I am also guessing that when you measure flow production at the well, you either disconnect the well-to-tank hose, or open a spigot in that hose near the well and measure the time it takes to fill a bucket.
Water coming out of the well is at almost zero pressure so there is very little impulse to push the water a great distance.
Even though a new 1 inch pvc pipe should be plenty large enough to flow one gallon per minute with minimal losses, especially if you have a reasonable drop from the well head to the storage tank, those sections of air trapped inside the transfer pipe effectively reduce the pipe diameter in those areas. A smaller pipe will give a lower flow for the same pressure change.
The added pressure drop caused by the air bubbles trapped in your transfer line create a back pressure in the well which effectively reduces production.
The solution will be to remove the trapped air bubbles and keep them from forming again. Or by making a device which will overcome the trapped air in the pipe and eliminate the back pressure on your well.
You say there is no container at the well head. That means that any air that is in the pipe when you insert it into your bore hole can only escape from the well end by exiting at the storage tank end. This is hard to do when heavier water must be pushed out of the way and no pressure is available to do it.
I have added a sketch of a possible solution for you. It involves a moderately sized (maybe a 30 gallon plastic barrel) storage tank at the well head. This tank is vented to air and the transfer pipe reaches to near the bottom of this tank. When the flow from the well fills this modifier tank to above the exit pipe level, water entering near the bottom of the modifier tank begins to flow downhill in a siphon manner. This siphoning continues until the modifier tank is nearly empty and air enters the exit pipe to stop the siphon. When the well water fills the modifier tank again, the process repeats automatically with no power beyond gravity.
I would recommend putting a lot of the drop in your quarter mile run near the well head. This will give your siphon pump a good gravity start and will probably help push trapped air out of the lines as the water flows.
I would also say that a smaller pipe size (3/4 inch or even 1/2?) is in order from the bottom inside barrel to an equal distance plus a foot or so down the outside of the barrel to enable the siphon start-up process.
This device should create an effective average flow at your storage tank equal to the production at your well head with no back pressure.
To ensure no back pressure, the top level of the exit pipe should be some small distance below the bottom level of the well head pipe (maybe a half inch or so). This lets water flow freely from the supply pipe at all times, even when the tank is full and the siphon is working on getting started.
I think a small holding tank at the well site combined with a small solar powered pump would work more reliably. There may be a problem in the long PVC pipe, maybe a crimp etc. You could install a series of T fittings along the way, with a drain valve on each T fitting to check the water flow at each point.
If you had a higher water production rate at the well of maybe 3 gal/min, you could build your own ram hydraulic water pump (to net about 1 gal /min flow).
First, thanks for the answers. The pipe is new, less than 6months old. I just 2 weeks ago used a 100 foot electric snake at the wellhead, thinking it might be roots clogging things up. There is no container at the wellhead. We just drilled about 90 feet into the side of the hill and that's it. The pvc pipe goes into the hill about 10 feet. we faced that with a layer of concrete basically spread across the face of the hill and in the trench we cut for the pipe to lay in. So its an 80 foot long horizontal 1 1/2 inch tube of decomposed granite that water seeps into. That's the well. I have a 2000 gallon tank for holding the water over at the house. Water enters at the top of the tank, about 10 inches below the top. If I raise the pipe all the way to the top, flow stops. If I drop the pipe to the bottom of the tank, flow is much better, for about a hour. It seems gravity flow, when the pipe is full, will pull the water out of the pipe faster than the well recharges, thus creating suction which draws in air which goes to a high spot and air locks the flow. I think I need to PUSH the water rather than let gravity pull it. I have read of friction loss being responsible for flow loss. But I am not a hydro engineer, and am baffled by the low flow. Also, no leaks anywhere.
Pipe was blocked by junks or micro water plant. Time to change the whole pipe and put filter screen from its inlet.
Your pipe leaks. If there is no leak then only 1/4 gallon per minute is entering the pipe and your well head flow is based on something else.
What you describe is impossible - if water is being generated at one rate - filling a container - then if only 1/4 is traveling the pipe, the well head container will overflow, which you don't mention.
What do you mean "it airlocks"? Does the pipe rise up over something and come back down? It would have to go up about 30 feet to break suction.
I have a gravity fed horizontal well. It is almost 1/4 mile from the storage tank. At the wellhead, it produces about 1 gallon a minute. At the storage tank less than 1/4 gallon a minute. The entire run is 1 inch pvc. If I lower the height of the output at the storage, it flows better.....for a while. Then it airlocks and stops. So I am stuck at 1/4 gallon a minute if I want to keep it flowing. I don't understand this. I understand why it airlocks when I lower the height of the output pipe, because it siphons. I don't understand why I only get 1/4 gal per minute steady output when the wellhead is producing 1 gallon a minute. Anyone have any ideas?
