troutsqueezer
Veteran Member
You think you know a thing or two about wells, having depended on one for the last thirty years. Well, I learned something new yesterday so I thought I'd pass it on to the Collective, in case you run into a similar situation.
My wife has around three acres of landscaped botanical gardens and I run the watering system for them. This consists of 38 sprinkler zones which, in the Summer, can run between 8 and 10 hours every day. It is almost a full time job keeping all the sprinklers operating properly.
The well is 275 feet deep, 25 GPM, 1.5 hp submersible pump. The tank is an 88 gallon bladder. A few weeks ago, the pump kicked the protection breaker that resides on the bottom of the Franklin Well Control Box (the one with the starting capacitor in it). I reset the breaker and everything was fine. Having been around the block a time or two, I knew this was likely the symptom of a larger problem. It went a week before tripping again. I reset the breaker again and replaced the control box this time just to rule out a faulty breaker, failing starter cap, etc. But I suspected the pump, after 25 years of pumping, might be failing. Most often, the bearings in the pump begin to tighten up, the motor draws a little more current to spin it and the breaker kicks in as a result. Naturally, the breaker kicked off again so I called in the local well company to confirm and replace the pump/motor.
After two hours of labor, the pump and new wiring was installed and the pump was switched on to test it. Putting a hand against the open pipe - not yet connected to the pipes leading to the house - one could feel the rush of air as the poly tube coming up from the bottom of the well was filling with water. However, after a second or two, the rushing air stopped. No water, no air, but the pump was still running according to the ammeter. Huh? The technicians claimed they have never seen that happen. Was the pump air-locked? Waited 10 minutes, tried again. Nada. Shook the pump assembly up and down to maybe flush air out of the pump. Zilch.
Somewhat panicked, this is about the time the technicians start to jump to conclusions: The well is going dry, of course! That's why the previous pump overheated! We're afraid you're going to have to call the big guys with the big rig and re-drill. Before taking that step, we dropped a rock into the well and counted the seconds before splashdown. Eleven seconds. Doing some quick mental math: "That confirms it!", says the lead tech. "The static level is too low". He calls his boss. Boss says do a string test. Drop a string with weight attached, listen for it to hit the water surface, mark the string with tape, drop the string some more until the weight hits bottom and mark with tape again. Pull the string up and measure the string between pieces of tape. That is your static level. My static level was 50 feet. Sounded good to me but too low, says tech. This is the astounding part: He says probably what is happening is that the pump uses up all that static water to partially fill up the poly piping then shuts down. :confused2: I said that sounded like nonsense. Nothing about that scenario adds up. For one thing, 50 feet of static water in a 6" diameter hole would more than fill a skinny poly pipe. Secondly, the symptoms leading up to my call for help did not suggest a dry well, especially given the well has delivered for many years through droughts way more serious than the minor one we're currently in.
No choice now but to lift the assembly out of the well again and ensure the poly pipe-to-pump connection was secure. It was. So we put everything back down the hole and kept our fingers crossed, especially me. What do you think happened? I can tell you, everybody learned some things that day, about jumping to conclusions and about how things work.
As it happened, the first time we pulled the poly pipe/pump assembly from the well, some buildup on the sides of the pipe was loosened, since the pipe is flexible. After re-installing the assembly with the new pump and then switching the pump on, that buildup (crud,manganese) was pushed up the pipe and after a few seconds, formed a solid plug that the pump could no longer push, hence, the air stopped rushing out of the pipe. Upon removing the pipe/pump assembly from the well a second time, unbeknownst to us, we loosened up the plug. So when we switched on the pump a second time, out came what looked like to me, a cow taking a very healthy crap after being constipated for a week. Big, long tubes of black, gooey buildup poured out onto the ground, follow by a few seconds of blackish water, followed by nice, clean, plentiful H2O.
Lesson learned: Be careful what "trained technicians" tell you. Occum's Razor, once again, prevails, only you don't know it until you see it. Seeing it is the hard part. But I knew all along that coincidences were too high for that well to run that dry just as the well technicians were standing by. By 8:30 p.m. we were finally finished and I was tired. Missed dinner but having dodged a bullet, I didn't care. :dance1:
My wife has around three acres of landscaped botanical gardens and I run the watering system for them. This consists of 38 sprinkler zones which, in the Summer, can run between 8 and 10 hours every day. It is almost a full time job keeping all the sprinklers operating properly.
