How to Recover a Lost Submersible Well Pump

[Valveman]

NO matter how deep the pump is installed it is still only lifting from the actual water level. However, many times the water level will start out high and be drawn down all the way to the pump. In these cases you need to size the pump to draw from the depth of the pump setting, and may need to throttle the pump a bit to keep it from upthrusting when it first starts and the water level is high.

 

[Valveman]

Pump:
number of stages determine pressure
diameter of stage determines volume
amp draw or HP is dependent flow rate and distance from the standing water table and final elevation at delivery point.
restricting flow can be done by closing discharge valve, drilling a hole in some pump stages, bypass line to well bore. Or altering the number and stages of the pump.
valveman makes a valve that bypasses to meet a predetermined flow rate.

Thanks! Yeah the CSV can be the restriction needed for a high water level, but will open up when more water is demanded. Restricting is good for a pump and reduces amperage. But you don't want it restricted when you need more water. The CSV only restricts when needed. But there are lots of other benefits of the CSV as well.

With submersible pumps it is not possible to increase the diameter of the impeller, which BTW also increases head. So, the width of the vanes in the impellers are widened for higher volume pumps.

 

[Egon]

Thanks! Yeah the CSV can be the restriction needed for a high water level, but will open up when more water is demanded. Restricting is good for a pump and reduces amperage. But you don't want it restricted when you need more water. The CSV only restricts when needed. But there are lots of other benefits of the CSV as well.

With submersible pumps it is not possible to increase the diameter of the impeller, which BTW also increases head. So, the width of the vanes in the impellers are widened for higher volume pumps.

Impeller diameter, didn’t stat that properly. I meant the entire pump diameter was effected.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Success!
The well guys were able to use the camera to attach a tool to the recovery socket on the top of the broken pitless adapter.

It took them about 2 hours to pull 21 lengths of 20' PVC pipe and the pump from the well using a boom truck. It was touch & go for a while since the tape holding the wire to the PVC pipe had broken in many places. Had the wire fallen completely into the well alongside the pump, there would not have been enough clearance in the 4" packer to pull the pump & wire together. Luckily, the tape held on the 5th section of pipe and they were able to grab the wire.

The culprit was the pitless adapter which cracked and began leaking over time. Eventually, the weight of the pump & pipe caused it to fail completely.

I'm having the 33 year-old 1 HP pump replaced and the 20' PVC pipe sections with black poly pipe as well. I should be able to re-use the 420' of 10-2 wire which will save a few $$.

IMO, in the end, it was better leaving the job to the pros instead of trying to do it myself. The bill will be around $4K which is certainly cheaper than a new well. It will also maintain the property value of the subdivided lot should I ever decide to sell.

Thanks to all who offered ideas, suggestions & moral support!

 

[MossRoad]

Nice!!!

 

[thclimer]

Thanks for the pictures and glad to hear it worked out for you.

 

[ponytug]

It is great to hear that it all worked out in the end. Congratulations on a successful recovery and a new pump.

Thanks for sharing the story!

All the best, Peter

 

[Carl_NH]

Glad you were able to get this all sorted out and at a reasonable cost too!

It would also be interesting to see if or how they will use a torque arrestor since you only have 4" of clearance around the packer so makes the arrestor really not function as intended but there is one on the old pump.

 

[mrmikey]

Glad it worked out and thanks for the update.
33 years on a pump, that's unreal, bet you won't get that on a new one

 

[bdhsfz6]

Glad you were able to get this all sorted out and at a reasonable cost too!

It would also be interesting to see if or how they will use a torque arrestor since you only have 4" of clearance around the packer so makes the arrestor really not function as intended but there is one on the old pump.

The wells in this area which use poly pipe don't have torque arrestors. I assume the single length of poly pipe just absorbs the twisting action when the pump starts. Plastic spacers are used instead to keep the electrical wire from chafing on the casing.

The threaded sections of the more rigid PVC pipe could fail from torque stress though. That's why the old pump had an arrestor. The old one you can see in the pic is pretty beat up but it had a design that allowed it to expand after it passed through the packer.