This is a question that no one can answer; everything depends on what sort of soil you encounter. Through sand I've drilled as fast as 30' in an hour, and on a good day through mostly easy soil I've drilled 90' in a day. Rocks and clay drill much slower of course - generally 3-36" an hour in clay, and .5-2" an hour in rock.

All that aside, I can tell you that you should be prepared to spend a week drilling your own well; that will get most people a well up to 100' even if they encounter moderate amounts of clay and rock. Many people, especially people who live in sandy areas or who are only going 30 or 40 feet can finish in as little as a day or two. But again let me emphasize that it all depends on what soil you find, and there is just no way to completely predict that.

It depends on what we're drilling in, the air pressure the drill is receiving, and your personal skill; in general, 5-30' (1.6-9 meters) an hour in sand, 3-36" (7.5-95cm) an hour in clay (or much faster if it's a clay/sand mix), and 0.5-2" (12-50mm) an hour in hard rocks.

This system has never been used for a horizontal bore, but I believe with a few modifications it would work great. Instead of using PVC for the drill stem, I'd use steel water pipe (to hold it rigid). That way it won't just dip down into the ground like gravity is going to want it to do. You'll have to dig out an area to work from on the high side of the road (if any) and then start a hole, and dig it sideways.

You'll also need to attach a hose to end of the drill to supply water at the source, which isn't usually necessary for a vertical well.

My rig can drill rocks, but it is slow. Even the big rigs slow down when they hit rocks. Whereas we might drill up to 20' per hour in sand, we may be as slow as .5" an hour in hard rocks. So it's not a well-stopper if you hit a few rocks, but on the other hand if you're living on a slab of iron ferrite a la Bruce Willis in Armageddon, don't buy my rig :)

And the worst kind of rocks are small round rocks between the size of a grape and a melon. Those are very hard to drill, for every rig, because you can't "bite" into them, so it just rolls off and won't drill through them. And yet they are too big to pump. There are a few work-arounds that some of my customers use that does make it possible to drill them, but they are time-consuming. So if much of that sort of rock is present, it may not be practical to drill your own well unless you have a lot of time to spend.

In theory, yes. I've never done it so I can't offer specific help with that, but this will drill a hole for a geothermal unit as well as for a well; in general it's easier to drill 6 holes 50' deep than 1 at 300'.

Actually, I wouldn't bother with the drill at all. You might be able to save a bunch of money by just using the air-powered water pump tubing available in our catalog - it only costs $24.95, takes a smaller compressor, and is designed to suck out sand from wells like that and clean them out. If it works at all, it will be much cheaper and probably will do as good a job for this specific application as the drill.

The drill is a consumable product, and will eventually wear out, in particular the bearings inside. I know people who have drilled 5 wells with a single tool, others who have needed several tools to finish a single well. A general rule of thumb is that with proper maintenance and storage the drill will last 60-150 hours of use. This is far more than you need for a single well unless you have difficult soil (a typical well should take about a week to drill). But if you do wind up spending a month on a well, you should figure you'll need an extra drill or two. The bit also wears out, but most people finish their wells without needing a second drill bit.

I have used this rig to drill holes to 210', 196', and 175' in three different holes. I see no reason why this system couldn't be used to go deeper, but I've never done it, so I discourage it. Generally we recommend that on your first well you stick to under 100' so that you can gain experience in a shallower well before progressing to a deeper one, but that may not be an option for you depending on where you live.

All of our kits ship with a bit to drill a 5.75" hole which is large enough for 4" PVC casing. Nearly all pumps on the market will fit in a 4" hole.

The compressor needs to be able to keep the air pressure at the drill above 90 PSI for optimal power. While it can drop below that without harming the drill, it will come with a noticeable loss in power, and below about 50 PSI it tends to stop altogether. The PSI ratings on your compressor are not important, the number that tells if your compressor can keep the PSI up while using a lot of air is CFM.

On the machine, it will have a number like "25 CFM @ 90 PSI". More is better, and you can't have too much. Generally speaking, the barest minimum is around 20 CFM and for good drilling you need closer to 30 CFM. Using a compressor smaller than about 17 CFM doesn't mean you'll drill more slowly, it means you won't drill at all.

If you don't have access to a large compressor, you have two good options; either buy one, use it for a few weeks and sell it as slightly used for a few hundred less than you paid for it... or just rent a diesel-powered trailer-mounted compressor which usually costs about $100 a day or $400 a week. Smaller compressors can be slaved together, but it can be tricky. Instructions for doing this, as well as complete details about compressor requirements, are in the DVD.

As I said (see my answer to 'How deep can you go with this system?'), I've gone as far as 210'. But the deeper you go, the more complicated it gets, so generally we recommend that on your first well you stick to under 100' so that you can gain experience in a shallower well before progressing to a deeper one. A 200' well is not twice as hard as a 100' well, it is four times as hard.

