Flow Control on Well Head

npalen · May 13, 2024

WranglerX said:
You need a storage tank on your well - Bee Cave Drilling

Does your well:

www.beecavedrilling.com

How Do Home Well Water Pump and Pressure Systems Work

Learn the mechanics on how well water system works, how they are made and how you can build your own well water system.

www.cleanwaterstore.com

As a side note if your well can do 8GPM (not to stress well) that is 480 gallons a hour or 3840 gallons in 8 hours....... How many gallons do you calculate your lawn need in a watering session....

And..

You could always not include pressure tank that are shown in examples above and just use a booster pump if your sprinkler system controller has "well pump control" (probable 24 volt output to drive high voltage relay for pump) ....

https://www.northerntool.com/products/wayne-stainless-steel-self-priming-utility-sprinkler-booster-water-pump-720-gph-1-hp-1in-model-pls100-109258

I have about 20ksf (1/2 acre) of lawn and like to put down 1" of water at longer intervals for best root development. A square foot of 1" water is 0.62 gallons x 20ksf is 12.5K gallons. That figures 39 hours a 8gpm but probably closer to 50 hours when overlap of sprinkler coverage circles is considered. We get a lot of daytime hot summer wind so watering during the day doesn't work so great and watering over night is discouraged due to fungus concerns. So that leaves a few hours early morning for best watering so the 24/7 watering scenario I mentioned is really not a good assessment of the situation.

npalen · May 13, 2024

duffer said:
I have a well head cycle stop valve. It keeps the pump operating during irrigation almost continuously which reduces wear and tear on the pump, from cycling all the time. You could control your GPM with that, as it's adjustable to a wide range.

Also agree with other posters about irrigating at night (or very early morning) when nothing else is in use.

It also sounds like your recovery time on your well is marginal at best. 10 GPM is very low. I'd contact another well driller to discuss if there are options for you, like extending the depth of the pump, adding a higher HP pump, or both.

I've heard of the cycle stop valves and sounds like they work quite well with a pressure tank. I've never used a pressure tank as the well is used only for lawn irrigation and occasional filling of the fish pond.

Thinking a bit more about the cycle stop valve, what I'm doing without a pressure tank by throttling the output flow seems like it accomplishes basically the same thing which is keeping the pump running continuously.

WranglerX · May 13, 2024

npalen said:
I have about 20ksf (1/2 acre) of lawn and like to put down 1" of water at longer intervals for best root development. A square foot of 1" water is 0.62 gallons x 20ksf is 12.5K gallons. That figures 39 hours a 8gpm but probably closer to 50 hours when overlap of sprinkler coverage circles is considered. We get a lot of daytime hot summer wind so watering during the day doesn't work so great and watering over night is discouraged due to fungus concerns. So that leaves a few hours early morning for best watering so the 24/7 watering scenario I mentioned is really not a good assessment of the situation.

But if you are only watering for 4 hours early morning and well is producing 10GPM you are probable only getting 2400 gallons to water yard each day Even if you run 12 hours at 10 gpm it's only 7200 gallons .... Your posted number of water you need does not come anywhere near what you well can supply unless you take your 6 zones and divide it in 2 three zone groups and water each zone every other day...

npalen · May 13, 2024

Yes, that is basically what I've had to do. I'm sure the neighbors think I waste water but at least I turn it off when we get a rain.

steve tym · May 14, 2024

You know, you really should just go thru every head and make sure the total per zone is 8 or 9 gpm.

npalen · May 14, 2024

steve tym said:
You know, you really should just go thru every head and make sure the total per zone is 8 or 9 gpm.

Yes, that is what I have done in the last year or so and if I find that a zone is taking a bit too much water then I will downsize a nozzle on one or two heads.

The current issue, however, is the zone valves not sealing completely when in the closed mode and causing the system to not build up pressure to operate.

My next step is to include the time delay, mentioned above, between the pump coming on and the zone valve opening. This should let the pump build up pressure to hold all the zone valves closed tightly before the controller opens one. I mentioned earlier that there is no check valve under the pump so it takes several seconds to refill the 1-1/2" pipe coming up out of the well.

I don't use a check valve as the plumbing up and out of the well is exposed and would freeze up during the winter if water stayed in place when shutting off the pump.

npalen · May 14, 2024

Ok, tried a delay setting of four seconds between pump and zone valve but, with ball valve set to show 40psi downstream, the other zone valves failed to close completely so couldn't build pressure in system.

The 40psi minimum to avoid over taxing the well is apparently not enough to keep the zone valves closed (seated) tightly.

I probably need to pull the cover off each of the valves and make sure there isn't any debris caught between the diaphragm and seat.

May need to start changing some nozzles to 1.5gpm from the current 2.0gpm. We've finally been getting some rain so not need to irrigate now but will be approaching hot dry summer before long.

npalen · May 15, 2024

Probably talking to myself here but that's okay. We have some interesting conversations and argue only on occasion.

I suppose what happens, even with the time delay, is it takes maybe 20 seconds or so to refill the pvc lines going to the sprinklers in the zone called for and the pump cant build up enough pressure to seat all the zone valves, due to the ball valve restriction.

WranglerX · May 15, 2024

npalen said:
Probably talking to myself here but that's okay. We have some interesting conversations and argue only on occasion.

I suppose what happens, even with the time delay, is it takes maybe 20 seconds or so to refill the pvc lines going to the sprinklers in the zone called for and the pump cant build up enough pressure to seat all the zone valves, due to the ball valve restriction.

Is there pressure gauge inline so you can actually know what pump is doing...

npalen · May 15, 2024

Yes, the pressure gauge is just next to and downstream from the manual ball valve. My target has been 40psi as that seems to let the well keep up. The Hunter control valve used for each zone shows a spec of 20-100psi operating range.

Edit: I've always used a ball valve like this to ensure that the pump wouldn't suck air for an extended time if a downstream pipe burst etc.

I'm going to do some experimenting by opening the ball valve fully and then adjusting the flow control on each zone valve to minimum required to operate that zone. That should result in full pump pressure, which happens to be 100psi on the gauge, holding all the unused zone valves shut tight. I've tried to regulate the zones previously with the flow controls but they seemed finicky so gave up on them.

I notice that Hunter has an optional field-installable PRESSURE regulating valve that mounts on the zone valve so that may be an option if adjusting the flow control.

Edit: if adjusting the flow control doesn't produce good results.