Shallow Well Pump Problems.

[Saml]

My friend and I have tried to help an old Guy in the neighborhood with his Well Pump problems.

Here is the timeline. Went to see why his pump was not pumping water for his lawn.(he said it worked fine just a few days before) There was water gushing from the back of the pump,after we had primed it.(Nothing before Priming) We figured a blown seal and since the pump was very old he wanted a new pump installed. We bought a new Flotec 1/2 HP 120 V. Pump from big Box store.(essentially the same as the old pump.) Installed the new pump, but used the old in line check valve. After pump was installed, we primed the pump and got only a little dirty brown, muddy looking junk from the pump. Next we primed again, several times, actually but no good results.

We would like to help this Old Guy, so any Ideas would be helpful.

[Goedjn]

Well.... is there any water in the hole you're trying to pump from?

[Duane Bozarth]

One would the water "gushing from the back of the pump" would be from the well...although I suppose it's in the realm of the possible they only ran the old one for as long as required to pump out the prime...I'd take the "it worked ok fine a few days before" as another confirmation the well didn't go dry in that time frame...

For OP, sounds like may have filled the line w/ crud...if it's a real shallow well (actually, even if it isn't, don't think there's a lot of choice at this point) I suspect only real answer will be to pull it and clean out the sediment filter and possibly the check valve as well. Could also be a problem of having finally developed a pinhole in the pipe if it isn't plastic--of course, plastic has been known to crack, too...

[Saml]

The Owner of the Pump said that he had used the pump and that it was OK just a few weeks before we went to help him, when the pump quit working. We found that the pump had a leak, and that the Prime water gushed out of the rear seal area between the pump and the motor. That is when the owner decided to replace the old pump with a new one, that we installed.(Old pump was about 18 yrs. old.) The only thing we got out of the new pump was muddy looking crud, then nothing.

How would we check to see if there was water in the well pipe?(this would indicate if well was dry or not.) Maybe by using something to put down the well pipe to see if there was any water level indicated on whatever we used to put down the well pipe. Not sure what we could put down the well pipe though.

Maybe a piece of wire to try to see any water level mark on it. Is it difficult to pull the well point to clean it? Well is 20 feet deep according to the owner.

Thanks to all that have tried to help on this problem.

[notspike]

on mine there is a cap at the top that can be removed to see if there is water in the pipe. I usually just hook a washing machine hose between my city water spigot and the well water spigot then open well spigot and city spigot to prime the well pump. If the check valve is ok the well pipe will fill up in several minutes. I can usually feel or listen to tell when the system is full and the water flow stops. If it continues for more than 10 minutes the check valve is bad at the end of the well pipe. If you prime it this way you want need to clean anything out. Close both spigots and power up the well pump and you should be good to go..

[Saml]

Many thanks for all the good suggestions from the helpful folks that responded.

I found good info also @ Google.

The well pipe does have a plug that we can pull to try to fill the well pipe, and flush out junk there.

There was crud coming out when we tried the new pump, so the foot Valve may be clogged. Thanks again to all who replied.

[Goedjn]

[maradcliff]

Is this a drilled well with the pipe inside of it going to the pump and the foot valve on the bottom, or is it one of those hand driven points?

On a 20 foot well, pulling the pipes out of a drilled well should be easy. If it's a point, those can be a pain to work on.