As I write these columns and think about different subjects, I seem to have more to say about certain procedures and products used in our industry than others. In our part of the country, cable tool drilling is not at all popular for domestic or commercial wells anymore. This is not to say that it is not used, but it is used far, far less than it was years ago. So I have written about cable tool and am always glad to talk about it. Indeed, I have received a number of calls and letters from drillers who wanted to talk cable tool and I may, perhaps, write an article in the future on this subject. But some things are still being used everyday and these include, but are not limited to, submersible pumps, tanks, well screens and many other items. Writing about these things is, frankly, a more fertile field for the writer, especially if he happens to like them. This article is about one of my favorite subjects, as you may have guessed, the pitless adapter. This time I will concentrate on a very popular type of pitless in 2015, the clamp on.
I have described pitless installation in previous articles and you will recall it is necessary to dig into the earth a number of feet depending on the bury depth, cut the casing below the frost line and either thread a metal casing or glue on a threaded adapter for non-metallic casing. A commercially built pitless adapter is then threaded on with the bury depth selected when the pitless was purchased. Now this all works very well, but there is one downside: The installer is left with a short section of casing, which, would be 3 to 6 feet long, since the pitless takes this section’s place. So, over time, the contractor ends up with a large pile of these short sections of pipe. Occasionally these can be used on another well, but most of the time they are just scrap. Now some of you may be saying, “Why not, if the casing pipe is steel, weld a group of these sections together and make an 18- or 21-foot length of casing?” This is looked down upon in our state well code and, while one is not restricted from using short sections in the completion of a well, a “joint” made up of small welded lengths would be a bad idea. So the pump installer ends up with, in effect, a scrap pile of short sections of pipe.