To Drill a Water Well, Powered Equipment is Required. This Increases the Speed and Depth That Can Be Reached.

To drill a water well, powered equipment is required. This increases the speed and depth that can be reached.

Are you interested in learning more about used water well drilling equipment? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

Note: The content on this page has been adapted from publications of Lifewater International, written by Fred Proby.

The objective in choosing a method to drill a water well is to use the least expensive method that can be successful given the type of material that must be drilled through and the depth that must be drilled to reach an acceptable source of groundwater.

Often, there are no options, and the choices we have are limited, maybe even non-existent. But the method used to drill a water well must match the geology.

Powered Methods Used to Drill a Water Well

Most manual well drilling methods have been adapted to use machine power instead of human power. Also, powered methods have been developed that can drill larger diameter boreholes much deeper and faster than any manual method. Machines used to drill a water well are typically called a "drill rig" or just a "rig".

Jetting

This method employs a pump to force a flow of water down a drill pipe and out a narrow nozzle to make a ''jet'' of water that loosens the sediment. The return flow of water outside the drill pipe carries cuttings up to the surface and into a settling pit. The pump then returns the water back down the pipe. The drill pipe is suspended from a tripod and rotated by hand to keep the borehole straight.

Advantages:

This method only requires lengths of pipe and a water pump that can generate sufficient pressure. The pipe is often left in the ground to serve as the well casing.

In fine sand, a 5 cm diameter PVC pipe can be rapidly advanced to more than 60 meters. It only takes two people to jet a well.

Disadvantages:

Jetting is only suitable for soft, fine-grained sediments. Gravel is too heavy for the return water to bring it to the surface.

The diameter of the borehole is only slightly larger than the drill pipe/casing. Therefore, it is difficult to install an adequate sanitary seal to protect the well from surface water contamination.

Cable Tool

This is a mechanized version of manual percussion drilling. The heavy drill bit and related parts are called the ''tools'' and they are raised and dropped on a steel cable.

Cuttings are removed with a bailer. Several meters of water must be maintained in the borehole to keep the cuttings suspended. The machinery ranges from a very simple skid-mounted powered winch with a tripod to a complex set of pulleys and drums with a large mast.

The larger cable tool rigs are mounted on a trailer or the bed of a truck and use hydraulic motors to raise and lower the mast and rotate the drums of cable.

Advantages:

A cable tool rig can drill through anything. The larger versions can drill a water well hundreds of meters deep. Compared with other powered drill rigs, the machinery is simple and has a relatively low rate of fuel consumption

Disadvantages:

Compared to other drill rigs of a similar size, a cable tool rig will drill a water well very slowly. When drilling in loose sediments, it is necessary to drive steel pipe behind the drill bit to keep the borehole from collapsing.

The sections of this drive casing must be welded together going in and cut apart coming out. So an arc welder and a cutting torch are needed on all but the smallest cable tool rigs.

The tools on a medium to large sized rig are very heavy and require a cable and winch to move around. There are many ways to get injured on a cable tool rig.

Mud Rotary

This method used to drill a water well starts with the basic concept of well jetting described above. Add a larger cutting bit, lengths of steel drill pipe with threaded joints, a motor to turn and lift the drill pipe, and a sturdy mast to support the pipe and you have the elements of a mud rotary drill rig. A further refinement is mixing bentonite clay or other materials in the water to improve its ability to lift cuttings out of the hole; this fluid is called ''drilling mud'' or just ''mud.''

There are many kinds of mud rotary drill rigs used to drill a water well. They fall in two basic categories; table drive, where the drill pipe is turned by a rotating mechanism near the base of the rig, and top-head drive, where the drill pipe is turned by a motor attached to the upper end of the pipe.

In both types, the upper end of the drill pipe is attached to a lifting mechanism that raises and lowers it along the mast. Both types of mud rotary rigs also have a swivel attached to the upper end of the drill pipe that allows drilling mud to be pumped down the drill pipe while the pipe is rotating.

