Sandpoint well experience

Sorry if this is not the right place for discussions about wells, but I didn't see a well thread. Regardless, I'm looking for anyone who has had experience using a sandpoint well tool.

Here are my questions:
-- How deep can you go in reality?
-- How difficult was it to drive into whatever your soils were?
-- Did you use a basic fence-post driver?
-- Are you satisifed with its performance?
-- Did you do anything to keep it from freezing at all?

Any information at all would be appreciated.

Thanks!

My father and I did one to just over 30 feet on a property in Wisconsin. It was in mostly well sorted sand (glacial outwash) and ended abruptly when it hit a clay layer. It produced good water at a rate that that was sufficient for a hand pump.
I helped on another that hit cobble before water (and couldn't go any further). We went through a couple points on the cobble one before giving up. Both were done with a fence post driver.

So much depends on the geology and hydrology. If you have dominantly sand and a shallow water table - it works well. A sandpoint just won't work in many places.

Augering or excavating a starting hole helps. The more soil contact you have against the casing - the more energy is absorbed along the bore (and not transmitted to the point).

@Ardilla -- Thanks so very much for your reply. It's very useful info for me. I'm really bothered by the fact that I have a quote from a well digging company that would require me to take out a large loan. And, if this approach to finding and bringing up ground water works for me, then I'll have saved thousands of dollars. I'm not sure how deep the clay will be where I'm going to try to have a well, but for a couple of hundred dollars, it's worth several tries with this method than the $15,000 quote I got from the last drilling company I spoke with.

I agree with augring first. I will do this before driving the sandpoint. Besides, it allows for a casing to be installed around the pipe which I think will be a bit cleaner approach to the whole thing. I'll be sure to document our efforts and if successful, I'll post photos or video. Thanks, Ardilla.