Water Well pump removal ideas

[jyoutz]

You don't have to use a tripod taller than your pipe sections, but the taller it is, the less resetting of your pulling clamps.

My pump is only about 70 feet down, on 1 1/4 pipe, so it is much lighter system than deeper pumps. I used a 12 ft tripod, heavy wood and bolt pipe clamps for pulling and holding, and a hand cable winch.

One piece flexible plastic pipe replaced the galvanized. The whole new assembly was laid out on the ground, then lowered into place by hand.

Bruce

I would attempt that on your 70’ well, but not on my 700’ well.

 

[SandburRanch]

There's tools made to prevent loosing it all down the hole when pulling . Check with a rental for a set of slips if available .

Kwik Klamps (Well Pipe Clamps)

These Kwik Klamps are used to prevent water well pipe from getting lost by dropping down into the well. A very important tool to have.

americawestdrillingsupply.com

Alternate equipment can be a pipe vise or when desperate a 1/4" chain with a clove hitch knot around the pipe .

 

[Valveman]

A set of pipe elevators and a pipe holder or slips makes it a lot safer, but takes more height on the boom. With a good rubber jaw pipe holder you can hold the pipe anywhere and not just at the couplings. Then with a couple of short nylon lifting straps you can lift from the pipe as well and not just the couplings. Technically you can use the pipe holder to grab the pipe every 5' or so, and lift 5' at a time with a lifting strap. Then the tripod only needs to be 10'-15' tall. Investing in a good pipe clamp would be a good idea.

 

[Egon]

You gotta keep in mind that the top section of the pipe has to be restrained in some fashion when the coupling is broken. many different ways of lifting the pipe in shorter steps.

 

[nknelsen]

I have a pump and drop pipe in a well that I want to pull. Of course I could hire it out and may have to. There are several reasons and one huge reason (unstated) that I want to avoid that approach.
I have in the past lifted the pump and drop pipe a little (a couple of ft or so) for routine mx at the well head.
This time I want to pull it entirely.

There is no safety cable attached to the pump.
The drop pipe is 2 inch threaded Schedule 120 PVC 1120 pipe.
The pump is a 3 phase 460/480 volt motor on a 50 gpm pump.
Guessing on the weight of the motor and pump but maybe 30-40 lbs or so
The 280 ft drop pipe - a little over 300 lbs plus 14 brass couplings at a pound or so
Weight of water in pipe since there are check valves is in the ballpark of 380 lbs
Bottom line I am not going to hand pull 700 to 750 lbs of drop pipe from this well.

With the drill casing being about 2 ft above grade I figure each lift will be about 24 ft to the next coupling.

A tripod that is 24-26 ft tall or a boom of some nature (2 beam) are ideas I have but managing the lift of the structure into position for the tripod or the boom have issues of concern. However the biggest concern, not being a structural engineer, is stoutness of the structure. I don't need it to collapse under the weight and injure a human nor do I need it to drop pipe and pumps in the well. I also don't want to over engineer it so that the weight of the structure makes the lift of the structure impossible either.

Any ideas would be appreciated on a lifting design for this.View attachment 734804

I used to be a water well driller and pump installer. I was all for helping you with advice until I read that you have a 3 phase 50GPM pump on 2" rigid.

Call a professional. If you drop this pump while attempting to save money, you'll wish you had. A ½ or ¾ HP pump in 1" poly or rigid plastic is do-able on a budget. But if you drop this pump you may need to drill a new well. Fishing for lost pumps is not an exact science and some would say that YMMV, or Your mileage may vary.

Don't do it yourself.

 

[ponytug]

I used to be a water well driller and pump installer. I was all for helping you with advice until I read that you have a 3 phase 50GPM pump on 2" rigid.

Call a professional. If you drop this pump while attempting to save money, you'll wish you had. A ½ or ¾ HP pump in 1" poly or rigid plastic is do-able on a budget. But if you drop this pump you may need to drill a new well. Fishing for lost pumps is not an exact science and some would say that YMMV, or Your mileage may vary.

Don't do it yourself.

My feelings as well. That isn't a small or cheap pump.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Valveman]

A three phase motor is actually a little lighter than a single phase. Pump and motor will weight 80# give or take though. Sch 120 PVC pipe full of water weighs 2.2# per foot. 280' would be 616#. With maybe a 100# of wire and fittings your looking at 800# or so. Until it comes up out of the water it will be somewhat buoyant, which helps a little. Good clamps or slips and pipe elevators to hook onto are the most important things.

 

[PILOON]

We once, 2 guys, started to hand lift 1 300 ft pump that had a 3/4 HP pump at the end of Poly pipe.
Well we had some 50% out and our arms were getting longer when luckily a delivery guy happend by and we won that battle, but never again.
LOL perhaps if we had sandpaper on our hands we'd perhaps won the pull.
Wet poly is sure slippery.

 

[oosik]

So .......Furu. What's happening with your well??

 

[Furu]

@oosik Well I am still evaluating just what I am going to do. Since I am in no rush at the moment I have the time to determine the best option. Maybe the pull will be done this summer or even next year. I was really hoping that some structural guy would post something that would give me a better clue so that my boom design would not be overbuilt which i am prone to do. I have thought of using 3 inch sched 40 steel pipe (which I have) or maybe 2 inch pipe , or 2x2x0.25 square tube; probably way over strength and also thinking of 2x2x3/16th sq tubing. I fear 1/8 tubing would be too weak but I am trying to look up the equations to do the calculations.
The suggestion that was made to use a scaffolding or a man lift is interesting but I think there has to be a way to do it with a boom type structure that is more portable (maybe).
The lowest estimated cost from the pump companies was $2200 just to pull the pipe and pump.
One individual stated it will mostly likely cost me as much to build what I need as it would to hire it out but I would have the setup for the future.
I have trouble thinking that I can't build a boom that is structurally adequate for a bit less than estimate to hire it out. I have considered a two leg boom as well as a three leg boom. Obviously with lattice cross members to support the legs. Once I get a good idea on the design I want to use for the boom/tripod/lift mechanism then I can cost it out and figure out what I want to do. The cost estimate was a bit higher than I had expected and with the other unspoken reason that I mentioned in the original post I really hesitate to have a pump company do it, but we will see.

As I posted previously my initial weight estimate was 700-750 and I see where @Valveman stated around 800#. My weight estimate will be quadrupled at a minimum for any structural calculations. Obviously the weight will decrease as it is lifted but the initial lift weight has to be accounted for and maintained for the entire lift.