Hi all. The wife and I had a well dug recently for a piece of property were turning into a nice little homestead.

The well is 500 feet deep and puts out 10 gallons per min. I'm looking to use it for irrigation for our garden, water the chickens in the middle of summer when the rain collection doesn't provide enough and the property is without electric.

I don't have much experience with well pumps and  looking for a DC pump that will pump that deep at a reasonable rate.  My thought was to set it up like my house having it pump into a pressure tank then out for irrigation (to be used sparsely) and a hose spigot for water needs.

Does anyone have any advice or experience doing this?  Would it be better to use an ac pump and a generator? I was thinking of setting up a proper solar array n some batteries

Appreciate the help

You didn’t cite the well specs from the drilling report...


Assuming a viable, deep well with decent flow:
Ferguson for acquisition..
3/4 HP stainless steel pump.
Associated 1” well line and 10/2 power source.
Adequately sized pressure tank.
60/40 switch.
Possible cistern to augment agricultural base watering.

Everything necessary to move water from its source to its destination.

What specs should I be looking for the only paperwork I got from them was the invoice saying the well was 500 feet deep with a supply of water at 10 gallons per minute

To get any flow worth figuring on you will be looking at a 220V AC pump .
You are going to need a lot more information  to size your pump . You need your static and drawdown water levels to determine your lift head ( Just because the hole is 500 ft doesn't mean you will pump from there  or even close to there ) .  and from there you can determine how many gpm you want/need  and horsepower of the pump according to the manufacturers published pump curve . I really recommend you stay with 3 wire pumps that have a control box rather than the 2 wire style with built in controllers.

A channel that might just be your new best friend as a new to wells guy

https://www.youtube.com/c/RCworstwater/videos

All I will say is to temper your expectations. Pumping water from a deep well without grid power is a costly endeavor. If this is an occasional use property a generator and gas is likely your cheapest option. A solar setup capable of pumping from a 500' well is going to be a few thousand dollars on the cheap end of the spectrum.

^^^This.

The working/lift head that you have to overcome is the difference between your pumping water level (static level plus drawdown) and land surface, plus friction loss in the pipes and any lift required to get it to your tap.  For instance, many 500 ft deep wells in Florida are (were) artesian - no pump required to get the water out of the ground.  But if you're starting with a water level significantly deeper than the ground level and your well only makes 10 gpm, your pumping level may be several hundred feet down.  Deeper pump setting depth requires more drop pipe and greater working/lift head to overcome.

Buying a pump isnt as simple as just buying a pump. You need to know your static water level, i.e. the level when the well isnt being drawn. This is your initial lift head. You then need to know your drawdown. This is the difference between your static level and your "producing" level, i.e. the level the water settles at when you are using the well.

From this information, you can look at a pump curve to determine your horsepower rating and flow rate. At that depth, it would not surprise me in the least for you to need a 1.5hp pump unless your water table is extremely shallow. Also, 10gpm refill rate does not mean 10gpm pump. Again, it would surprise me if you did not wind up with a 5gpm pump at that depth. Also, get a soft start 2 wire pump. They dont have the initial inrush and surge when they start. Makes them easier to power off a generator as they do not require the huge inrush of current to get the stack moving.

From there, you want the largest pressure tank you can possibly afford. This is not an area to spare expense, because doing so will cost you more in the long run. Cycles kill pumps, and that is a fact that well drillers take to the bank, which is why they always supply the smallest pressure tank possible. A submersible pump needs three things to ensure a long and healthy life: minimum, MINIMUM of 1 minute runtime (more is better), a shroud, and as few number of cycles as possible. With my new pressure tank set at 40/60, I get about 23 gallons of draw before the pump comes on. When it does, the pump runs for about 5 minutes to hit the pressure cutoff again. What this translates to is that my pump runs, on average, 5-6 times a day depending on usage. With your standard 5 gal draw pressure tank, that number ballons to 25-30 cycles a day.

As far as AC vs DC... It would be extremely hard IMO to pull this off with DC power just based on the items discussed. Not saying it couldnt be done, but its really going to depend on how deep your pockets are.

Thanks for all the info folks.  Seems to be a bit more complicated than I originally though. Guess we'll be hiring someone that does this for a living to put the pump in.

Dropping a pump in a 500 ft well is not a task for someone with no well experience. Find someone that will let you watch and learn as they drop it down and hook everything up.