Nickerson Company has been in the business of deep well pump installation, repair, and removal since the early 1930s. We have pulled and installed thousands of deep well pump systems in both submersible and line shaft configurations, with settings as deep as 3,000 feet, up to 16” column pipe, and 1,500 horsepower.
Well Pump Installation & Removal
Nickerson Company’s experienced rig operators for well pump removal are licensed and bonded by the state of Utah and are all OHSA-licensed crane operators. Our crews carry MSHA certifications, rigging certifications, and BROWZ approval, and are subject to random nine-panel drug testing on a regular basis. Also, all of our rigs carry current OSHA inspection certificates.
With mast heights of more than 70 feet, we are able to pull pipe in 40-foot sections, which greatly reduces pull and deep well installation times. Our use of rear-mounted boom cranes allows us to reach into pump houses and remove equipment that conventional pump rigs cannot accommodate.
In addition to their mast heights, our field service vehicles and trailers span up to 53 feet long, which facilitates superior rig support and easy transport of equipment to and from job sites. Our professional, highly-experienced field crew combined with our large inventory of equipment ensure you're getting the best well pump installation and well pump replacement service in the region.
Well Inspection
Water well performance, pressure, and efficiency diminish over time. One of the most effective tools available to determine downhole water well conditions is a full-color video inspection system.
Nickerson’s video inspection system allows our service technicians to fully inspect well casings inch-by-inch to determine the amount of debris and buildup on the casing ID surfaces. It also helps our technicians look for problems in the well, such as holes in the casing and plugged or perforated well screens. Water well inspection videos also give our service crews an accurate means of sounding a well to determine the level of fill materials above the true bottom of the well casing.
The information we derive from a video inspection is critical to completing a record of current downhole deep well conditions, as well as determining any possible need for well rehabilitation procedures. We also use these videos post-rehabilitation to verify the success of any well pump service and strongly recommend that a well video is completed every time a deep well pump is pulled from a well.
Water Well Inspection Equipment
Nickerson Company maintains a trailer-mounted Laval DC5150 full-color water well inspection camera to be used in our field of service. This 2.36-inch diameter color camera contains both a downhole view camera, as well as a side view camera that is capable of 360 degrees of rotation. The camera is rated to 2,500 PSI and is suitable for use in well casing IDs from 3-inch to 24-inch and in temperatures from 0 to 65 degrees Celsius. Our camera winch system contains over 2,000 feet of cable, sufficient for nearly every water well in our region.
Our deep well video system is self-contained, including its own onboard electrical generator which enables its use at remote well sites. All well videos are recorded on DVDs for future reviewing and as a permanent record of well condition.
Deep Well Rehabilitation & Cleaning
As water wells age and lose efficiency, there are a number of techniques available to well owners and operators to rehabilitate and restore well efficiency and performance. Our two most frequently-used well rehabilitation techniques are brushing and bailing, and Sonar-Jet® technology.
Brushing & Bailing
Brushing and bailing is a mechanical process for cleaning well casings’ ID surfaces and removing accumulated debris from the bottom of well casings, including debris knocked loose as a result of the brushing process.
This process uses a long metal-bodied brush with either wire or nylon bristles, which fit to the exact ID diameter of the well casing to be cleaned. The brush is lowered into the well casing bore on a sand line and the winch for the sand line is set up to allow the brush to run up and down quickly in order for it to scrub the ID of the well casing bore. The brush is worked from top to bottom in zones until the brush encounters little or no resistance passing through a zone. All of the debris loosened by the brush falls to the bottom of the well casing.
Upon completion of the brushing process, the debris material that has accumulated at the bottom of the well casing is removed with a device known as a bailer. A bailer is usually a piece of pipe with a one-way trap door on its bottom. When dropped into the debris at the bottom of the well, the trap door allows loosened material to enter the bailer but not to fall back out. Throughout the process, the bailer is repeatedly dropped into the debris and brought to the surface to be emptied. The well is also sounded during this process, in an attempt to remove the debris from all the way at the bottom of the casing.
Sonar-Jet® Technology
While brushing and bailing are sufficient for cleaning the well casing ID, they usually do little to break up and remove accumulated debris and mineral deposits that reduce efficient inflow from the water-bearing underground formations into the well casing through the well screens or perforations.
In order to provide superior well pump service and properly rehabilitate wells, Nickerson is an authorized dealer for a process known as Sonar-Jetting. This cleaning technology uses low-velocity explosive charges that are set off inside the well casing.
From Sonar-Jet®
Sonar-Jet® is a patented process that uses a custom-fabricated detonating cord that produces a slower burn rate and has a greater gas-producing capability than a standard detonating cord. Sonar-Jet® works by using a mild harmonic frequency of shock waves to disintegrate mineral and bacterial deposits. The detonating cord has a series of pressure compensators to produce a 100-millisecond delay at each compensator point, creating a water pick effect while pulsing the water at a high velocity back and forth through perforations to deep clean the productive aquifer. Sonar-Jet® has 50 years of proven results and costs much less than other less effective well-rehabilitation methods. In fact, Sonar-Jet® produces 100% specific capacity results on average and has improved some yields in excess of 400%.