Well Pumps, Booster Pumps and Equipment-I am not really sure how to title this. We do more than just well pumps
American Water can help you with any Pump project you may have. We do well pumps for residential, commercial, and landscaping projects. We also specialize in well pumps for communities and other public water supplies. In addition to well pumps we handle booster pumps, transfer pumps, line shaft turbines, chemical feed pumps or any other pumping situation you may have. American Water is a stocking dealer of Sta-Rite pumps and equipment. We are also dealers for Berkeley, Franklin, and Grundfos pumps. Our philosophy is to sell and install the best quality products available and to do the best job possible. We want to install products and do quality work that will outlast many of our competitors.
We take many steps to make sure out jobs are the best possible. Here is a list of things we do that others may not.
Install a 2nd check valve on the submersible pump. Most pumps come with a built in check valve but something as simple as a few grains of sand can keep them from sealing perfectly and will cause the pump to cycle on and off even when no water is used. This results in higher power bills and more wear on your pump and electrical controls. We install a 2nd check valve in the pump as a backup to the built in one. On deep set pumps we will install an additional one at the top of the well.
Install Sch 80, Sch 120, or steel pipe. We believe in using a rigid pipe in the well unless a situation doesn’t allow it such as the well covered by non-removable building or no truck access to the well. The type of rigid pipe used id dependent on the size of the pump and the depth it will be set. Black roll pipe is an alternative to this that makes for quicker and cheaper installs. The down side to black roll pipe is in its flexibility and pressure rating. Each time the pump starts up it shakes the pipe. With rigid pipe this can
controlled using torque arrestors. With a flexible pipe you have to us a lot more torque arrestors to achieve the same movement limitation. The big problem with movement in the well is it beats the pump against the rock walls of the well and it also causes the wire to rub the rock walls. This will eventually lead to failure of either the pump or the wire. Another problem is many times black roll pipe installed past its pressure rating. The most common black roll pipes have either a 160 or 200 psi rating. That mean if have a standard 40/60 pressure switch you will have 60 psi max pressure at your house. That only leaves 100 psi to get water from the well and into your house for 160 psi pipe and 140 psi for 200 psi pipe. Since it takes 1 psi of pressure to raise water 2.31 feet this black roll can one be installed 230 feet for 160 psi and 320 feet for 200 psi. We have found many cases where it has been installed 400-600 feet deep.
Install torque arrestors. We install a minimum of 2 of this on every job we do except for steel pipe. Steel pipe is generally heavy and rigid enough it doesn’t move much. One of these is normally placed right above the pump and the other 20 feet up. On deep wells or wells that are not plumb additional ones may be needed.
Install pitless adapters. On almost every job we do we set the pump on a pitless adapter. This is a device the bolts to the side of the well casing below ground. The pipe from you well pump an the pipe in the ground connects to this so there are no exposed pipes to freeze. Since there is nothing to freeze you don’t
have to work about building anything over the well head or buying and expensive insulated cover. Mice love living in those insulated covers and well houses so this also make the area around the well more sanitary.
Taping. We tape the wire to the pipe using a 2” pipe wrap tape every 10 feet the entire distance. This holds the wire tight to the pipe and helps prevent it from rubbing the rock sidewalls of the well. We also tape the couplings at each joint and any other fittings to limit rust and corrosion from the water coming into contact with the metal parts.
Well Tanks. We stock and sell Well-X-Trol brand pressure tanks. These tanks have a proven history of outlasting other brands. They have the longest warranty of any brand tank at 7 years and have a higher pressure rating than any other equivalent tank. They also have antimicrobial liners to limit potential bacteria growth in the tank and are designed in a way to limit mineral buildup inside the tank.