Hi,

A little history I bought a samll farm in North Carolina where the main house had a well and there was a second well for a house that no longer exists. Since my wife and I have started a small plant business and are using the second well for plant irrigation and such.

I really know nothing about how things are supposed to be and I didn't know anything when I set this up. But when I started 2 years ago there was just an old pump sitting on top of the well and an very old pressure tank. I went and bought a flowjet 3/4 HP jet pump and used the existing pipes that go down into the well and I actually got everything work where the first year I had no problem. Last year I started seeing issues with water delivery and now I'm looking into solving my problems for good.

Up until this year I didn't have to run the water with the exception of in warm weather and now I'm building greenhouses and I'll have to run the water all year long.

Anyhow here are the problems and questions I have:
* I think the well is at least 50' in depth
* The collar in the well cap that the pipes come up through is in bad shape. Is the purpose of this to hold the pipes that come up through from below?
* When I set it up I simple put the pump on the well concrete lid. I am now seeing a crack in the lid. This is probably a rookie mistake but I'm not sure but how far away can the pump be from the well? Can the pump be on the lid? How is a pump normally mounted?
* I replaced the tank but I only installed a 7 gal tank but the size of the inlet/outlet is only 3/4 inch but the rest of the system is plump with 1" black pipe. Will this effect the system in having a smaller pipe on the pressure tank? One thing new that I noticed is when I open a spigot all the way that is plump with 1" pipe the pump can not keep the pressure up to continue serving water. When it is open ful blast the pressure drops low enough and the pump just starts spinning its' wheels. Could this be because of the smaller outler on the bladder tank?
* Due to several leak I really need to replump the whole thing and I'd like to do it as close to right this time as I can so I don't have to do this all again next year. I've used the 1" black slip on pipe to plump the whole setup now but I plan on using PVC this time due to leaks with the other.

So the biggest issues are to know what the role of the collar is the pipes come out of the well and where exacly the weight from the pipes coming out of the well is supposed to rest. The other thing is how to rest the pump so that it is secure. The well is out in the middle of a field.

If someone could post a picture of a good jet pump setup so I can see it I'd be forever grateful.

Here's an idea of what the setup looks like. This isn't a good look but it at least shows where the pump is sitting.
http://www.apotofitsown.com/mums/DSCN1751.JPG

Here's what I am currently feeding:
http://www.apotofitsown.com/mums/DSCN1759.JPG

Rich

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