The larger the rig, the faster and deeper it can drill. The LS100 and LS200 drill rigs are mud rotary rigs at the small end of the range of drill rig sizes.

Advantages:

Because the borehole is kept open by the pressure of the drilling mud, it is not necessary to use a drive casing as with cable tool drilling. 

Mud rotary drilling is also much faster than cable tool. A large mud rotary rig can drill a borehole 60 cm in diameter to 1,000 meters or more. Even a small rig like the LS200 can drill a 20 cm porthole to a depth of 60 meters.

Disadvantages:

Drilling through rock requires a great amount of weight on the drill bit so only the larger mud rotary rigs can effectively drill in rock.

Most mud rotary rigs have a motor to rotate and lift the drill pipe and a motor to operate the mud pump.

As a result, mud rotary rigs use more fuel per hour than a comparable cable tool rig. Most drilling operations that use a large mud rotary rig also require support vehicles to haul water and drill pipe.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website rock drill rig.

Air Rotary

The mechanical elements of an air rotary drill rig are similar to a mud rotary rig; table drive and top-head drive are the two basic options for rotating the drill pipe. The principal difference is an air rotary rig uses compressed air to remove cuttings rather than drilling mud.

A type of ''foam'' can be added to the air stream to improve cuttings removal and provide some borehole stability. An air rotary rig can use the same type of drill bits as a mud rig, but it can also drill with a down-the-hole hammer.

This type of bit uses compressed air to break up rock and it can drill very fast. A large air rotary rig can drill a borehole 60 cm in diameter to 500 meters or more.

Advantages:

Because there is no drilling mud to mix or settling pits to dig, an air rotary rig can be set up very quickly. An air rotary rig also drills much faster than any other rig of a comparable size.

Disadvantages:

An air rotary drill rig requires a very large air compressor, especially if a down-hole hammer is used. This adds significantly to the cost of the rig, its maintenance needs, and its fuel use.

A large air rotary rig will consume 40-60 liters per hour of fuel, making it one of the most expensive types of drill rig to operate. Large air rotary rigs also require support vehicles.

Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology and Management (SKAT) has published a manual entitled "Drilled Wells" which covers additional topics and information on the subject of how to drill a well. The PDF of that manual can be downloaded here.

SKAT Well Drilling Manual 

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What Well Drilling Equipment is Used?

In this industry, we understand that to accomplish your project efficiently, aside from using the most qualified personnel, we must also use modern, robust, and reliable drilling equipment. For this reason, C&J works with the newest and most diverse, state-of-the-art equipment for our drilling projects. Quality and customer satisfaction, for us, remain top priorities. At C&J Well Company, we use reliable, low-maintenance, and powerful Versadrill drilling rigs that consistently outperform the competition. Our water well drilling rigs easily maneuver in and out of job sites with these compact, all-wheel-drive rigs. Whether it’s a large commercial job or a small residential drilling project, our Versa-Drill rigs are built to meet your needs efficiently and economically. In this article, we will go over the basic parts and features that make our water well drilling equipment stand out in Central Indiana. 

C&J Drill Rigs

The best drill rig is one that’s dependable, easy to use, and versatile. For this reason, C&J has multiple drill rigs for divergent applications. When we were founded 25 years ago we only had a 1966 Failing 1250 small mud rotary rig. As you can imagine, a lot has changed since then—we’ve owned over 10 Versa-Drill rigs throughout the years and our current fleet is made up of three Versa-Drill rotary rigs and one drill rig for bucket wells. Direct rotary drilling consists of cutting a borehole by means of a rotating string of drill rods and a bit against the formation. By circulating water-based drilling fluid, the drilled cuttings are carried to the surface. Air rotary drilling is often utilized in hard rock drilling. The air rotary equipment provides an estimation of the amount of water a well may produce. Mud rotary drilling equipment is often used in unconsolidated sediments. The drilling fluid stabilizes the formation, while drilling removes the cuttings from the bottom of the hole.

Versa-drill Geothermal & Water Well Rig Components

Engine & Transmission — Our rigs come with a Peterbilt 348 6×6 powered by PACCAR PX-9 diesel engine with 350 HP and automatic transmission. This makes our rigs reliable and versatile and gives them the power for almost any job. 

