npalen
Elite Member
HaHa--No, you just have to aim well so as to not hit the casing. (Never did I see one of dem fiddy foot barrel)
How to Recover a Lost Submersible Well Pump
- Thread starter bdhsfz6
- Start date
Opti-Mist
Platinum Member
Yup, my buddy did at his cottage. It was a shallow well so a pistol should be adequate. He didn't have one with him so he went to the neighboring game warden. He asked what my buddy was going to do with it. Reply, shoot my well. Response, You're that mad at it? They did shoot the well, cleared the screen and were back in business.
JPRambo
Platinum Member
Have you ever heard of using dry ice to 'blow' the bottom of a well clear of sand? I had an old neighbor in Florida (I think he was from kentucky) who told me about it. I had a shallow 2" well and it stopped giving water. Removed the pump from top of well. Bought a galvanized cap and 5 lbs. of dry ice. Cut the ice to fit in the well. Put as much as you can in the well and cap it. Wait and listen. 20 minutes or so later a "whosh" and slowly remove cap. All worked after that.
quicksandfarmer
Veteran Member
How do you get the lead out?
ponytug
Super Member
That's pretty clever!
OP
bdhsfz6
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Progress!
The well guys arrived early at 7:00 this morning. They used this camera to determine the situation. I didn't want to make a pest of myself by taking too many pics but here are a couple:
The packer is 60' in length and in good condition. The 7" well casing (I thought it was 6") is also in relatively good shape both above and below the packer. The well guys think the used pipe casing may have been damaged when it was installed in the rock ledge, hence the need for the packer.
The camera found the broken pitless adapter on the end of the iron supply pipe at a depth of 78', about 6' below the end of the packer. This is fortunate because it gives them clearance to work. Had it been inside the 4" packer, there wouldn't be enough room for the camera to line up the recovery tool. I asked about removing the packer but they said doing so would likely damage the well.
Since the adapter is down 78' from the well head, that means the pump fell about 74' when it broke. I don't know why the pump was installed that high off the well bottom. The well guys don't know either. That's a lot of wasted water storage.
The threaded recovery socket in the top of the broken adapter is intact but fouled with some debris. The guys think it can be cleaned out so a standard threaded pipe recovery tool can be used. They give it an 80% chance of success.
If they can't pull the old pump, they have a tool which can cut the supply pipe and wiring. The old pump can then be abandoned at the well bottom and a new one installed above.
The well guys said the broken, light duty, pitless adapter used in the well was not designed for the weight of the pump & pipe. That is likely the reason it ultimately failed.
There's hope!
The well guys arrived early at 7:00 this morning. They used this camera to determine the situation. I didn't want to make a pest of myself by taking too many pics but here are a couple:
The packer is 60' in length and in good condition. The 7" well casing (I thought it was 6") is also in relatively good shape both above and below the packer. The well guys think the used pipe casing may have been damaged when it was installed in the rock ledge, hence the need for the packer.
The camera found the broken pitless adapter on the end of the iron supply pipe at a depth of 78', about 6' below the end of the packer. This is fortunate because it gives them clearance to work. Had it been inside the 4" packer, there wouldn't be enough room for the camera to line up the recovery tool. I asked about removing the packer but they said doing so would likely damage the well.
Since the adapter is down 78' from the well head, that means the pump fell about 74' when it broke. I don't know why the pump was installed that high off the well bottom. The well guys don't know either. That's a lot of wasted water storage.
The threaded recovery socket in the top of the broken adapter is intact but fouled with some debris. The guys think it can be cleaned out so a standard threaded pipe recovery tool can be used. They give it an 80% chance of success.
If they can't pull the old pump, they have a tool which can cut the supply pipe and wiring. The old pump can then be abandoned at the well bottom and a new one installed above.
The well guys said the broken, light duty, pitless adapter used in the well was not designed for the weight of the pump & pipe. That is likely the reason it ultimately failed.
There's hope!
Valveman
Platinum Member
80% is good! I doubt they will have to cut the pump off, as such a small pump will probably come out when they pull on the pipe. But I know of a well that has 5 pumps underneath the one being used at this time. Best of luck catching the fish! Lol!
3Ts
Elite Member
In my well, the pump is at 360', with 20' or so of water over that. The well bore is 600'. When they were drilling, they did not get any water until they hit the aquifer at 515'. So, the water in the aquifer is under some pressure, but not enough to bring it to the surface. The aquifer is 80' thick so they went a little beyond that. I understand the pump at 360' - we've never run out of water, but don't understand why they needed to drill all the way thru the aquifer.
MossRoad
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I'd guess they drill the well deeper than the water level for a few reasons.
1. The water table may fluctuate seasonally or with rain.
2. The bore may not refill as fast as you pump it out, depending on the ground conditions.
3. The well refills from the bottom few feet of the point where it's perforated, not anywhere along the rest of the length of the bore. So the deeper they go through the aquifer the more pressure is available to force water through the screen at the bottom, the faster the bore will refill as it's pumped out.
4. They charge by the foot!
1. The water table may fluctuate seasonally or with rain.
2. The bore may not refill as fast as you pump it out, depending on the ground conditions.
3. The well refills from the bottom few feet of the point where it's perforated, not anywhere along the rest of the length of the bore. So the deeper they go through the aquifer the more pressure is available to force water through the screen at the bottom, the faster the bore will refill as it's pumped out.
4. They charge by the foot!
ponytug
Super Member
You want to go the aquifer through to make sure that you get access to all of the aquifer. (Unless you know that you are over some super thick aquifer.) They did you a favor and the charge for the "extra" few feet is totally worth it in my opinion.
A friend had a lazy well driller who stopped when they hit the first pocket of water (30-ish feet, IIRC) and put the pump in. That lasted a year or so. It turned out to be a shallow pocket of an aquifer and basically got used up in the first year. So he got the same group back again, and they went deeper, 150' or so, and that lasted three years. Dried up. Then he got wise and got a different well drilling group, who showed him the geology maps of his area and the inclination of the various sediments and said in that area reliable water was never less than 350', and I think the well was in the 400' range. Good water, good flow, and lasted as long he was there. So, he paid to have a well drilled three times, and a pump pulled twice, and discarded, and a three new pumps.
I think drilling it once has its benefits...
All the best,
Peter