No Water From Well

[Tony Miklos]

Last night as soon as I was all soaped up in the shower the water stopped. Not really asking any questions, I've troubleshooted it to the pump, power going down and I hear a hum but no water, not even after it sat turned off for 8 hours. I think it's about 700' down so it takes a small crane to pull it. They are coming out on a Saturday and wanted to remind me that the rate is higher on Saturdays. Damn I like this small company... $75/hour on weekends. $60/hour weekdays. And I believe that is with TWO men! They were out here 4 or so years ago during the week fixing some lightning fried wires at $60/hour with 2 men.

Wish me luck. I guess I'm already lucky with 2 skilled men for $75/hour.

[hrhofmann]

Let us know what they find.

[Frank]

Mine went out a few weeks ago. Motor going bad, drew too much current and would shut off if high demand. Fortunately I could get enough water to see through weekend. Pump and motor warranty were separate so it did not cost an arm and a leg - just an arm ;)

[LSMFT]

So how many years did it last to just give me an idea how long to expect mine to last.

[Robert Neville]

My well guy said to expect 10 years, if you are lucky 20 years.

[Frank]

I've been here 35 years and this is the third time well has needed work but, original pump lasted ~ 25 years, replacement lasted about 7 years and its only been little over 3 years til this incident. Also during time period, I had to replace pressure tank twice. In spite of these costs, well has probably been cheaper than municipal water if available.

Other poster mentioned 10 years and from my experience and observation of neighbors, I'd say, that's about right.

For op, our development on one acre lots, has houses close enough to run hose from outdoor faucet to outdoor faucet for water when well has problem.

[Tony Miklos]

I have water again! Turns out it was down 460'. They installed a Goulds 10LS15422 which is 10GPM 1.5HP not sure what else that means but I think it's all Stainless Steel.

This place shows it with a $1176 price tag!

I'm sure there are cheaper places. Mine cost $825. Also replaced a brass bushing, 1 check valve, 8 galvanized couplers, cable gaurds. Total was $1245.52 about what I expected.

I didn't realize what was happening, but lately when running the hose, (the outside spigot is large and is fed by a 1" main) after the pump kicked on the pressure was still dropping until the tank bladder bottomed out, then it had less flow. When the new pump kicks in the flow from the hose instantly increases.

The old pump was about 13 years old and was a Myers Rustler. The "Rustler" series is Myers cheaper line of pumps.

[Tony Miklos]

As a kid we did that for our neighbor once. Just guessing at the distance here... maybe 800 to 1200 feet? I'm sure I'd get good pressure because they are about 100' above me! Anyway, it's all fixed now, about 18 hours down time isn't bad since it's just me and I have keys to my girlfriends house if I needed to finish my shower.

[hrhofmann]

Did they really only charge $75 per hour for their time, and 2 persons total for the $75?

[Pete C.]

Probably 10 years ago I had to replace the well pump at my mother's house, in winter of course. I replaced it with an all stainless Gould also, I believe a 1/2HP version which was about $400 at my favorite supply house. A stainless adapter nipple to go to the ABS down pipe, a new well cap and a submersible splice kit rounded it out for about $500 total. This well is under 100', so it was easy enough to pull the pump by myself. The previous pump lasted around 25 years or so, hopefully this nice stainless one will be the same.

[LSMFT]

My parents had a deep well with the pump in the basement. When it went bad my father would go to the hardware store, buy a new pump and install it himself. Although his foot valve (one way valve) was under the driveway and had to have that replace a couple of times. There is no reason not to have the one way valve in the basement too. When mine goes bad I'm changing it over to have the pump and foot valve in the basement. That way I don't have to hire two people at $75 an hour to bring up a pump and replace it. Technology is supposed to make your life easier, not more difficult. Can anybody think of an advantage of putting a pump in the bottom of a well with 400 feet of wire to run it?

[Ed Pawlowski]

? "LSMFT" wrote

Foot valve not at the foot? How is the pump going to prime?

[Pete C.]

The basement located jet pumps aren't very popular these days, just for some relatively shallow wells. Submersible pumps are preferred in most cases. With a submersible pump you only need one down pipe in the well, they are silent since the pump is 100'+ underground, and they don't have priming of cavitation issues generally. The motors are also liquid cooled, so they tend to be higher performance as well.

[bud--]

One advantage of a pump at the bottom is that it works. If a pump at the top puts a perfect vacuum on the pipe down the well you can only get the water to lift 32 feet - a little sort of the 400 ft required. You can use a jet pump, with 2 pipes down the well and the jet at the bottom. You can put the pump at the bottom with a 400 foot shaft to a motor on the top. Or you can use a submersible pump that pumps the water 400 feet up from the bottom.

[Tony Miklos]

Yes, sort of. The 2nd man was about an hour late. The bill shows 3 hours labor at $75/hour, total labor $225. There was actually a total of almost 6 man hours, not counting the time to go back to the shop and get a different pump then what they brought.

[hrhofmann]

That's a great company to recommend to others.

[LSMFT]

Priming is no problem, it's holding the prime which is what a one way valve does. Otherwise you'd have to prime it every time it starts if air leaked in and let the water fall back down the well.

[Sjouke Burry]

Yep. You will pull a vacuum when de distance becomes greater than 10 meters(~12 yards). Or you need a 400 feet pump piston going up/down.

[LSMFT]

You can lift water more than 32 feet once the pump is primed and all the air is out of the pipe.

[LSMFT]

Ignore me.