However, the good news is that most people in the country find water at less than 50'. And I've never had a customer drill to 100' and not find water! Never! But well drillers get paid by the foot. It is in their best interest to convince people that they have to drill deeper to find water, whether they need it or not. There is simply no money in drilling a 50' well for them, even if that would be all you needed.

To find out how deep you actually need to go, find out if any neighbors have wells and ask them to let you drop a float (pill bottle on a string, for instance) into their well and see where it floats. This will give you a much more accurate indication of where the first water level is, and where you actually need to drill to find water. You can also check the logs at the local courthouse; all professional well drillers are required to record the soil they drilled through, the depth they think they hit water, and so on. This is not always accurate - often they simply guess - but it is a place to start.

I've drilled to 210' here, so it can be done; but it can be quite difficult to go beyond 100' because several things make it more complicated. So I recommend that you stick to 100' or less at least on the first well. However, most people don't have to drill that far to get water; well drillers get paid by the foot, and 90% of the time they go 10 times (literally) deeper than necessary to get water. What I recommend you do is ask your neighbor to let you drop a small float (a pill bottle or a fishing bobber or something) on a string into their well, and see how far down it goes before it floats. Make sure it is floating by pulling up and listening to it splash, then pull it out and measure it. That is the first water level, and over 90% of the USA has that between 20 and 60 feet.

This water can be better quality water than deeper pockets, or vice versa; but depth doesn't necessarily equal better water. If you do find that your water level is within say, 100' (our recommended limit for a first well) then I would buy the plans and DVD (29.95) and familiarize yourself with those, which includes all the information you mentioned such as a parts list, etc. Then if you decide to go ahead and buy the kit, the price of the plans is refunded off the kit price. I recommend this to most people because there isn't a great deal of risk and you are fully informed when you buy the kit, which is always better.

No home well drilling system can go past 300'. With mine, technically, it might be possible to go deeper, but the time entailed would probably be quite prohibitive. I have gone 210' here, myself, but never farther than that. That said, it is highly doubtful that wells NEED to be drilled that deep in your area; I run into this all over the country. Bear in mind that well drillers get paid by the foot. It is to their best interests to dig as deep as they can get away with, even if you don't need it.

What I would do is find some neighbors with a well in your area, and ask to drop a float (a lightly-weighted pill bottle tied to a string works nicely) into their well and see where the *first* water is. That will give you an idea of how deep you might actually *need* to go to get your well drilled. Then if that's a more reasonable depth, and it almost always is, you can contact us and go from there :)

We recommend, when possible, using schedule 20 PVC, or SDR35. The reason this matters is, we normally drill a 5.75" hole; 4" schedule 40 pipe is 5.5" across at the bell (the widest part). So it just barely fits at the bells. On the other hand, schedule 20 is only 4.5" across at the bell giving you lots of extra wiggle room. This means it will fit inside the hole pretty easily, even if the hole isn't quite straight.

The hole drilled is not completely straight. No hole ever is, with any well drilling system. They always weave a bit to avoid a rock, or just meander over distance for one reason or another. Schedule 20 or SDR 35 pipe is flexible enough to follow the hole even if it weaves quite a bit. Schedule 40 doesn't like to bend much.It will fit, but the deeper you go the more likely it is to rub on the sides if the well isn't perfectly straight, and eventually it may grab so tightly you can't force it down any more. If you use schedule 40, you'll definitely want to use the spacers demonstrated on the DVD to encourage the hole to stay straight.

If you go beyond 100', I recommend drilling to 100' with the regular bit, then reaming with our 8" bit available at this link, then you have the option of casing to that depth with 6" (recommended) and drilling inside of it, or just drilling on down with the 5.75" bit and then casing all the way down with 4". This way you won't have the 4" pipe snagging or rubbing or getting stuck on the long way down.

As always, the DVD explains this in detail, and the 175' well I drill on the DVD is cased first with 6", then with 4" schedule 40 all the way down.

Yes, we can drill a well for 6" casing; however, you probably don't need to. The size of the casing does not affect water production hardly at all. And there are a large variety of 4" submersible pumps on the market, all of which are designed to fit inside of 4" PVC pipe with room to spare.

That said, if you do decide you need to drill a 6" cased well, you cannot just swap out for the bigger bit. Drilling such a big hole from scratch isn't practical, you'll have to drill a smaller hole first and then ream it out. So if you want to drill a well for 6" casing, you'll need both the 4" and the 6" casing bits - the 4" casing bit comes with the drilling kit, so just add the "drilling bit for 6" casing" to your cart before checkout.

