Water Flow Rates

Determine Your Flow Rate

How much water can you draw from a water well or bore without pumping it empty is different in every case.

Water Wells and bores

If your water well or water borehole is newly drilled one of the first things you will need to do is to determine the flow rate. The flow rate is the maximum rate at which water may be drawn or pumped from it without pumping it dry. The flow rate therefore is equal to the natural rate at which the well or borehole refills. The natural fill rate will depend on many things and may vary at different times of the year or during prolonged dry or wet periods. It may fill at a rate as low as one litre per minute or it may be an artesian well with water gushing out of the ground or anywhere in-between which is the most commonly place.

As part of the process of a hand dug well or borehole water pump system, a flow test report becomes an essential component. Pumps and pipe work systems will be throttled according to your borehole or well's maximum yield to ensure that it is not pumped dry and to reduce stress on the pump. Pumping a well or borehole dry can increase the chances of your pump pumping sand and grit which has not had time to naturally fall to the borehole sump or hand dug well floor.

water flow ratesThe yield rate is core to the setup of the pumping system and every aspect and part of the system will be setup according to this yield rate. Filtration systems and individual water filters are and will be specified based on both water test results and flow rates so as you can see flow rates are extremely important to almost any setup.

South Coast Water will determine the maximum yield rate for you (in the case of a newly drilled water bore hole, some days after the lining has been done to allow the borehole water level to settle down). Older hand dug water wells and old boreholes may need to be cleaned first prior to this test as they can become clogged over many years of little or no use. The purpose of the flow rate test therefore is to determine how much water you can extract in any 24 hour period and how quickly you can do that.

Water Well cleaning.
If your well is old or has been sat unused for a long time, it may benefit from cleaning. Some water wells respond well (no pun intended) to cleaning and can increase water flow rates considerably.

If your hand dug well is shallow it may be cleaned easily provided it is wide enough for a man to get inside it. Here at South Coast Water we have had many, many years experience and use only specialist equipment to descend a well and professionally clean it so please do not attempt to clean a well yourself or by ladder.

Deep water wells may also be treated with lime or a specialist chemical we use though it is usually a less effective process as the walls and base of the well cannot be accessed due to its depth.

Please contact us for a quotation for well cleaning.

Flow tests usually take between 1 and 2 days to accurately assess and measure your current flow yield / rate on a hand dug well and for a borehole it is usually 1 day. All flow tests are carried out with specific equipment and is not guess work.

Please contact us if you would like information regarding flow tests or If you would like us to carry out a flow test on your old well or drilled borehole.