How to replace well pump?

[moeh1]

The torque arrestor can be adjusted for diameter as you put it on, the position of the one end as you tighten it on the pipe determines the fianl diameter - it gets adjusted so the pump will just slide down the well. Since it is right above the pump, this keeps the pump centered as it starts.
On flexibility of the pipe, I've had to help pull the neighbors in about 10 degree weather, it came out of the hole OK at 45, but was pretty inflexible when we put it back in (so was I by that point). Unless you need a wellhouse for another reason, I'd pass.

[Richard]

I'm not wishing any pump issues on anyone but if anyone reading this ever needs to replace your pump, I think it would be VERY interesting to have a pictorial story about what's going on.

[wjmst]

Here are some photos of the pump install and the well being drilled from 2007.

Well Pump - a set on Flickr

Well Drilling - 2007 - a set on Flickr

Wes

[Phils]

Originally Posted by Richard

I'm not wishing any pump issues on anyone but if anyone reading this ever needs to replace your pump, I think it would be VERY interesting to have a pictorial story about what's going on.

Thanks for starting this thread Richard!

You might have seen the thread I have going about the pump controller. I'll test some more this weekend but I have a gut feeling a new pump is in my near future.

I'll take some pics if it happens, tho it won't be for weeks at best since I've got to get the pump and then arrange to have it changed. I've about decided to have it professionally done since 1) the well is in a "pumphouse" and although there's a removable roof panel, you still have to pull it up over the wall height and 2) I have a rational fear of Murphy causing the thing to fall irretrievably back into the well if I were to try it myself. A buddy of mine and I pulled it the first two times with the black poly pipe but even if it was still that pipe I no longer feel I have the strength to do it myself.

The last time it was pulled was ~'93 and I remember that it's sections of PVC... can't remember if they are 10' or 20' tho. I think I'm going to opt for the continous black poly pipe although I can't for the life of me remember why we were switched from that to the sections of PVC. I'd guess that we've had the pump out 4 times in 25 years but it was out twice in the first year or so because...

... we had the spot 'witched' 5 years before we drilled. I didn't mark the EXACT spot, just took some mental measurements. We missed the underground stream by a little, according to the next witch we had up and he said to dynamite at two specific depths. The hard plastic residue from the dynamite stick covering ate up two sets of pump rotors (plus the water tasted like dynamite so we couldn't use it for months). We had the continuous black poly pipe then but for some reason the third time it was pulled (professionally) it was changed to the lengths of PVC.

Phil

[J35]

[quote=dmccarty;1797615]How "bendable" is the black pipe?

I want to build a well house and one of my concerns is being able to pull the pump. I know some people who have fixed well houses with very little space inside. They have maybe 8 feet to the ceiling and a standard size door in front of the well. One well is very old maybe 75-100 years old and the other is 20ish years old.

I sure do not want to build a well house, say 12x12, and then have to tear it apart to repair the pump.

I THINK we have the black pipe for the well. I know its the supply to the house from the well. One of the things I did not get to see what the well drilling on our well.

Later,


This is where the Pittless adapter realy shines, the well head can be outside of the well house and your pressure tank,tanks can be inside a insulated building, no pipes or electrical connections above ground between well head and well house.

Have fun

[dmccarty]

There is no heated place to put the pressure tank. We don't have a crawl space or basement. And no room in the utility room. At the moment I have this hideous wood box 4x4x5 covered in tarps. Its been a temporary solution for 5 years. I was going to build a proper well house this spring by the car accident we had kept me from building anything.

The well box is insulated and I have two CFLs providing heat to keep it from freezing which has worked so far. We need a to build a proper well house to allow easier access to the well and so we can install a water filtration system.

The wifey's family has an old farm house that has to be at least 100 years old at this point. The well is in a well house that is at least 12x16. They somehow have managed to maintain the well in that house. My MIL has a well house that is about 4x4x8 and is made of brick. That well is newer so it sounds like they could just pull the pipe out the door. In my area you build a well house that contains the well and pressure tank or you put the tank in the crawlspace.

We have power outlets, power lines for a future barn, as well as the pressure tank right at the well head. We have to build a well house or do a bunch of electrical and plumbing work.

I have a couple different well house designs I have been playing with for years. I think I will just build the well house roof so I can unbolt it and lift it off with the pallet forks. I guess worse case we would have to take apart the well house if we something really went bad and the drill rig had to have access to the well.

Later,
Dan

[hitekcountry]

Originally Posted by turnkey4099

re: torque arresters. I know about them but have always wondered how you pull the well with them in there. If they are tight enough to keep the pump from twisting it would also be too tight to pull up. Are they removable somehow?

Harry K

Imagine taking a foot ball and slicing it end to end into about 4 or 5 slices, and then assemble the slices around the pipe as though you're trying to reassemble the foot ball with the pipe sticking out both ends and then clamp the two ends to the pipe. Now when you slide that assembly down the casing it can slide up and down but because the sides of the football are pressing against the casing it is hard for the pipe to rotate. The torque arrestor looks something like that.

[sandman2234]

A little late into this discussion, but my Dad had the perfect setup for pulling the twin pipes that made up his well. Well is about 110 feet deep, water table at about 95 foot. Well worked fine for the previous owner, as a vacation home, but when the seven of us moved in, and was joined by about 200 head of Yorkshire hogs down at the barn, the well often failed to keep up. His perfect setup had one drawback... feeding the pair of teenage boys that he used to pull the two pipes with (required pulling both at the same time due to footvalve setup). When the well needed priming, we used two five gallon buckets on a pole and carried them about 150 yards from an old well down in the bottom pasture. His pump house was 6 x 8 with 4 foot sides, and an extremely heavy removable roof. Sometimes I think the roof was as heavy as the water filled pipes we had to pull, but in reality it wasn't.
The boys grew up and moved away, and Daddy got older, so it is a good thing that he got rid of the hogs and jumped on the chance to get city water when they were running a main line down the road. I think sitting out in that pump house soaking wet in the middle of the winter is probably one of the coldest times I remember.
David from jax

[hitekcountry]

Pump house that I built to where I can still pull the pump.