Where you drill doesn't really matter because we have found, contrary to popular myth, water is nearly everywhere — underlying your entire property. It may be (slightly) deeper in one spot than another - usually a matter of no more than a few feet. But water can be found almost everywhere. So you shouldn't need to worry about finding water.

If you have a place that is significantly lower (by say, 20' or more) than the rest of the property, you're probably closer to water there because you're deeper. Otherwise, drill where it is convenient; in the shade in summer, in a sunny spot in winter.

You'll need a place with plenty of room to work. Ideally, you want at least a ten foot radius unobstructed by trees and buildings, and in one direction a clear path approximately 20 feet wide and 75 feet long to lay out your pipe. It is possible to drill in a smaller area (one customer even drilled inside a basement), but it is be inconvenient, especially for deep wells.

Well, the drill and expansion chamber assembly is rigid for the first 3 feet; that helps. And the few misdirections that drill will still make tend to cancel one another out. For most wells, we recommend using 4" thinwall PVC pipe which is relatively flexible so it will follow the hole even if it weaves a little bit.

That said, if you need a very straight well the DVD shows you how to make simple spacers which will ensure your hole is maintained quite straight, by keeping the drill and the drill stem aligned in the center of the hole, it has nowhere to go but straight down.

The reason wells cave in is because an empty hole weighs less than the dirt around it, which creates what is essentially a vacuum to pull the hole in on itself. By keeping the hole full of water at all times while drilling we stop most of it right there; but caveins are still possible, because water is lighter than dirt and so there is still a vacuum - though it is much weaker now.

However, all our kits ship with drilling mud, which is a long-chained polymer which bonds with water and the soil and makes the water heavier, and therefore less likely to cave in. It also bonds with the particles in the well wall and forms a thin layer to inhibit caveins; The mud we sell is superconcentrated so only a small amount is required, typically a pint will do a 100' well. Nothing can completely prevent caveins, but drilling mud makes a big difference!

Once you get to where you're confident the water is, you pull the well, drop the casing in, pour small gravel around it, and then fix up the surface however local regulations require; there is such a wide variation in legislations I can't offer much specifics on it, but in my area I fill the top 6' or so around the casing with concrete then pour a 4'x4' slab around the top of the casing. The DVD has full information on this, explaining how to comply with most of the regulations that might exist in your area, including grouting the well.

After the slab is in you start pumping out the silt with the pump included in the complete kit until the water runs clear; by then you'll have a good idea of how well your water is producing. Always test it locally or with any of the free water testing kits available on the internet before drinking it.

No, you can't usually feed pipe in as you go for several reasons; one, the drill (with the bit on it) is bigger than the pipe, so it wouldn't fit back through it. Second, you can't get the new pieces of pipe over the air hose and 1" pipe while you're drilling. Third, and most important, even if those others were overcome, the casing will get stuck as the sand stirred up by the drill settles around the outside of the pipe and freezes it in place; I've had it happen. It sounded like a good idea to me once, too. But even a few feet of sand is enough to make the casing permanently stuck in place.

Usually the walls don't cave in so fast that you can't get casing in after the well is drilled, I've drilled 210' here and I live in "Big Sandy", so you can imagine what sort of soil I have lots of... So no, I don't recommend it except in extremely unusual cases, and then only for short distances. Caving in is generally the least of our worries. There is one exception which is places that are within a few hundred yards of a large body of water; For example, drilling a well on the beach.

The good news in this case is you don't need to go deep to get water. The bad news is that there is so much water pressure that it literally blows the sand into the hole faster than it can be pumped out as soon as you hit water. So in this ONE case I sometimes recommend casing the first 20-30' with 6" pipe this way, adding as you go until the pipe inevitably freezes up, then continuing on inside of it as usual.

In very unstable soils we sometimes drill in stages if other methods fail, drilling to 50' or so and casing with 6" pipe, drilling to 100' inside that pipe and casing with 4" pipe, then even inside that with 3" and inside that with 2".

If you do decide to hook up multiple compressors, you'll need to construct a T junction that allows the compressors to be hooked together near each other. If you use similar sized compressors it is pretty straightforward. Just remember that CFMs aren't always figured the same way and 9+9 doesn't necessarly equal 18 CFM. Err on the safe side and make sure you have a few extra CFMs. Full information is on the DVD.

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Well drilling is the act of drilling a hole in the soil, until you get deep enough that water flows into that hole. All well systems drill the same type of wells, because all basically do the same thing - poke a hole in the ground.

Whether your water is drinkable or usable for houses, lawns, etc is totally dependent on the water you find down there. Some water is practically distilled, some is salty, some iron, some sulphur, and so on. Some of these can be drunk, some rot your pipes, some taste nasty, and a few are unhealthy. Usually your neighbors will know what sort of water you can expect to find in your area, so ask around.

