So, the other day, I was messing around with my well, trying to figure out if it was pumping out enough water. I mean, who even thinks about this stuff until your shower turns into a sad little trickle? Not me, that’s for sure. Anyway, I decided to get to the bottom of this “good well flow rate” business.
Figuring Out My Well’s Flow Rate
First things first, I needed to actually measure my well’s flow rate. No fancy gadgets here, just a regular old 5-gallon bucket and my trusty phone timer. I turned on the tap closest to the pressure tank (important!), let it run for a bit, then stuck the bucket under there.
I timed how long it took to fill up that 5-gallon bucket. It’s all about getting gallons per minute (GPM), see? So, if it takes, like, 30 seconds to fill, you do a little math.
- 5 gallons / 0.5 minutes = 10 GPM. Boom. Basic math.
I repeated this a few times, just to make sure I wasn’t getting some weird fluke reading. You know, gotta be thorough, even if it’s just water from a well.
What’s “Good,” Anyway?
Okay, so I had my GPM number, but I had no idea if it was any good. Time to hit the internet. Turns out, there’s no single magic number, it depends on the all kind of factors.
I started my research and found the average, I did learn that for a typical house, somewhere around 6-12 GPM is generally considered pretty decent. But, bigger houses with lots of bathrooms and people? They might need more. If you’re watering your lawn or filling a pool, you definitely need more.
My Results
After all that bucket-filling and internet-searching, I figured out my well was pumping out about 8 GPM. Seems pretty average, which is a relief. No major water woes here, thankfully! At last, I got it!
But the whole experience got me thinking. It’s probably a good idea to check this every year or so, just to make sure things are still flowing smoothly. Nobody wants a water emergency, right?
