No water pressure at the well head!! Help!!!

[TomSeller]

Single phase pumps have a capacitor to kick the motor in the correct direction before running. The motor will hum with a bad capacitor but it won't be spinning. The capacitor kicks starts the motor. So check the capacitor if your pump does put out water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8vyRkf0TKk

 

[Professor Marvel]

If your bladder bursts your pump will not run continuously BUT it will run far more often. So far I do not think you have enough information for a thorough conclusion. But you are narrowing the possibilities down. Excessive silt at your pump is not good but in itself seems unrelated to your present issue.

 

[Professor Marvel]

The static level of your well when the pump has not been running tells you nothing about your recovery rate (how fast water comes into your well). EG I think a standard well casing, 6in around here, holds about 1.5 gal per ft. 20 ft at 1.5 gal per ft is only 30 gal. The question in this case is how many gpm you well has into it. If your pump pulls out more water than is flowing into it it could easily suck your well dry. Where I live the well driller submits to the county the gpm your well takes in. OF COURSE the time of year and many other factoes play into this.

 

[whistlepig]

If your bladder bursts your pump will not run continuously BUT it will run far more often. So far I do not think you have enough information for a thorough conclusion. But you are narrowing the possibilities down. Excessive silt at your pump is not good but in itself seems unrelated to your present issue.

Well said. If the bladder is bad the pump will not run continuously but it will kick on every time a faucet is turned on. If there are no leaks the pump will shut off when pressure is reached. Even with a busted bladder.

 

[crazyal]

You may have too big of a pump for the well. It sounds like you have very little reserve, a high gpm pump could suck that dry in a minute if the well's make up isn't fast enough to keep up with the pump. Like Professor Marvel said you can find out what the driller reported to the county/ state what the productivity of the well is (usually there will be a plate on the well casing with an id number). It's also possible that the production of the well has dropped. You may need to use a lower GPM pump and a large tank in your house or possibly have the drillers come back and drill further or hydrofrack the well to open up the rock.

 

[Alien]

I feel your pain... Our pump was pulled a couple of days ago after 6 years and found to be half seized and the pump itself has fractures on every impeller. New pump assy will be here on Wednesday all going well. Meantime I had a new pressure pump waiting impatiently in the shed and have hooked it to a rainwater tank and coupled it to the house. At least we have water now for a few days. THEN, our bore pump will be directed to the tank from now on and using a double float valve, will only fill the tank when it gets low. Hoping the rain will top it up mostly. This will, 1. save wear and tear on our $2000 bore pump by reducing the start/stop scenario. 2. Save electricity as the tank pressure pump is half the horsepower of the bore pump. It is also cheaper and easier to replace if needed. I spent big money on that last bore pump, but it didn't seem to appreciate that fact and let us down and died anyway.

 

[clovergamecock]

Thanks all. I need to add a couple of things. 1. The wife was relaying the info from the plumber sooooo who knows how that was translated to me... 2. It looks like I did have a leak on the line I ran rom the house to the barn. Ground is soaked! I have the ball valve shut now. Glad I installed that when I ran the line... I am thinking that this was the perfect storm of events to basically kill everything!! :-( . I did remove about 8 feet from the end several years ago due to tremendous amounts of sediment and continuously clogging house filters. That tells me that at one time the pump was as cluse ar 2-3' from the bottom. When this well was drilled 8 years ago I had no idea what things to ask about.

I am kinda scared to cut another 10' off of it. Also, what is an aqifer?? How do I check that and unclog if needed??

Thanks
Wade

 

[clovergamecock]

Sorry did not see the pump size info. This is a Miller 1hp. Which is what was origionaly installed although a checp one about 8 years ago. There is a plate on the casing that I will check today. I have before but don't remember what the gpm was.

 

[dmccarty]

Sorry did not see the pump size info. This is a Miller 1hp. Which is what was origionaly installed although a checp one about 8 years ago. There is a plate on the casing that I will check today. I have before but don't remember what the gpm was.

I was going to mention to see if there was a plate on the well. The plate should have the refresh rate of the well. We are very lucky in that we have 15 GPM while most of the neighbors have 5 GPM. We also have over 200 feet of water in the well so we have a good supply.

We have low flow toilets and shower heads. I know our shower heads use slightly less than 1 GPM because I measured the flow. Our clothes washer only uses 10 gallons a load since it is a front loader.

I mention this because it sounds like you might not have enough water in the well to meet your demand.

Later,
Dan

 

[Professor Marvel]

I am kinda scared to cut another 10' off of it. Also, what is an aqifer?? How do I check that and unclog if needed??

Wade

Your aquifer is the pocket of water in the ground that you are drawing water from. IE your water source.