Waterline installation
 

Thinking about replacing the water pump on the shore with a well pump out in the lake as this seems like it would be a better system and less work when opening and closing. Those who have such a system, any advice on finding an installer and a rough idea of cost? Also looking to put in a tankless hot water heater - if the same person can do both, great.

The cost of a well pump compared to a jet pump is substantial. I'm actually surprised this is even legal considering if there is ever a problem with the wiring somebody could get seriously shocked, possibly killed as those run on 220V. Furthermore it's not needed and completely over kill for the task at hand.

Frankly having a jet pump setup should not be painful at all and if what you have is put together with the right parts and "engineering" putting it together or taking it apart should be easy and accomplished in a matter of minutes.

I rebuilt my mine when I bought my place and basically used cam-lock (quick release) fittings everywhere it made sense to create a breaks in the system for quick assembly and disassembly. I even put one on top of the pump with a cap for priming it. The nice thing is there are plugs that can be bought for when the system is apart to prevent critters from moving in.

In fact since I moved up here in mid april I had a couple nights where it got far enough below freezing to where I had to do an emergency blow of my water system. Start to finish takes about 20 minutes from fully charged to fully drained, including blowing out all the house lines with a compressor. Oh and did I mention NO TOOLS required!!!! That is huge!

Well worth the money invested.

https://www.universalhoseandfittings...iAAEgKW-fD_BwE

Why these are not widely used is beyond me. The morons that did the plumbing on my place had pieces that had to be screwed together, and the assembly not only made no sense but it was terribly time consuming and frustrating to deal with. Even better it was done supposedly by a "licensed" plumber.

well pump success
 

We've been in (built in '60) the same camp for 60 years. We started with jet pumps and they had to be replaced every few years. In the course of doing that, we relocated the pump to avoid the noise. It never really worked. About 20 years ago, ISS installed a well pump. Absolute blessed silence. Never had an electrical issue. We do run the feed lines (water and electric) through an extra 6" piece of PVC close to the shore to provide extra protection where the feeds rub against shoreline rocks and ice. No problems there either. The pump, etc are all outside our breakwater where there is no boat traffic. We do not run a winter bubbler. If you live on the mainland, any plumber can do the job.

We have a submerged pump that was installed by ISS six years ago. The cost then was about $2,800 including the stand for the pump, new tank and new water lines. I don't know if they still do water installs.

It is nice, on a cold day in April, to just shut a few valves including the drain valve at the shore, hit the power switch and watch the pressure come up.

I am with Maxum on this one.... My system is very easy to deal with... I didn't go the cam lock route.... but may in the future....

Follow-up
 

I spent some time looking in to it and concluded that (1) given where we swim/boat and where the electric would run, I wasn't comfortable with the setup and (2) the cost, coupled with my concerns about the power in the water, is going to cause me to leave the system as it is.

That said, when I shut down this winter I will do so with the intent of making some changes before opening back up.

Appreciate the input!

I think you will find as I did, that once you spend a little time figuring out to make it easy on yourself it isn't to bad....I am making yearly improvements as I go....

if you have a submersible pump you should have a GFI breaker feeding the power. It should take away the electric shock issue. They are not cheap.

Use both - best of all worlds
 

A few years ago, I installed a well pump at the end of our long water intake line (300 ft, we're in a shallow area). But I only use it as a primer pump to save 25 minutes of pouring water down into a funnel and having the pump spray it back in my face and everything else when we open it. Now, the well pump runs for about 15 seconds, it fills the water line from the bottom up, then I shut it off and switch to the jet pump, fully primed and ready. No risk of electrocution for people when the water is way too cold to swim, and GFCI is inline anyway. If you wire it to share the pressure switch with the jet pump, and put in bypass piping, then it can act as a full backup in case your jet pump fails. You can run the primer pump longer with a relief valve open to purge the jet pump rust and crap out of the line also before turning on the jet pump.

I got the cheapest smallest 120V well pump and it has way more pressure and volume than we would ever need. So no need to spend a lot on the pump itself. Hardest part was the wiring (must be super-watertight) and building a sled to hold it securely off the bottom.

Are you still allowed to draw water from the lake? Do I remember hearing they were thinking about stopping it a while back?

Never heard of that. A few thousand islanders facing water shutoff would have created an uproar.


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No, it was only for NEW installations. I don't see how they could do that though exactly because of what you said.