The good news is the vast majority of wells provide good, healthy drinking water. And before drinking or using you should always have your water tested using any of the many free test kits available online; just type "free water test kits" into google.

It will use an astronomical amount of water if you do that, plus you will lose the drilling mud which you add. Finally, you won't really add much silt back to the well; the vast majority settles out in the setting pond. So there is no reason not to recycle the water, and every reason to reuse it. Every instruction we give is there for a very good reason, and is the result of thousands of dollars wasted learning how to do this on our own wells. We *strongly* recommend you save yourself a lot of headache and money and follow all the instructions to the letter!

It's difficult to say exactly; the best way is to ask your neighbors who have a well, if any, how deep their water level is, then pick a depth at least 20-30 feet below that as a target depth. Or if you want to be sure, go 40-50 feet deeper to be on the safe side. This point is also addressed in the plans in some detail, but generally, you may feel a change in the water temperature (suddenly colder) when you hit water, you may notice a difference in the sand that might indicate water (discussed in the plans), but the surest way is to let it set overnight. The vast majority of wells can't be finished in a day, so when you go back to the well after it setting overnight, you'll be able to either see the water standing in the hole, or drop a float to it. It will almost always be standing at the depth of your groundwater. That's the best way to tell. There are a few other more subtle indications, and the plans tell you about those.

Pressurized water, no, but you do need water. If running water is unavailable, barrels or tanks will be just fine. It's impossible to say how much you will need; it depends on how deep you go, what soil you drill in, how long it takes, etc. I generally try to keep 6 x 55 Gallon drums on hand at all times.

That may not be quite enough, it may be too much, but it's a good place to start, and it's usually enough for a day's drilling, and then just refill any empties each morning. Very sandy soils or wells that get very deep will take more.

After the kit, the largest expense is in the air compressor, which if you rent it costs about 350 dollars a week on average, plus fuel. If you don't have a compressor large enough to run the drill, the minimum cost including the kit is usually about 1000 dollars for a typical well, although it can easily be double that depending on soil conditions and local costs. Most of that cost is in the compressor, so having one or borrowing one will cut the cost dramatically. Don't forget to shop on Craigslist and look for used compressors! You might be able to buy one used at a good price, use it for a week or a month, and then sell it for the same amount you paid for it!

Look in the plans, chapter 9, FAQ #13; you'll see a code to use when checking out, and instructions for using it. If you can't find it or it doesn't work, let me know after you check out with a kit and I'll issue a partial refund for that amount.

To send a payment by check/money order, just check out on this website as usual, then when it asks you what sort of payment you want to make, select "check/money order" and you'll be taken to a page with a total price and an address where you can ship the payment. That way you get the total amount including shipping, and tax if applicable :)

Sure, any unused items can be returned for a 15% restocking fee (if purchased in the last 90 days, else 20%; see refunds. Unfortunately, we cannot accept returns on any used items.

To start the return process, just contact us using the form below and let us know you're returning it, then you can send it back to the address on the box. Once received, it may take up to 14 days for your return to be processed and refunded.

Please note that items must be received in good condition, so make sure it's packed well; you might need to add some packing material since the first trip through the mail probably caused it to settle somewhat. Also, please write your name and phone number on a note inside the box, in case your label gets damaged.

Not even professional drillers who do all the drilling themselves can guarantee that you'll find water or that the water will be good. There are simply too many variables. We do everything we can to make your well a success, but we can't control how deep your water is, how much free time you have available to invest, how many hundreds of feet of rock you might have to go through, or how long it will take.

If it's our fault, we'll make it right; but ultimately, you're buying the information and/or a tool to try and drill your own well. A tool which many have successfully used to drill a well.

But regardless, you're buying the tool to try and drill a well, you're not buying a well. If you want to buy a finished, cased well, then your only option is to hire someone to drill a well for you. This usually costs much more, as you probably already know, but it is a relatively sure thing. Anything you do yourself never is :)

For detailed warranty and return information, see Privacy & Returns

Yes, you can see many pictures customers sent back of their successful wells, many of whom added comments to their pictures. I know some customers have used the drill at least a half a dozen times to drill wells.

Unfortunately, the vast majority who buy my drill purchase it and I never hear from them again, which I can only assume means they were successful - no news is good news! Most don't take the time to come back and leave a review. But you can! When you finish your well, send me your photos/videos and a short review and you'll receive a free gardening DVD! (29.95 value!)

No, due to privacy policies I am unable to connect you with anyone who doesn't opt to leave their personal information in a review.

Most customers use a jet pump; these are the cheapest option if your water is less than 75' deep. If it's deeper than that, you'll need a submersible pump. You can buy either at most home improvement stores, along with pressure tanks, and google has lots of resources to walk you through setting it up and plumbing it. Then you just hook that up to your water system and go from there.

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