How do I correctly prime a well with a pool pump?

[slythic]

Hi all,

I would like to test the water in my well but I'm having a very difficult time trying to prime my pump with the well.

The pump works well with my pool but when I physically hook up the pump to the well it just doesn't work. When we purchased the house, we were told the pool had been recently filled with the well water so I'm assuming the well is still functional.

Any tips on what I should be doing or what I'm doing wrong?

[mas985]

How deep is the well?

What pump are you trying to use?

Only an in-ground pool pump will prime with the pump well above the water line and that is usually limited to about 8' or so.

[slythic]

Thanks for the reply mas985!

I'm using the pools in-ground pool pump (1.5HP single speed).

Unfortunately I have no clue how deep the well is though, but I'm pretty sure it's deeper than 8'. I believe an average well in this area (of course it all depends on who did it) is about 50' or so. So that's probably the problem I'm having.

What is the correct pump to use if the well is 25-100' deep?

[mas985]

A deep well (submersible) pump is the only thing that will pump water that high. It is theoretically impossible to suction lift water more than about 34' but practically, it is much less that (~25'). So the only way to do this is to put the pump at the bottom of the well and push the water up with a high head pump.