Well Pump run time can be longer than 60 minutes under normal conditions

[jschrempp]

The well pump runs to refill the reservoir. When no water is being used, the well pump runs about 24 minutes to refill the reservoir. When water is being continuously used (such as watering the garden) when the well pump runs, then the well pump can take longer than 24 minutes to refill the reservoir. This makes sense because the reservoir is being drained while being refilled.

The amount of time it takes for the well pump to refill the reservoir varies significantly based on how much the reservoir is down when the watering starts.

Consider two scenarios.

1. The reservoir is almost full. A person starts watering the garden for 45 minutes. About 20 minutes into the watering the well pump comes on. After the well pump has been running for 25 minutes the garden watering stops. The well pump runs another 10 minutes to fill the reservoir. Total well pump time is 35 minutes.

2. The reservoir is at the low point and almost ready to call for the well pump. A person starts watering the garden for 45 minutes. About 1 minute into the watering the well pump comes on. After the well pump has been running for 44 minutes the garden watering stops. The well pump runs another 22 minutes to fill the reservoir. Total well pump time is 66 minutes.

We see from these scenarios that while the nominal time to fill the reservoir is 24 minutes, the actual run time under "normal" operation will often be 35 minutes and occasionally be as long as 66 minutes (maybe longer if the garden watering ran longer).

We should talk with the system owner about the proper value for the well pump alert limit.