Hydraulics — These rigs are equipped with a Durst pump drive box and Bosch Rexroth pumps & motors. All our models are equipped with a direct-drive hydraulic feed system. This makes the rigs both safer and more powerful than the competition since the power is not transferred through cable, chains, or over sheaves and sprockets. That also means no cables or chains to adjust and fail, which cuts back on downtime and expensive maintenance. 

Leveling Jacks — Once the drilling rig is in place, the crew will make sure it is leveled using special feet attached to the rig. Leveling is important to ensure the well is drilled perfectly straight. The derrick is then raised and the first drill rod is set in place to begin drilling.

Drill Rods — The drill rods bore into the ground in 20-foot increments. They start by drilling through the overburden—the combination of dirt, clay, rock, and material that sits above the bedrock. Overburden can be a few feet deep, to a few hundred feet deep, so this part of the process takes time. Drill rods are added every 20 feet until the drill reaches a viable aquifer. It is somewhere within the bedrock that most groundwater is reached.

Throughout this process, you’ll see water and cutting discharge emerging from the hole that is being drilled. The water is actually water that is being poured directly into the hole to keep the drill rod lubricated and cooled as it drills. The discharge is the rock, clay, dirt, and other materials that are being removed from the hole. Because of the tremendous amount of air pressure being used to drill, the air pushes the water and debris out of the well hole.

Derrick — A derrick is basically a crane we extend when it’s time to drill. The derrick is about 40 feet high when extended and it holds and controls the drill rods. The derrick feeds the drill rods down the borehole as needed. Our rigs are capable of up to 25-40,000 lbs of pullback and 22,100 lbs of pulldown. Pullback is the amount of force required to recover the drill string from the hole. It requires more force when the drill is stuck to pull the drill string back up the borehole. Pulldown is the amount of force applied when drilling. 

Drill Rod Mast Carousel — This system utilizes a carousel that is mounted onto the drill rig mast (or boom) so that the drill rods in the carousel are always in the same alignment as the rotation head. Our trucks are equipped with either a 10 or 15-rod carousel. 

Drill Bits — At C&J we use several types of drill bits, depending on what we encounter underground. Diamond bits are designed with speed and durability to break through hard formations. Drag bits are designed for hard clays, pea gravels, and soft shale. Tricone bits are designed for hard rock formations and gravel. Our most common bits are two-cone bits. These are very versatile and able to drill through most formations found in Central Indiana.

Mud Manager — This is the pit with a shaker on it that shakes the cuttings and separates the cuttings from the water. The cuttings stay above ground while the water returns back to cool the drill rods and drill bit.

Mud Pump — This piece of equipment forces drill fluid down the drill rods and back out of the borehole.

Well Casing — The casing, much like the drill rods, is also installed in 20-foot increments. The casing serves an important role in the overall efficacy of your well. It is put in place to keep the overburden from seeping into your well and contaminating the water. Once the casing is installed, it will extend a few feet out of the ground. This ensures surface water and debris aren’t also entering the well from above.

Bucket Rig — Bucket drilling uses a cylindrical bucket with cutting blades or teeth mounted on a hinged bottom to repeatedly cut and lift sediments from the borehole. The process is repeated as necessary to achieve the proper borehole depth. A bucket well is often recommended in areas with very little water production from underground aquifers. 

Water Trucks — The water truck carries the water needed for the drilling process, as well as tools and equipment that may be needed for the job.

All C&J Driller/Operators and Driller’s Assistants are highly trained drilling professionals with the training, experience, and skills required to perform work at any site. We have carried out drilling services for thousands of clients—farmers, homeowners, business owners, industry, utilities, and contractors—throughout Central Indiana who are satisfied with our impeccable services and have developed solid working relationships with us, based on excellent service delivery, trust, and integrity. Contact us today for more info or to start planning your water well drilling project!

Contact us to discuss your requirements of top hammer drill rig. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.