It's time to put our well to work!

Make sure the jubilee clips are stainless steel and dont forget the non return valve otherwise the pump will have a short life. An expansion vesselis necessary to avoid too many start stops. IM

another "magic switch", which we had but caused more problems than it was worth but is advisable, is a water level sensor - once the water level drops below a certain level (the top of the pump) it cuts of the electricity to the pump to stop it running whilst dry.

Thanks for the nod about the 'magic' switch. I'm not yet sure what goes on at the bottom of the well so if I can add one of those later... brilliant!

Sorry to hear about your Blackberry... But surely it was... well - insured?!

you're more than welcome, good luck ;-)

I see my late, lamented Blackberry that now resides down our well has attracted attention here. I DO NOT recommend your making the same installation.

Do much the same as Andrew but our well is spring fed so whilst it runs normally for about four hours, pressure drops for about half an hour so I found a clever gadget that turns the pump off for 30 minutes when pressure is too low, after 30 minutes it goes back on and runs for about four hours again. We could used it 12 months a year but when the weather is really cold even the well freezes and it is not advisable to run a pump under an ice cap and potentially into and splitting frozen pipes. So we reckon with about nine, max 10 months a year.

Thanks Andrew...Just a few clicks and, in 3 days, Amazon will be bringing me everything I need including the Jubilee Clips! My neighbour, just down the hill, tells me that the water from his well is 'sweeter' than anything the mains ever delivers, so I'm looking forward to fixing up ours...

Thank you

'Like' (oops sorry Brian but the fashion in which the poor Blackberry met its untimely demise really is comical)

@Nick - ha ha ha :-D

@Brian :-(

@Chris, we have a decent size 100mm cylinder pump designed to be dropped down a borehole and can pump up enourmous quantities of water from very deep down. It's in the well and I can't remember the make but they start at arounf 150€ from memory for a 100mm diameter 1m tall pump. that pumps up to a 100 litre pressured reservoir tank in our cave and the pressure switch turns the pump off at around 5 bar and it comes back on at around 3bar - can be adjusted as you see fit, we like powerful showers so it's pretty high. and that pressurused holding tank is connected (illegally - well water/rain water or other alternative system must use a completely separate plumbing system according to building regs!) straight into the house system at the same point as the mains water enters it - the mains water stays turned off for 6 to 9 months of the year when we use only well water. Once the water table drops too far then we switch back over to mains.

You need to ask Brian what he dropped down the well, not sure it gave him a more relaxed attitude though :-D))