My tenant froze and burst a second shallow well pump.
I’ve never had a submersible because of the cost.
Here is a $170 submersible, a brand that I’ve never heard of.
Please tell me about your experience. Cost is rather important. 
It is going into a shallow well.
Thanks!
What is shallow?
What is the recharge rate?
I have had freeze problems with the pump that is above ground in the same unit with the electric motor.
I just built a small box around it with a removable slanted roof and used regular 6" wall insulation all the way around to where the sides & ceiling and most empty space was filled with insulation. A 40 - watt regular light bulb plugged into a socket inside kept it from freezing in some pretty cold temps AFTER I figured out I had to make sure no air was coming under the side wall. :smack:
This was on a 75’ well that held at 8’ below ground. Had the pump at just under 70’. Is the pressure tank large? I had a 40 gal on the above ground pump that was also inside the little pump house.
At the next house I had a submersible. It was working when I moved in in 2012 and it is still working. I have never seen it. 
Got a sister in Colorado that has a 500’ well at her cabin in the mountains.
Has to have a 500 gallon reserve for fire fighting. Not sure what the hold height is but it is kinda far down IIRC. :eek:
That pump you have linked to looks deluxe to me.
Maybe need the renters to check it more often or you can if not too far away.
Is the reason for the freezing fixable at a reasonable price?
Have an 80 Gallon on the submersible pump and they are inside a shed which has poor insulation. 
If the users are sucking the well dry regularly, you will never have a long lasting pump and it will freeze easier in my experience.
Have you had a regular water driller or person from the county who would come and inspect & give you good advice?
My advice it worth what you are paying for it.
I will not install plastic cast pumps. Typical lifespan on them is under 10 years, the cheaper ones can destroy themselves in a couple years under normal operating conditions.
That particular pump is a very high volume pump for residential use. The minimum sized pressure tank you’d pair with it would need to be an 85 gallon diaphragm tank. That would only offer a 1 minute cycle. On 1HP and larger motors a 2 minute cycle is the recommended so you’d use two 85 gallon tanks in series.
If you are looking at submersibles for a shallow well, 1/2HP is sufficient. A 7GPM would be the preferred, but a 10gpm will be cheaper. Both will make the needed pressure with room to spare but a 10gpm will typically pump to fast for your existing pressure tank.
If the discharge pipe is running through the same space your shallow well jet pump was in this isn’t going to solve the freezing problem. Instead it will freeze the line break that. If it freezes between the pump and pressure switch it can also fry the pump or blow it apart on cheaper ones.
4-6 inch Submersible pumps are designed to work in very specific environments. That being inside a bore hole. The design is such that the pump needs to be pulling water across the motor in order to keep it cool. If you throw a submersible pump in a lake the water will not draw across the motor and it will overheat. The same applies to shallow wells. If the well isn’t a 6-8 inch borehole and is a 3ft diameter dug well or such you can use a submersible pump but you’d sleeve it inside a pipe with inlet holes at the bottom.
One of the advantage of jet pumps is their design often prevents them from being able to run a well dry. As the water level drops so does their capacity to pull water. With a submersible pump the pump’s discharge capacity does not drop nearly as fast. In a lot of shallow wells even the smallest submersibles can out pump the well and burn themselves out. To prevent this you’d want to use a low pressure cut out switch that would need to be manually reset.
It sounds like I’ll stay with a jet pump.
I lived there for fifteen years running water during the night when it was very cold. The tenant is spending her time between her family home nearby and my place. She knows all about shallow well pumps, having grown up with them. She isn’t there late some nights to check that water is running and the lamp in the pump house is lit. At least she is paying for it this time.
Thank you, everyone.