Can Copper Dousing Rods Find a Water Well below the Ground? New Tech Vs. Old

Where I live here in north-east PA, wells run deep and low return. My neighbors have wells as deep as 1000 feet and low return. On my property, I and my mother each walked the property and we both hit the same spot. I printed up a big WELL GOES HERE with an arrow and that's where the well driller setup. The contractor was totally on board with it and said he liked the idea because it had worked for him in the past. My well came in at 445 feet, fills to 75 feet from the top, and produces 7 gallons a minute. For these parts, that's golden!! I've filled my whirlpool tub without an issue. I regularly take long showers. And no problem with other things like the dishwasher and the washing machine. My next house, I won't hesitate to do this.

I am 80 yrs old and have found wells for people I learned that from my Uncle when I was 6 yrs old, motor grader operators on paving crews use that to find water lines under the road, I have used brass, copper, and Willow tree limb you get the biggest stream of water with them and the direction of underground flow. Great video.

I have been using dowsing rods for more than 40 years and they work perfectly fine and accurate to locate any underground utility, not just water related. I use plain simple welding rods, bent like yours, but mine are about 2 feet long to make them more sensitive. I locate city utilities such as gas lines, sewer lines, water supply lines, pvc sprinkler lines, electrical conduit or storm drain lines from gutters. I usually walk in a checker pattern across a property and when the lines cross I know I got something. Set a flag and connect the dots. By the way, the method works in 'reverse' too. If you start out with crossed rods then they will open up when you get over a void in the ground.

Decades ago my stepfather hired Burner Well Drilling to find us a well. The man who completed the survey was an older gentleman who, after a brief chat with my pappy cut a forked limb off one of our fruit trees and casually walked thru our yard. When he got to the place where the well would eventually be, the bark literally twisted off into his hands when it pointed straight down. 10gpm @ 110 feet. He told us before he left not to tell anyone what we saw.

I'm retired and 70, I worked for the water co. In Pa. For 35 years. I was a locator and used the do users a lot. It worked for me during my yrs. Of service. I used my locating machine most of the time but the douser came in handy a few times. Not everyone can use them. But they do work. It was good to see someone else do what I did for yrs. Hey thanks for the memories. Steve k

52 years ago my father on an old farm needed a well dug, used cut and bent coat hangers to find water. 100% successful. That well is still being used today. Littlestown, Pennsylvania

I would have never thought well drilling would be so entertaining but I have enjoyed all your videos. When someone really knows their trade it makes any subject interesting, and you obviously know your trade very well. And I appreciate that you were skeptical of the dousing rods too.

Gentleman, I am a 71 years old man, im the past they used a wooden dry "y" and I personally tried it and it works, my most expressive thanks for sharing it with us, blessings to you and your love ones, from the endless summer paradise Puerto Rico Jesus Torres.

great video. I learned how to dousing in 20 minutes at a friends house. He said: "Hold these two wires in your hands and walk that way to my back yard." I started walking and the wires crossed about 20 feet away. I asked what that means? He asked me to walk some more with the wires crossed. I walked a few feet and the wires started to uncross; I looked confused and he said to turn a bit until the wires crossed again. I did that and walked about 100 feet until the wires could not cross again. I asked him what that means? He answered: "You walked past my well. Turn around and find my well." I started to walk back and the wires crossed again. Bingo! I was standing on his old well. He has county water installed 5 years ago. WOW.

About 45 years ago (yes I'm old), I was down at a friend's and his dad was a petroleum pumping station manager. They had a lot of abandoned lines below grade that needed to be taken out for environmental reasons, and there were no drawings. He was using dowsing rods and finding the pipes. He asked me to give it a try, and I worked with him for a few hours, finding the pipes with the dowsing rods and he followed along and marked the ground with spray paint. When I left he gave me a set of rods, which I have kept and used to find piping in a good number of situations. They work.

I have been doing this for 70 years. I'm glad you got a positive response

My greatgrandfather during a severe drought took a set of dousing rods and found water that saved the farm. My grandfather used these to find water for shallow point wells all his life. I always watched in disbeliefe as they worked. Although my grandfather used bent welding rods they worked.

My dad showed me this years ago as we walked the property looking for the water line... it worked! I even cut straws to hold the rods so that I knew I wasn't doing it... still worked. He made the rods from wire hangers.

My Dad taught/showed me how to do Dousing and how to tell how deep the water was. The well he dug by hand and dynamite is a very good well. Well was dug about 75 years ago and is still producing a lot of water. A few years ago my cousins water line for city water had a leak. The line is very long through a pasture. Using the Dousing method I was able to find the line as it is not a straight run. Marked the pasture found location of turns and located the leak. Leak was at a turn, which happen to be a fitting.

I was taught dowsing using Copper Rods while in the air force as a backup for electronic devices -locates wire, cables, or water lines

My dad used a choke cherry branch to find water . It never worked for city water as far as I know . I do it now with the same tree branch he showed me with . I can find water, but I don’t know how deep or how much it will produce. I found a well for a friend , and marked it with a rock , the well digger came in and surveyed the land and did tests to determine where to dig . Now my friend has a pipe in the back yard that does nothing. . He told the guy to try at my rock . 175 ‘ down real good water . The first pipe was down 250’

Perhaps Google Earth or another maps app has satellite images from previous years to see if there were other buildings on the property. Older images usually have lower resolutions but if there weren't tall trees around it's still enough to spot buildings.

5 years ago, after reading about dowsing I made my own rods which look exactly like those this guy used. Miraculously, they worked. I could find water lines, electrical lines, gas lines and also water aquifers. Over the years I've tried them hundreds of times, just to prove to myself that they work. They never fail. I am a retired scientist, I worked for many years in Silicon Valley and I'm mystified as to what makes them work. After getting family members to try it I found that out of ten of us, only six could make them work. Body chemistry seems to somehow interact with the rods. My guess is that the earth's magnetic field is involved. $10 rods vs $5,000 proton magnetometer.

At one time I called BS on those dowsing rods too until I tried them for myself. We were having a water well dug in Central Texas, all the water well guy promised was a hole in the ground, no guarantee of water. The hole cost around $2500. I asked him how he knows where to drill; he told me a lot of people hire a dowser, just happens his "Brother in law" does it for $100. I rolled my eyes and agreed. This guy came out with his rods, walked around until the rods crossed and said, "right here is a good stream". My wife said, oh come on, he gave the rods to her and they crossed at the same spot. I said, "bull shit" I got those rods and KMA if they didn't cross at the same spot. I held them loose, held them firm, etc. and they still crossed. Sure enough he hit water, that was 15 or 20 years ago and it has been a great water well, we have pumped thousands of gallons of water out of it.

I am pretty pld and back in the day we called them devining rods. They don't have to be copper, we even did it with willow branches. I have had some luck with coat hangers. It was neat to see the copper ones work so well. Thanks for the memories.