Cleaning a water well

RedNeckRacin · May 4, 2015

Centralizers do what they sound like. They keep the pipe from kicking back and forth inside the well bore and knocking stuff down. IT sounds like you have a pretty stout pump and I figured with it moving around that the inside walls were getting a cleaning.

kc5dlo · May 5, 2015

I feel uncomfortable with this suggestion as I Have not worked that much on wells. I do have some experience with pumps however. If the symptoms appeared after installing a bigger pump, throttling the flow down to that of the original pump should bring the performance back to like it was with the old pump.

KevT · May 5, 2015

We had to replace our well last year. The original well was done in steel pipe, and after 11 years a hole rusted through the casing. We were sucking a lot of lime rock, sand, shell, and rust in our system. So we are lucky enough that we only have to drill 40 feet set the pump at 30. It was more expensive to sleeve the old one than to drill a new one, so I use the old one for irrigation.

Cord · May 5, 2015

I think we are going to pull the pump tonight and pump over the top of the casing. To stir up the debris I'm going to try to drop a hose down the casing and get it past the pump. The hose would be lowered all the way down to the bottom of the well and then I'll pump water down the hose. The hose will have a nozzle to increase the water velocity and this should serve to stir things up nicely. With the pitless hanging off the casing I won't have water so I'll have to store some in a tote. Because the water could be contaminated I'll chlorinate it so the well stays clean. The biggest problem that I can see is trying to get the hose back out of the well because it could get hung up on the pump. It's also a lot of weight hanging off the hose so maybe I should take a rope to it as well?

Cord · May 6, 2015

Got the pump up and over the casing last night. Couldn't get the hose down the well; couldn't get it past the torque arrestor. Let the pump run all night and this morning we had clear water with just a trace of sand. I let it run until noon and my wife reported a smaller amount of sand and the water was still clear. I'll start the pump back tonight. If it stays clear and there is only a trace of sand I'll drop it back into the pitless and start flushing the domestic. The pic is what I started with last night.

Oh, btw: I looked at the pump chart and with the friction loss of the pipe I'd be pumping 35gpm and that pump ran all night long. Wishing I had put an even bigger pump in!

Cord · May 7, 2015

I've started to shut the pump off to let things settle and then turning it back on a few hours later in the hope of stirring up something and being able to pump it out. There is a little turbidity when I do this, but it's not too bad. Enough that I'd feel comfortable putting the water through the softener. After a while the water does become clear but I'm still getting sand. Not a huge amount, but in a 5 second water sample I have a quarter sized spot of sand on the bottom. I put the bucket under the discharge stream and captured a half bucket of sand over a two hour run time. Realize this was very turbid water so I probably lost the majority of the sand that was pumped. At what point is this just material that has settled in the well vs a screen that has gone bad?

Cord · May 14, 2015

Ok, this is total FAIL of a project. Apparently by flowing the well we have now pulled in the bottom. Many well guys are saying the well is shot. In the mean time, I continue to wait for somebody to come out. I'm done waiting. I want to pull this pump tonight and measure the depth of the well to see just how much it has filled in. I remember a past well guy having a derrick that somehow clamped onto the side of the casing and then provided him with a tower he could lift with. I can't remember the specifics of the design though. Please post your past pump hoist contraptions so I can see if I can copy it.

RedNeckRacin · May 14, 2015

WE used a tri-cycle set up that worked very well. Two fixed wheels pointed towards the pipe and the third one slid into the table to clamp the pipe with the pressure being adjustable. One of the fixed wheels was driven by a motor and it plugged into 110V ac plug and would walk the pipe right out of a well.

Sprinklerman · May 14, 2015

There is a process called redeveloping a well . Using a diesel compressor and fittings , to blow the well Ask a well company about it .

Cord · May 15, 2015

The concern has been that to blow this well will too aggressive and we end up damaging the formation and lose the well. On Monday they are going to try to sand bail it. We pulled the pump last night and it looks like we are 20' short on casing depth. If bailing is successful, I'll have them put a gravel pack in and hopefully the well will be good for another 50 years. Hopefully...