Sometime in my future I will have a well drilled. I would be shopping right now but need funds from when i sell my current home to pay for it. Growing up it was all percussion rigs in our subdivisoin just outside city limits. You could hear that echoing through the neighborhood. It seems like it took them part of a week. This was 's. Our second house dad built in that neighborhood had a well drilled by a percussion rig. I know they are still around. Then one day this new developing subdivision off of ours had a rotary rig show up. It took maybe a day or so. If price was comparable and I could find someone who still had a percussion rig I think i would go that route.
I've been involved with wells from hammer units and rotary. The rotary's are much faster especially when going deep.
One thing I've seen over the years is that the rotarys especcially with operators that pushing the pressure of the drilling mud higher and going faster can and do plug off some of the smaller veins of water. I had several drillers tell me that they don't but I am convinced they are full of it. One neighbor had to have a new well several years ago and they drilled 4 different wells in 4 different locations and never got a good well just a few gallons per minute. They had a pounder come in and he opened one bore up by a couple inchs and they ended up with better then 20 gpm that was a bunch of smaller veins in limestone formations. did another one with almost the same results and got adequate water using the two wells.
If your water is in stone veins the pounder will fracture the rock not just bore a hole.
I've been involved with wells from hammer units and rotary. The rotary's are much faster especially when going deep.
One thing I've seen over the years is that the rotarys especcially with operators that pushing the pressure of the drilling mud higher and going faster can and do plug off some of the smaller veins of water. I had several drillers tell me that they don't but I am convinced they are full of it. One neighbor had to have a new well several years ago and they drilled 4 different wells in 4 different locations and never got a good well just a few gallons per minute. They had a pounder come in and he opened one bore up by a couple inchs and they ended up with better then 20 gpm that was a bunch of smaller veins in limestone formations. did another one with almost the same results and got adequate water using the two wells.
If your water is in stone veins the pounder will fracture the rock not just bore a hole.
I think that you are in the money about a hammer rig fractures a much larger zone of rock that is advantageous when the well is producing water from veins in bedrock. I have friends on granite bedrock, and their well is something crazy like 400' because it fills from tiny veins all the way down. There is no water bearing layer.
Around here bedrock is mostly pre-fractured due to all of our many faults and earthquakes. Everyone drills with rotary rigs. The water bearing layers around here tend to be sand or gravel, or highly fractured shale (think 1/8" sized pieces). Often those layers are quite thick. 50-100' thick. There tends to be relatively impermeable clay layers interspersed. So, there really isn't anything to plug. You are either heading toward a water bearing layer, or you are there and done.
Fracturing a low production well can make a difference- if the aquifer isn't depleted, which is usually the cause out here.
All the best,
Peter
Both methods have pros and cons. For small wells I wouldn't use a spudder if the rotary will work in that area. Rotary with air is pretty clean. Rotary with mud can take a lot of well development to get the mud cleaned out of the formation like with a high speed bailer. High speed bailers need steel casing as it will collapse PVC. Although, if you rinse out the mud before casing and gravel pack rotary works well with PVC casing. Usually don't have much choice as only one way or the other is available in most areas.
Just to throw in a picture, here is the spudder rig my Grandfather abandoned in Texas in the early 's.
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