Understanding a Well Test - Wells 10 of 10 - Why Some Well Water Tests Are Better

Depending on the type of well recovery test you got, the well flow test results may be very important or relatively useless. If the well is tested to determine the amount of water the well is producing in the ground but it isn't tested to determine how much water the well can make at the house, does the test actually matter? It is important to know how your well is being tested
0:00 - Intro
0:12 - Passing well recovery test
0:40 - Failed well test by low flow
0:56 - Well ran dry
1:58 - Why it ran dry
2:36 - Pump too powerful
3:56 - Theory isn’t that important
5:06 - Don’t open the well
5:54 - Testing amperage
8:45 - Expensive standalone testing
9:43 - If issues are found
10:29 - Use a home inspector
11:12 - Taking ownership of the well
11:52 - Wrapping up
Two Moose Home Inspections is a residential home inspection company based out of Silverthorne, Colorado.
Two Moose Home Inspections includes thermal imaging and 360 degree photos with every home inspection. Two Moose Home Inspections also offers sewer scope inspections, radon testing, drinking water testing, well recovery testing, and walking on roofs as add-on services.
Our primary service area includes Summit County, Clear Creek County, Eagle County, Grand County, Lake County, and Park County. The First Step gives you the option of scheduling a home inspection or sending us a question. We hope to do business with you soon.
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[@user-sl1vu3oj3l]

This video is a great demonstration of why you should get a specialist to test your well (it's not that expensive). The reason to get a good well test (at the well) is because it is the only part of your water system that can't be fixed. Pumps can be replaced, plumbing can be repaired, but ultimately the well/aquifer flow rate is the ultimate limiting factor of how much water you can use. A couple of minor points: 1) When the pump flow rate is higher than what the well/aquifer can deliver, you can install a storage tank. The well pumps into the storage tank at its own pace and another pump draws water from the tank and sends it to the house. The well/aquifer is still the ultimate limiting factor, but the tank allows for a continuous supply water to the house as the well recovers. 90% of the wells in my area are set up this way. The other 10% run off of wells that flow enough running dry is not an issue. 2) You don't have to manually shut the pump off if it runs dry. The control box has a timer that automatically restarts the pump after a pre-set amount of time. 3) "Tributaries"?

[@HumanBeingPresent]

Thank you! I'm a realtor and have to help my clients understand well tests. This video has helped me a lot.

[@twomoose]

Thanks, I am glad that you found my video!! Happy home sales :)

[@gideon805]

Thank you for this excellent and detailed information!

[@twomoose]

Thanks Aj I am glad that you found this video series!

[@benwilmarth5473]

Love the videos! Any video specifying best way to test well (performance / recharge rate) in order to properly design an irrigation system off of it?

[@twomoose]

Hey Ben, There are many ways to test the flow rate of your home's water supply. Easiest way is to time how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket with water. Once you know your Gallon Per Minute flow rate, then you determine how may zones you need to make for your irrigation system. If you have a well, there should be a pressure dial near the expansion tank, but if you don't, you can buy a pressure indicator that attaches to a garden hose to know how much pressure your system has. Each emitter will have specifications for flow rate and pressure, and if you have a significant amount of emitters, you might need to divide your total irrigation system into tiny zones so that each emitter will be supplied with the proper flow. You may also want to look into series and parallel systems to ensure even distribution of flow and pressure. (There are tons of online resources about this)
If you plan on having your irrigation run for longer than 1 hour at a time and you are on a well, you may want to make sure that your well can handle the demand by keeping a close eye on your irrigation the first few times it is used for long periods of time. If you timer is advanced enough, you may want to setup the irrigation to run for 20 minutes and then rest for 20 minutes for whatever length of time you want to run the system.

[@benwilmarth5473]

@@twomoose
With this chat I’m focused on talking about the process and tricks of exercising / testing a well properly so that when the irrigation zones are designed (psi/gpm) considering total water window on a hot night that we ensure we don’t over stress the well with its proprietary recharge rate. I think you get what I’m after here and this is the tutorial I haven’t seen anyone do on UA-cam yet. You could be the first!:) Can you do a video showing your process as you would roll up to a home with a well?

[@twomoose]

@@benwilmarth5473 Hey Ben, any time you test a well, you are only getting a snap shot of the condition of the well on the day of the inspection. Wells are sometimes more of a moving target, so a single data point wouldn't get you want it sounds like you are looking for. It is important to understand that when you draw water from a water table you create a cone of depression. This cone affects the water table, flow rates, and even surrounding wells. Similarly other wells that draw from the same water table / aquifer will change the water table and create their own cones of depression.
If you want specifics about your well in terms of water table, depth, recovery rate from the cone of depression, etc. then you would need a well contractor who is able to take off the well cap and do some calculations. This will only tell you about your well's abilities, not your pump's ability or your pipe's ability. However, one data point doesn't give you what it seems like you are looking for. To get what you are asking for which is a definitive number to describe your wells performance through all seasons, you would need to hire this contractor multiple times. The more data that you get the more clear your understanding of the well will be. However, dry season, wet seasons, drought and many other things can skew your data or make it completely invalid. Additionally, the next year all of you numbers could be different for many reasons
If you are making a massive irrigation system for a farm or some other use, then you need to be aware of any local, state, or federal regulations about the amount of water that you can use because water rights are a very serious topic.
At the end of the day you can size an irrigation system off of the data that you have an then modify watering schedules year to year or season to season to ensure that you are not over stressing the well. You can only do the best that you can do, and provide yourself with flexibility in your system. During dry seasons you may even need supplemental support from a water storage tank, but you might not know that until much later.
If you connect a calibrated flow meter to your water supply and run your water for two hours or until your well runs dry whichever comes first then you will know exactly how many gallons of water your well can produce. You can then apply that data to your calculations. Beyond the information of using a calibrated flow meter to determine total volume produced, you can generalize your well's performance by filling a 5 gallon bucket at standard intervals during a 2 hour test or until the well runs dry to approximate the total volume produced by the well, but again.... the well will change season to season and year to year, so you can only do your best. (Sorry, No current plans to make a video about our process)

[@benwilmarth5473]

@@twomoose
This is perfect
Can’t tell you how much I appreciate your time. This is great information abd confirmation to what little I have found in substantial research so far.
Hopefully someone big in the industry will do a video covering the 101 approach to west you just said to help protect contractors from mis calculating by way too much down the rd.