Well pump head fitting

[metalchomper]

Hi fellow brain trust!
Neighbor heard a funny noise coming from my well head cover. Said he never heard anything like it. I ran out and pulled the cover off and found water spraying out the tee on top of the well. The tee fitting developed a small hole. I quickly fixed with a peice of inner tube and Vise Grips. I'm new to wells. Is this something I can put some torque on to remove the fitting? I don't have an understanding of what's below the fitting. I don't want to break something below it if this fitting is rusted on tight. I guess I could try to stretch my welder out to it and fix the hole. Would hate to risk damage to the pump. I could also fab up a backer to my patch and hold it on with worm clamps.

Also, the well pump is 23 years old. Was wondering if I should replace it as a preventative measure rather than it fail at an inconvenient time?

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[MoKelly]

Sorry - no clue as to help you but your fix is very clever.

MoKelly

 

[bcp]

That tee may be all that is holding your pump and pipe from dropping into the well. Some systems have a safety line.

Bruce

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

Any idea how deep the well is.

The tee appears to be either galvanized or black malleable and they do not take to welding very good and usually wind up being worse off. I would probably loosen and pull the cap straight up and get a u-bolt thru a 2x4 to support the weight of the pipe.

 

[Roadworthy]

Do you have any idea where your pump is physically located? How deep is the well? The fitting itself appears to be a simple "tee" fitting. They're pretty common. If you don't know what's where it may be best to call a pump guy to fix it. That's not the pump, it 's a fitting you could buy at almost any hardware store. What it connects and how things go together is the greater concern.

 

[etpm]

You need to somehow pull that cover up and find out what that tee is threaded onto. It may be supporting the well pump! Don't laugh, I have see stuff even more stupid on wells. My own in fact. My well head has something called a "Pitless Adapter". This doodad is a bronze right angle fitting that penetrates the steel well casing about 2 feet underground in my case. So the pipe from the well pump screws into it, the fitting makes a 90 degree bend and comes out of the side of my well casing. Because it is bronze, and because surface water should not be allowed to get into the well, the fitting uses a gasket between itself and the steel well casing. This gasket also prevents electrolysis from corroding the well casing or the fitting. So what did the genius who drilled the well do after he installed the Pitless Adapter? He screwed in a piece of black iron pipe which in turn connected to the PVC pipe that supplies my water. Of course the iron pipe corroded away. At night. When we were sleeping. In the middle of winter. If I didn't have a backhoe to excavate the pond from the huge leak I would have had to hire it out. Even so it took me all day in the cold and rain to fix just the pipe connection. I had to wait for summer before I could finally fill in the hole because of all the mud. So be really careful when figuring out what that tee screws onto. And try to determine if galvanized pipe is proper for you situation. Pinhole leaks are usually caused by corrosion which is often caused by electrolysis. Good Luck.

 

[CH4Ohio]

That tee is supporting the weight of the pump and the water pipe that's hanging in the well casing. If you break the threads or that tee somehow fails, you could lose your pump and carrier pipe in the well casing. Might get lucky and be able to pull it out with the electrical wire, but if it's steel pipe, doubtful.

I recently had a well fail. Normally I would have tried to DIY it. SO GLAD I didn't. A well pump guy (that's all they do) showed up with a derrick truck, parked over the well, and attached their cable and winch to that tee and proceeded to pull out 200' of steel pipe, one joint at a time, and ultimately the pump. They had simple, but specialized, clamps to grab the pipe at the tee and the collars at each joint and keep everything secure as the pipe was pulled and cut so we didn't lose the entire assembly into the well casing during the process. All new pump, plastic pipe, cap and fittings on top now.

Might be worth having an expert take a look. I didn't appreciate how specialized this work is. The tools and equipment aren't something that the average plumber / electrician DIYer has available.

Anyway, for "down casing" work or anything related to the fittings that support that equipment, I'll be calling my pump repair guy from now on. Money well spent.

Your mileage may vary . . .

 

[oosik]

You have made a temporary fix. You have no idea of what is further down the well. It is time to call in professional help.

 

[ponytug]

Nice fix! Speaking from experience, if you have one pinhole, there are a few more waiting to happen and you are on borrowed time. I have steadily removed all of the galvanized in our water system because it kept corroding, and I don't miss it one bit. PEX or PVC is the way to go in my book.

+1 on getting a well specialist, but not whoever installed this one. There are three different pieces of iron (ferrous) material there; the well head plate, that hopefully galvanized fitting, the non watertight electrical box, and I don't see any isolation. Not ideal, and a recipe for corrosion. That said, it has made it 23 years.

At 23 years, if the well isn't super deep, I would be inclined to pull the pump, and replace it, and the foot valve while you are at it. You could then redo the well head in something noncorrosive...and I would redo that wiring box in something water resistant...

All the best,

Peter

 

[PILOON]

I have rigged and maintained a fair number of pumps.
One thing I learned early in that game is to not mix match fittings.
NEVER use common steel fittings, galvanized or not, in the mix.
For sure that steel one is the one that'll always fail.
I've seen them totally rotted out to completely clogged from rust growth.
For me it's all brass but also OK with HD poly B for the piping.
Also always use a safety 'pull cable' attached directly to the pump.
Then there is a 'pitless head' that makes removal simple if the need arises.