Repairing an Artesian Well (Success!)

A friend and I discovered today that the assembly of an artesian well near his Central Florida house had failed. An 'artesian well' is a well that naturally flows due to the pressure of the ground pushing on the aquifer from above. Therefore, you can't simply turn off the water...It will keep flowing until you stop it up in some way. The well was gushing water at an estimated 60 gallons per minute (1 gallon per second), which had put about 3 acres of land under water. We believe that this had been going on for a few weeks, as the inundated land had already established a small aquatic ecosystem.

After three trips to Home Depot and a lot of engineering analysis, we decided on a 3-inch rubber drain sleeve, a 3" to 2" PVC reducer, a 2" to 1" threaded adapter, onto which we screwed a brass water spigot. We pre-assembled the 3"-2"-1"-spigot using PVC cement, allowing it to cure for 3 hours. The pipe had a 3" outer diameter, and so did our rubber drain sleeve. To fit the rubber sleeve over the pipe, we beveled the bottom edge of the sleeve with a box cutter, which gave us mechanical advantage to stretch the rubber out and over the pipe. We used a stainless steel hose clamp to securely fasten the sleeve to the pipe. This was performed before the video was started. We then pushed the pre-assembled spigot assembly into the rubber sleeve...This was the interesting part...While allowing some of the water to flow out of the spigot and holding back the rest of the pressure of the water on the assembly, we tightened down another hose clamp to hold that in place. We then closed the valve on the spigot and the flow of water was stopped. No more flooding!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• artesian well
• artesian water
• exploded well
• well repair
• fix well
• well water

[Wallabydam]

good job!

[HurricaneTeen]

@Wallabydam

Thanks! From looking at your videos, it seems that we would get along. I like the homemade air conditioner.

[therockkkkher]

lived in n central fl. all my life, where abouts are ya !!

[HurricaneTeen]

@therockkkkher Born and raised in St. Johns County, but this video was made in Brevard County where I go to school. Got to love north Florida.

[micmdaaussie]

BP needs to look! Great job of capping your gusher. As far as pressure buildup, it's completely possible. This is one of the problems with the Gulf undersea gusher. A more permanent fix would be an elbow pipe same diameter with the rubber fitting and a valve. When you attach the short pipe to the well with the rubber piece, you can attach the elbow and then an open gate valve. Shut the valve, and attach permanent pipe to the wellhead. NOW, you can encase the wellhead in cement, fixing it good.

[HurricaneTeen]

@micmdaaussie Thanks very much for the suggestion! That definitely seems like a more permanent fix, as we are concerned about the degradation of the rubber with time.

[finpainter1]

You could lose your artesian if keep shut off to long.It will find another path.I have seen it happen.

[finpainter1]

You could lose your artesian if keep shut off to long.It will find another path.I have seen it happen

[therockkkkher]

so live and love man enjoy that free well like we all wished we had !!! born and raised in brevard too brotha, palm bay unfortunately, man thanks for reachin me back !!!