“While all wells can be tested, not all well tests are equal. Wells are tested for a variety of reasons, to include productivity, quality of water and the condition of the pumping equipment and controls.“
Why 4 Hours?
The longer a well is pumped, the lower the static water level in the well will drop. A drop in static water level will cause the pump to move less water to surface. This basic information means most (but not all) flow tests will start with a higher flow or Gallons Per Minute (GPM), than they end with. We have thousands of cataloged data sets for wells in the Pacific Northwest and this is almost always the case.
Pricing
Residential Well Tests start at $650.
Upon receiving your request for a Residential Well Test, one of our technicians will reach out to either you or your realtor(s) to organize when the property can be accessed and the Well Test performed.
Should you require Water Quality Samples for your own knowledge or for loan purposes, our technicians can collect these at the same time as your well test and deliver to an authorized water testing facility in Spokane for additional cost.
Well Test results are emailed to the client and realtor(s) within 1-3 business days and Water Quality Results are emailed to client upon receipt from lab.
Before Scheduling a Residential Well Test
Before a Residential Well Test is scheduled, our technician will first need to know a few things about the property:
- Where the pressure tank, pressure switch and control box are located
- If the property is easily accessible by vehicle
- That power is supplied to the well system, or if we need to bring equipment to power our well testing equipment (this incurs additional cost)
- Permission is granted by the owner for our access to the property and well systems
What systems are inspected in our Residential Well Test
When our technician comes the the property for the well inspection, they will be looking at all systems pertaining to your well system.
- Pressure Tank – PSI of the pressure tank will be taken after the tank is drained of water
- Pressure Switch – a visual inspection of the pressure switch will tell the technician of what type of pressure switch is present and note the condition of the pressure switch (looking for corrosion, damage, etc)
- Control Box – the control box indicates well pump size and can allow the technician to estimate parameters for flow
Reviewing Your Well Test Result
When you receive your Residential Well Test Results, you will see a representation of the tested wells flow over time (an example is provided above). This will give the well’s Gallon’s Per Minute or GPM.
Residential Well Testing Key Points
When reviewing the results of a flow test there are a few key points to look for regardless of which company tests your well. Items that will set a potentially good well test apart from one of lesser quality is the time between recording flow or depth of water. The standard in residential flow tests are recorded at 10 – 30 minute intervals. Our equipment is recording at intervals of 1 – 10 seconds this ensures that no data goes unaccounted for. There is often minute data in the charts that indicate how the well is responding to the test than can be overlooked if longer duration are used.
The tools used to measure flow of water matter greatly. It is better to use a five gallon bucket with a known mark to stop at than to use a cheap flow-meter. All of our meters are top of the line and of major brand names, they are calibrated as necessary by third parties and are NIST traceable. The item that matters most though is the competency of the person you hire to test your well, there is no replacement for sound judgement, experience and taking the task at hand seriously. We recommend avoiding companies that test wells as side jobs, hobbies or inconsistently, we do not recommend that you have a home inspector test your well.
While this article does not cover all aspects of residential well testing it does give you a brief overview, for further questions please do not hesitate to give us a call.