3 Questions You May Have About Well Pumps

Posted on: 28 May 2020

When you have a water well that you rely on, the water well pump becomes a piece of equipment that occupies a lot of your attention. The pump is responsible for getting water from the well and to your home where it is needed, so making sure you have the right option is ever-important. Here is a look at a few questions you may have about well pumps. 

1. Why are submersible pumps better for deep wells?

Jet pumps, which are essentially above-ground well pumps, pull water from the well and then push it through water lines to your home. Submersible pumps go down into the well and push water from the well up through the water lines and to your home. It can require a substantial amount of energy for a jet pump to pull water up from a deep well, but it can do fairly well if you have a relatively shallow water well. By comparison, a submersible well pump is capable of pushing water up from a deep well without requiring as much energy to do so. 

2. How do you know how many GPMs you need with a well pump?

GPM (gallons per minute) tells you how many gallons of water a pump can get to your home in a 60-second time frame. All well pumps have a GPM rating, and the rating can vary pretty drastically from one model to the next. The general rule is you need at least a gallon every minute for every water-related fixture yo have in your home. For example, if you have two sinks, a washing machine, and a shower, you will need a pump that can offer at least four GPMs. If you don't have at least this much, you will see a lag when you are using multiple appliances at once. 

3. How deep can a jet pump pull water from?

A typical two-line jet well pump will do fine with a well that is between 30 and 80 feet deep, but it is only going to give you about four GPMs if you have a half-horsepower pump. Of course, the higher horsepower models are going to give you a higher output rate at a similar depth. This is why submersible well pumps tend to work out better for deeper wells; the jet pumps will see a significantly lower pump rate the deeper they have to pull water from. 

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