First, I am at best, a novice with water wells. When I bought the house, it came with a well. A couple of facts: this well is shared with my neighbor. Well house on his side, well on my side. The well does not supply our houses. It does supply the outside water for the animals in the lots and it also supplies the sprinkler system for the yard. If I showed you a picture of my front and back yard, you would know that the well wasn't working! Think Dust Bowl! My neighbor is having to carry water to his horses and have hoses going everywhere! So much for the background.

The well hasn't worked since we moved in. I checked the power to the well house, I checked the power to the switch, I took the switch in to the people that sell the switches and it tested good. My question is, what is the next thing I should check? Would the next logical step be the pump or something else? The well and electricity to the well was all redone about six years ago.

If I had to pull the pump, how difficult is it? I am pretty sure it is black poly. According to my neighbor, it is at about 60 feet.

I know that many people will say to call a well man, but as it is not for the water in our homes I just can't justify it; even splitting it with the neighbor. I do almost all of my own work. Plumbing, electrical, construction, but this is unknown territory. Any help would be greatly appreciated....by my lawn, the animals and me!

 

You need to test the pump to see what condition it is. I take it from your post its a submersible.

Here is a link. Do this and let us know.

TESTING SUBMERSIBLE PUMP MOTORS

And here is other instructions I found at all experts. BE CAREFUL

Remove the wires from the control box, and test continuity from red to yellow, and yellow to black. This tests the circuit of the motor. Note! A winding that is shorted will still read continuity. For the next test, you will need a amp meter. Now this part is some what dangerous, so if you are not comfortable working with live wires, do not attempt. Turn off power. Remove the motor leads from the control box. Connect the yellow and black to the incoming 230 volt line. Attach the amp meter to the black motor wire, with the scale set on at least 15 amps. The following has to be done real quick. Turn on power, touch the red to the yellow, just for a half second and remove. Watch the amp meter, The needle should peg out and then drop to near what the motor full load amp rating is. If it stays pegged, or really high, then your motor is shorted. What we have just done is to bypass the control box. Of course if you do not have continuity in the motor, this test is null anyway. The start winding is 230 volts. As I too use a submersible pump, I have one more little word of advise for you. If you have to pull the motor, disconnect the motor leads where they are connected from the main wires going into the well. Now connect the motor directly to the control box. If the motor now runs, you will probably have a broke wire. Hope this helps.


Mike NJ

 

Ok, finally got to it after I cleaned the nasty pump house! I followed the instructions in the link. I touched to the ground and the the 3 wires one at a time. I got a reading on black and on yellow and I got a zero reading on the red. Does that mean that the pump motor is grounded?

In the next step I didn't get any reading.

What is my next step?

Do I still need to do the test that bypasses the control box?

If I have to pull the pump, I guess I will need a whole new set of instructions.

I have this week off, so thanks for the help. I'll see what I can get accomplished.

 

Also, I talked to the neighbor again and he thinks that the pipe is white pvc rather than black poly.

 

This is what you need to do but you dont have a machine.

Dont drop the line if doing it by hand. Its not fun!!!!!

YouTube - Pul-A-Pump well pump replacement

Mike NJ

 

Ok, the picture helps me a lot. I want to pull it myself, but I had some concerns. After looking at the picture, I don't think I have a pitless adapter. I will try to get a picture of the setup when I go home at lunch so it will make more sense. I also figured out over the weekend that it is 1 1/4" PVC down to the pump. I am trying to find a plate to use to to hold the collars as I bring it up.

Question: Should I use a belt wrench to unscrew the sections? I would think anything else would bite into the PVC? Thanks

 

Did you see the video?

I dont think it matters a belt wrench. You might need more umphhhh to get it apart.

Take pics. I would like to see the job.

Here you can get a closer view.

Bracker's Water Well Help Pages

Mike NJ

 

Well, I took the pictures, but I can't post them. At the bottom of the thread it says I can't post attachments. I'm not sure.

 

You need to upload to a free web image hosting site like photobucket. Then post the link here.

Mike NJ

 

This may help you in posting a picture.

 

This is a picture of the well house on my neighbor's side. You can see the 1 1/4" line coming out of the well house. It is coming to the well which is on my side. After looking at the picture you placed, that is why I don't think I have a pitless adapter. I'm thinking, (and please tell me if I'm wrong), that I would just need to have the plate to hold the collar as I unscrew the sections. My neighbor did tell me that he remembers the well guy taping the electric line to the water line to keep it from pinching from the torque. Maybe this will help.

 

weird how its flush with the ground. have you tried to lift it by hand any? might not need anything to rest couplings on if its on 60' pvc. might just lift it out and arch it over good until you get it all out. keep your face out of harms way. get a descent well seal to replace the plate.

 

Geez!! just pull the darn thing out. Justwater is correct to just arch it over. The shed makes a good arch over area.

Mike NJ

 

if possible, another person to grab ahold and help work the arch isnt a bad idea. dont drop it!

 

It makes me very happy to hear you say that! After I saw your picture, I really did have much more hope that it might not be as bad. If you think I can just arch it, then that is even better! Thanks so much. I will repost when I get it out to see what ya'll think.....and then for the return as well. Than ks again.

 

you'll know as soon as u start to lift it whether or not you can heave it out of there. one more person to help guide it sure wouldn't hurt.

good luck.

 

Yeah, I don't think i would attempt it my self. My brother-in-law is going to help me. Thanks again. I'm going to shoot for tomorrow or Thursday.

 

Mission accomplished!! Ya'll are amazing! I'll attach a couple of pics. First of all, the neighbor misremembered. The well was 120 feet! We started getting wet pipe at about 40-50 ft. We pulled it by hand and we took it over the well house like you said. It was easy at first, got brutal in the middle and finally eased up the last joint and a half. When we finally got it out, it was nasty (rusty, etc). I started looking at it and I saw a couple of wires that looked like they burned off. When we finally separated the pump from the motor, the picture shows what it looked like. One side burned half off! The pump guy that I took it to said that in all of his years he had never seen one do that before and he had no idea what could have caused it. It was locked solid! He said they were 23 years old so someone got taken somewhere along the way before I got here.

So, I got a new motor, pump and control box together for $419. He also said that they had put the torque arrestor too close to the pump. It was a foot away and he said it needed to be 6-8. I heat shrinked and Scotch 33+ wrapped the wires. We started it, and it ran fine, but not a lot of pressure. We couldn't figure out why until we saw a big pool of water. Evidently, the guy that put septic tank in had hit one of the raised sprinklers and broke it completely off. We turned that valve off and had great pressure!

So I have two breaks to fix and one mysteriously capped line going to my front yard sprinklers, but we have water!!! So where my first post said I am a novice, I am way past there now. And with my neighbor splitting it and my brother in law and neighbor helping me. It cost $243!!! Thanks again!