We lost water pressure from our well on Monday at noon. We have a 400ft deep well with an 8 yr. old pump. We live in CT. Called the plumber, he came and assessed. Our well had run dry, pump was still fine, pulling the right amount of amps, found 2 of our 3 toilets were leaking. We shut them off, then shut down the well pump, as well as the main water line to the house. 48 hours later, I re-powered the pump, switched the main water line back on, flushed a toilet twice, and attempted to do a couple of dishes, using maybe 3 or 4 gallons of water, tops. (We have not used any other water in the past 2 days, showering and bathroom use at friends). The water in the kitchen sink decreased to a slow stream after just a few minutes, and psi on tank dropped to 20. (Normal is a 30/50 set-up) Bottom line, after 48 hours and virtually very very little water usage, we still dont have water in the well. Am I looking down the nose at Hydrofracturing or worse yet, a new well? (My husband is traveling, I am home alone with the kids and know very little about our system. I just know we have lived here for 16 years and have never run the well dry.) Im scared to death, but give it to me strait. Should our well have recovered by now?

Recently purchased a house, was not occupied for over a year, original close date was in March, the 1st water test failed, not sure which chemical but legal limit was 10.0% and mine came back 10.07% someone told the real estate agent to run every faucet for 24 hours to clean the system out (sounds bad already) passed test after with 7% The house then sat for about 3 more months before I could finally close on it, turned pumps on, minor dripping from all faucets and pump was always turning on and off (no leaks I found) after awhile I got decent hot water pressure but cold water was nothing or fast dripping. The copper pipe from pump to tank was too hot to touch, obviously pump had been running A LOT short cycling. I never realized this, but it was probably doing it beforehand also. Called the Well + Pump company on the tank, info I got on arrival: "You need a new pump, $800+ installed, only carry Gould" "Pump is only pumping 3 gallons per minute" "Also you MAY need new well drilled... $2500" I can see the 3 gallons per minute because I have a crappy pump that's probably near death, not sure what suggest a new well drilled, neighbor told me the house had new one installed mid to late 90's So he put a pressure valve on the tank since I had none, it pretty much maxes at 23 psi, I checked the air pressure it was set to 26-28 psi, assuming it was previously set to 30/50, would a new pump be able to give me higher pressure so I can set it back to 30/50, or is that tank/well related? I pretty much used the spigot off the tank to fill 5 gallon buckets for the past few weeks, after a few seconds the pump would turn on, read around trying to find info in forums - noticed it would kick on around 16-18 psi, so I set the air to 15.5 psi, now I could get a few gallons of water in the bucket before it would turn on, but obvious these numbers are low and switch turn on seems way off compared to what the air was set at. The water was always pretty clean except for some bits of sand, after draining, refilling, changing air pressure I started getting some pretty ugly water, it was clear but had LOTS of random string like things floating in it, enough for me not to wash my hands with anymore, seems to have gone down a bit though but sometimes it will come back with a lot though. [URL="http://super-nintendo.com/badwater.jpg"]picture here[/URL] in a new and clean bucket. I was all ready to get a plumber in to fix the cold water piping then thought about testing the one faucet that wasn't used/open for months... the washing machine supply line, I seem to get decent cold water pressure from that, also in bathroom. Another thing I didn't think of was checking the faucets internals for blockage, I just assumed the piping had been left open for the cold supply pipes and something happened inside, would be nice if it was internals blocked with something I could replace/clean. Owned the house for about a month, not moved in yet, but getting ready too real soon, *need* water! been painting every square inch, cleaning, carpeting, replacing everything I can when I have free time, been working 55-65 hours a week at my regular job so not getting much time to get to the house and work on it. Really do not want new well drilled, can't afford it, I can afford $800+ for a new good pump, but would like to keep cost down and it might not solve the problem, was possibly thinking to replace it myself with same cheap pump for $200 and troubleshoot every minor detail after that, but might take time I don't have much of that now, but a lot cheaper... which I like. There's also a lot of fittings between the poly pipe from ground to pump intake and duct tape wrapped around each, wondering if something is clogged/bad in this area? Also on top of buying the house and dumping thousands towards paint/tools/flooring/etc, my car I've had for 9 1/2 years just blew the transmission at the worst possible time =( Tank: Flotec FP7110T-08 42 gallon (19 gallon capicity) Pump: Flotec FP4012-00L 1/2 HP Shallow Well Pump Jet Hot water tank: Not sure, GE? but it was installed in march to replace older propane one, hot water seems to work good. Sorry for the super long post, just trying to provide the most info I can, can't find the well depth on any of my paperwork though.