they went or how much water will be above the pumps but I now know to ask these questions.
Charlie

 

[nybirdman]

Around here finance minimum is 5 gpm....I have something over 30gpm.Get low flow toilets,ect. With washing ,cooking ,showers ect.expect 30gal per person per day usage.

 

[toppop52]

I'm on the other end of Maryland from you, but here on the Eastern Shore, I have water at 9', very good water for drinking, etc.... my total well depth is 65', but I'm sitting on top of the Paleo Channel. When were building we were cleaning up the old well to see what we had and avoid drilling new if possible. We were running a 1.5" pump shooting a stream 30' or so across the yard and you could pump 5 gallons a minute with the hand pump on top at the same time. That was near the end of a very dry 2012. We are fortunate indeed.

 

[techman]

Most wells will fill up to a level much higher than the drilled "find" level. We had first water at 60'. Normally it fills to about 30' down. The column of water will give you a working reserve. But as stated, 8-10 GPM is a good well and unless draught affects the well, you should be fine.

paul

 

[therealmjfox]

I have a 400 foot well with 1-2 GPM, plus two 40 gallon pressure tanks under the house. As others have said with a well that deep I'm storing plenty of water and shouldn't ever run out with normal use. Now, stupidly forgetting to turn off the hose to the pasture water troughs is another thing altogether. :confused3:

It can be a blessing though. I had a pipe burst and the damage was minimized by the fact that the well ran dry before the house could be completely swamped.

But when the well does run dry it's a pain. The water is muddy for the first few days of recovery. Now I'm on county water and no longer use the well.

 

[oosik]

When I was in Alaska the FHA standards were 5 gpm. However, that was 5 gpm delivered to the house. There are many ways of delivering that to a house. Deeper well, large storage tank, etc - its all a matter of volume storage for X delivery over a specific period of time. Many times the water quality was a much bigger concern than volume. My well here is a trapped spring. Its 24 feet deep and when improving it (cleaning out the dirt/mud and leaving only gravel at the bottom) I pumped it with a large trash pump at 175 gpm, 24 hours/day, for 4 days and never drew the water level down a bit. This is certainly not the normal situation around here. I'm certain this is why the couple that homesteaded this land in 1892 built their house at this location. They drew water from the spring with a wobble pump.

Yes, most definitely, 8-10 gpm is sufficient water to create all sorts of sewerage problems. Ha,ha