quite the day

[woodmills1]

started early today, at 4:15 filled stove then no flush for pee
said maybe l get luckey and thermal overider kicks in so back to bed
6:20 no better, so at 8:30 I round up a strong youngster and borrow a pit tool
Get the lovely wife warm dressed and gloved and the three of us
lift up and out 345 foot of pipe, water and pump from the well

we get that done and drive to supply house to get pump and hav the one and only catastrophick tire failure I have ever had.  Tire goes flat in like 100 feet

nevermind the saga
get the pump wire and plumb it in
do a test before dropping it back down the hole....no good
then dummy me realizes never reconncted the upper wires that we took off
only the lower    oooooo works much better witha full circuit



pump in an back to flow
moral, would have been a 4 grand charge from a well company. Pump $648
many side stories but I already bored you enough

[ArborJake]

 I had to do the same thing about a month and a half ago. 7 below zero that day. My well is only 50ft though. No flat tire either. Took about two weeks till the water completely cleared up.

[woodmills1]

Yes my water is quite cloudy, I figure from the handling of the pipe
I will also dump a gallon of bleach just to do no bacteria

[r.man]

Wow, that must be some youngster if you pulled a 300+ well by hand. What is the static level of your water?

[Chuck White]

Stories like this one remind me of just how lucky we are.

We have a dug spring about 3 feet diameter and about 8 feet of water in it, and there is a 24/7-365, 1½ inch overflow running out of it.

The overflow feeds a watertank for watering cattle through the summer on my brothers farm.

The main line from the spring runs 1½ inches, "gravity flow" to the pump in our cellar.

The pump required only for added pressure.

[petefrom bearswamp]

The pipe I think would be full and if my arithmetic is OK (I'm sure that somebody out there can check my math) and the pipe is 1-1/2" the water alone would weigh about 240 pounds plus the added weight of the pump and wire.
Must have taken a lot of grunting.
Of course the static level of the water in the casing would help somewhat.

[Chuck White]

I know they can be heavy.

Last year I helped one of my brothers pull his well pump and his well is drilled 315 feet!

Eat your Wheaties!

[Den Socling]

I used to live with the threat of a dry well or a bad pump. Especially bad in the winter because my old well did not have a pitless adapter. Dig frozen topsoil and then pull a slimy, freezing pipe. One year I bit the bullet and had a second well dug. I have two pressure controls with low pressure cut outs. If one well fails, I just switch to the backup pressure control and I'm running again. There's nothing worse than "waste full" toilets and no water to flush.  >:( Best money I ever spent.

[uplander]

 It is against the law here in Indiana to pull and install your own well pump. Supposed to have a water well drillers license or something such. I do my own anyway ;)

Uplander

[woodmills1]

I do have a pitless adaptor and man isint that a name for a thing, thought I quite admire what it does.  I have nearly 270 feet of water in my well, not very much pipe was dry coming out.  Jason and I lifted the pump, pipe and water with maybe 4 rest stops, most because it was cold and the pipe was slippery


Had to lowere my old time skinny drop light into the casing to see the pitless as it was a cludy day


water looks much better today

[Holmes]

Pete I checked your math and it looks good... ;D ;D  Around here most pumps are dropped on  1" coiled plastic pipe. No way near a heavy as 11/2" pipe.
Woodmills1 what was worse the pump failure or the flat tire?  Good for you getting both problems resolved. 8)

[r.man]

In Ontario you can still do anything you want on your own stuff. I have pulled lots of them, technically I shouldn't but my clients are looking for electrical expertise and the physical ability to pull the pump to the surface. A few years ago I was going to pull an unknown length pump to retrieve a string and weight dropped and stuck in the well and decided to build a reel to take the strain off me since I have trouble finding fit help at the drop of a hat. I built a very simple hand rolled reel out of an old 200 gal round oil tank that I shortened and mounted on a frame and it really helps. I would recommend building one to any group that has a few drilled wells between them.

[Slab Slicer]

Replaced my well pump a few years ago. We have a second well on the property that was drilled prior to us buying the place. It never cleared up, so it was abandoned, and the original was put back into use. They were kind enough to leave all the pipe, wire, and even the pump, in the second well. I pulled it, and just dropped it into the original where the pump had gone bad. The abandoned well was about 150 feet, and the original well was only about 60 feet, so a little trimming was in order, and we were back in business.

It was the first, and only well pump I've replaced. Both a learning experience, and a good workout. Now I'm ready for the next one. 

[petefrom bearswamp]

Right Holmes, 1" pipe would only contain about 13 gallons at approx 8# or only 106 pounds.
Not nearly as heavy.

[Paul_H]

There's nothing worse than "waste full" toilets and no water to flush. 

Pull the tank lid and pee in there a few times till it's full enough to flush when you really need it.Two birds with one stone.  :P

[Den Socling]

 :D