Repairing a Bent Wellhead

Here are some better pictures.

Actually, I don't think pressure tanks were previously used for either well, which might be why the pump for the good well (not the damaged one) got burned up shortly after the 2nd house was hooked to it (just a guess). They suspected a leak in the line to the 2nd house was causing the pump to run constantly, but I wonder if the use of a tank could have somewhat avoided damage to the pump?

I wonder how long a pump would last if you just turned it on and left it on?

Good pics! That's a standard pitless adaptor installation. The top of the pitless adaptor inside the casing appears to be full of dirt that has fallen into the well. You need to get that dirt out of there and then you can screw a length of pipe into it and pull the pipe inside the well and the pump. Before you do that you should figure out the length/weight of what is inside the well. A 50ft well using poly pipe can be pulled by hand. A 200 ft one using steel pipe, well that's another story..... The one thing you don't want to do is get it out of the pitless adaptor and let if fall down the well.

The electrical wires come up through the cap on the well head and then make a u turn, heading down to connect with the PVC electrical conduit that has the other end of the wires. To fix it I'd pull the pump and verify that it works as someone else suggested. Then I'd get a welder to cut off the damaged casing and weld a new section back on. Get a new well head cap, hook it all back up and you're good to go.

It would run a long time but would fail sooner than normal. If it had a pressure switch somewhere in the line it still should have shut off the pump. No tank would also cause early pump failure. The pressure tank keeps the pump from constantly cycling on and off when water is turned on.

You need a pressure tank and a pressure switch for each well. The typical set up is to have the tank and switch at the house. Then run the power from the switch to the pump. If you are in a location with no or light freezing you can build a small well cover and put the tank and switch at the well.

I think you'll find that adapter has pipe threads in the top once you clean the junk out of them.

You might be able to straighten that well casing a bit if you have a welding set to heat it with. Probably be a real pain though. Cutting it off and adding a short section would be the easiest.

True that. A deep well is really heavy. The well guys set up a tripod over them so they can use a power wench.

I'd be very surprised if there was no tank before. It's very standard to have at least a small tank, 20 gallons+ for any residential well like that. Otherwise you have no pressure buffer and the pump will short cycle. As stated above, it's usually not at the well head, but located in the house with a pressure switch.

The only wells I've seen with no tank are for irrigation systems. In those the demand is constant and the pump is turned on by the irrigation controller.

I helped drain the water from the heater tanks and the lines from both houses in preperation for winter absences, and there was no mention of any pressure tank that needed to be drained. There is no tank at the well; the well is right next to the house.

There are now "constant pressure" switches. I don't know if they operate through pressure tank and really haven't dug into how they operate. My understanding is that they turn on every time water is drawn. I could be mistaken.

Harry K

Commonly found on boats and rvs. Often built into the pump. Not so much on houses.

I guess those might avoid pressure swings, if they react fast enough. Got one of them here. It's set to about 50psi. But the well installer still put in a tank and that was for a system that is used for irrigation plus some general yard use, not potable water. The fancy valve just keeps the pressure constant. I think it's essentially two valves in parallel with the water flow from the well. One valve has a large capacity and only opens at 50PSI+, The other path goes around the bigger valve and is open all the time, but only allows a small amount of water to flow. Hence you can get all the water the well will deliver at 50psi or below. Above that the water can still flow to finish bringing the pressure up slowly until the pump turns off.

Well installer here would have eliminated the tank if it was for the automatic sprinkler system only. But since we wanted it to use with a regular hose, bucket, etc, then he added the tank. Which makes sense to me, because with the sprinklers you have constant demand for a long time. With a house you have small incremental usage, which with all the starts and stops would wear out a pump with or without the constant pressure valve and also use more electricity.

You really DO want a tank. If there was no tank on the original install, someone was negligent.

From what little I have read on them it seems they are becoming more common.

Harry K

You're going to be time and money ahead if you bring in a well service to fix the bent casing and check things out. This is not something you should be doing yourself for the first time at your level of knowledge.

Yeah yeah, I know you're "learning" by asking stupid questions, but some things like "don't tighten it too tight" can only be learned by watching someone else do it at least once.

But that was TEN YEARS AGO if I read your earlier posts correctly.

A lot can happen in 10 years. The pump has been sitting submerged in water for 10 years, unused. The odds of it still working at this stage of the game are slim to none.

Heck, the well could have collapsed.

Get a well service in there to check it out properly. It will be cheaper in the long run.

If the well is no good, you won't have wasted money running pipes and wiring from the new building. The new well will likely be somewhere else if you decide to dig another.