The well is 275 feet deep, 25 GPM, 1.5 hp submersible pump. The tank is an 88 gallon bladder. A few weeks ago, the pump kicked the protection breaker that resides on the bottom of the Franklin Well Control Box (the one with the starting capacitor in it). I reset the breaker and everything was fine. Having been around the block a time or two, I knew this was likely the symptom of a larger problem. It went a week before tripping again. I reset the breaker again and replaced the control box this time just to rule out a faulty breaker, failing starter cap, etc. But I suspected the pump, after 25 years of pumping, might be failing. Most often, the bearings in the pump begin to tighten up, the motor draws a little more current to spin it and the breaker kicks in as a result. Naturally, the breaker kicked off again so I called in the local well company to confirm and replace the pump/motor.
After two hours of labor, the pump and new wiring was installed and the pump was switched on to test it. Putting a hand against the open pipe - not yet connected to the pipes leading to the house - one could feel the rush of air as the poly tube coming up from the bottom of the well was filling with water. However, after a second or two, the rushing air stopped. No water, no air, but the pump was still running according to the ammeter. Huh? The technicians claimed they have never seen that happen. Was the pump air-locked? Waited 10 minutes, tried again. Nada. Shook the pump assembly up and down to maybe flush air out of the pump. Zilch.
Somewhat panicked, this is about the time the technicians start to jump to conclusions: The well is going dry, of course! That's why the previous pump overheated! We're afraid you're going to have to call the big guys with the big rig and re-drill. Before taking that step, we dropped a rock into the well and counted the seconds before splashdown. Eleven seconds. Doing some quick mental math: "That confirms it!", says the lead tech. "The static level is too low". He calls his boss. Boss says do a string test. Drop a string with weight attached, listen for it to hit the water surface, mark the string with tape, drop the string some more until the weight hits bottom and mark with tape again. Pull the string up and measure the string between pieces of tape. That is your static level. My static level was 50 feet. Sounded good to me but too low, says tech. This is the astounding part: He says probably what is happening is that the pump uses up all that static water to partially fill up the poly piping then shuts down. :confused2: I said that sounded like nonsense. Nothing about that scenario adds up. For one thing, 50 feet of static water in a 6" diameter hole would more than fill a skinny poly pipe. Secondly, the symptoms leading up to my call for help did not suggest a dry well, especially given the well has delivered for many years through droughts way more serious than the minor one we're currently in.
No choice now but to lift the assembly out of the well again and ensure the poly pipe-to-pump connection was secure. It was. So we put everything back down the hole and kept our fingers crossed, especially me. What do you think happened? I can tell you, everybody learned some things that day, about jumping to conclusions and about how things work.
As it happened, the first time we pulled the poly pipe/pump assembly from the well, some buildup on the sides of the pipe was loosened, since the pipe is flexible. After re-installing the assembly with the new pump and then switching the pump on, that buildup (crud,manganese) was pushed up the pipe and after a few seconds, formed a solid plug that the pump could no longer push, hence, the air stopped rushing out of the pipe. Upon removing the pipe/pump assembly from the well a second time, unbeknownst to us, we loosened up the plug. So when we switched on the pump a second time, out came what looked like to me, a cow taking a very healthy crap after being constipated for a week. Big, long tubes of black, gooey buildup poured out onto the ground, follow by a few seconds of blackish water, followed by nice, clean, plentiful H2O.
Lesson learned: Be careful what "trained technicians" tell you. Occum's Razor, once again, prevails, only you don't know it until you see it. Seeing it is the hard part. But I knew all along that coincidences were too high for that well to run that dry just as the well technicians were standing by. By 8:30 p.m. we were finally finished and I was tired. Missed dinner but having dodged a bullet, I didn't care. :dance1:
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Anyhow they all yelling no water plant gonna have to have NEW pump put in (note it was only 4 months old pump as they said it went bad on same shift while prior.) Now me and my other 8hr 2nd shift electrician went to looking. Pulled voltage readings under the VFD and they were all over. Something not right for sure, maybe bad VFD so more looking on top side of BIG VFD Voltage all over... Ok lets head backwards. the issue ended up being a Bus Bar (Plug in Fused Disconnect) 200+ feet away. It had BURNT off the buss bar contact points, luckly we could move it backwards one point install a new one and back up and running... We had to CAN a un-used disconnect from different part of the plant but the wiring all worked out and had it back running in 2 or so hours. The other guys could have had a real reaming but we (other 8hr electrician and I) covered for them & said it was really hard to find... :/ 
