My 11-yo well just quit

[jinman]

Well, my well is not well.:thumbdown: This morning it worked for awhile and about 10:30 am it quit pumping. I checked and the thermal overload is popping on the motor controller. When I throw the pressure control to off, the thermal overload holds just fine, but as soon as I put it to the operate position the thermal overload button will pop in about 5 seconds. My guess is that the pump has bound up.:smiley_aafz:

I had this well drilled in July of 1999. It has worked continuously and flawlessly for almost 11 years. The pump is sitting at about 340' and the well is drilled down to 386'. Our water is perfect, no iron and soft, good tasting water. The pump is a Gould pump. I don't think there's any better one than that.

I called my driller and he has 7 calls ahead of me today, so it may be tomorrow or Monday before they can come out. In the meantime, we are getting water from a neighbor and may go to my in-laws for a shower or two if repair is delayed. I haven't taken any photos yet, but will do that as the repair goes forward.

Wish me luck.

 

[beenthere]

Do wish you luck. But the ol' pump goes eventually. Yours is about 50' deeper than mine. And I'm on my third pump in 40 years...17 on the first one, and 22 on the second one. When they put the second one down, I asked how long it would last. I was told an average of about 7 years (Gulp!). But it did 3 times better than that.

 

[MossRoad]

Bummer.

Ours quit last fall. It lives at the bottom of the well so I had never seen it before. It was somewhere over 14 years old. Ours is only down about 60' though. Took them less than an hour to pull it, change it, drop it, flush it and adjust our pressure switches.

 

[rekees4300]

Rural living can be expensive. Ours had to be replaced a few years ago to the tune of $800. Definitely not a DIY job. Good luck.

 

[Adiredneck]

I pulled mine last weekend. I kept getting sand in the screen for the washing machine. I pulled it myself (only 140'), and cut off about 4' of pipe to get the pump to sit higher in the well. I Could have cut off the top, but I was curious just how deep it was.

I have pulled and replaced quite a few pumps just after I graduated from HS. I helped my dad last year with his (probably was 20 yrs old.

350' sure is a haul. To do manually, you'd want at least 3 people.

 

[Big Bri]

My well is just shy of 400ft, but the pressure of the aquifer pushes the water up our 4" well pipe to about 25' of the surface. we then use a pump to pull it from there. The pumps we use are exposed pumps, not in the well. They are shallow well pumps Dayton 1D878 Shallow Well Jet Pump
Funny how just down the road things are done differently.
Wish you luck with your well.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Uh oh, my gould pump is now 11 yo....
I have pulled mine twice so far, both times the electric cable failed due to rubbing the well side. Last time I pulled it (200') most of the way by myself by hand (about killed me) and had to have the wife help. You can rent a motorized puller, or rent a pulley that attaches to the top of the well and let you pull it from the side. 400' would be tough to pull by hand, without a few good strong friends.

 

[Egon]

I have pulled mine twice so far, both times the electric cable failed due to rubbing the well side.

Is your cable clipped to the tubing and does the tubing have centerers on it? That may stop the wear.
A bottom anchour, torque arrester may help also.

Torque arrestors, safety rope, and deluxe pump wire cable guards, all necessary items for installing a pump.

 

[jinman]

I didn't hear from my well company yesterday, so I will probably call them in a few minutes (after 8 am) to see if they work on Saturday or if I'll be waterless until Monday at least. I opened up the pump controller box, but I don't want to do anything else before they get here. I could use my tractor and loader with a pinch strap to pull the pump, but I don't want to do that. I can afford to have someone else do this and I'll be happy to sit on the sidelines and watch, then write a check.

I also know that I need a couple of things like the tank's pressure gage replaced. The pump pressure gage is stuck at 30 psi and has been that way for several years. Also the small pipe going into the bottom of the pressure switch is very rusty and might need to be replaced. The wiring is not up to professional electrician standards either, but that seems typical for well drillers in this area. I provided a breaker box and they wired the rest of this. Notice the controller has no safety ground attached to the box. This is the first time I've opened the box and discovered that.

This was a good excuse for me to clean out my wellhouse (with my wife's help) and my little concrete pad around the wellhead has seen better days. Oh yes, my garage door opener died while we were on vacation. It is flashing a code that says the logic board is dead. It won't reset itself when unplugged as instructed on the troubleshooting sheet. The price of the board is 1/2 the price of a new opener, so I have a new opener sitting in the garage.

Both the opener and the pump have failed after a hard thunderstorm that came through a few days before we got home from vacation. I'm wondering if lightning or a power surge might be responsible for both these failures. I can't find any evidence of anything burned, but it does seem fishy that both went within a week of each other. However, we water our large yard and our garden off this well. It's done double duty for many years and I just can't complain if I have to replace the pump because it wore out. I do think Goulds pumps are the best and I'll be replacing mine with as good a pump as I can get.

 

[Thomas]

Dang Jim,sorry you Mrs. doing some down time.
Yep now time to up grade we did 2 years ago,cost more because city had new guide lines since 1978...$$$'s

Once the water starts flowing from house nozzle/spray head you'll have peaceful feeling again.