Deep Well Pump Troubleshooting
HI, I cannot get water from my well tonight. Thsi is the 1st time in 5 years I have had a problem like this. Here are my questions, and the background follows the questions. 1) So, I think my next trouble shooting option is to go out to the well, dig down the 5 feet or so to where the pitman arm is and where the 1 PVC pipe is actually connected to the PVC pipe going down into the well, and install another tee fitting and hose bib to see if I get water right at the top of the well. Is this my next step? 2) I am not sure of the Jacuzzi pumps amperage or wattage draw so I do not know if the approx. 20 amps is correct (W=VxA). Is it possible the pump could still draw current but not pump water? Is there any way to test this with the well pump still 475' down the well? 3) Can a well that deep become frozen, meaning the PVC pipe that connects to the pittman arm, vs. the whole well freezing? 4) Any other thoughts on how I should proceed, before calling in the experts? I guess it is possible the well went dry but I highly doubt that given the strength of the well and the recharge rate each time we have pumped it since we drilled it 5 years ago. I live at 7,000 feet elevation over looking Albuquerque, NM. My house is nestled in a canyon about 5 miles north of Albuquerque. The temperature today was warm, and not cold like it has been the past few months. I have a Jacuzzi 4 Sandhandler submersible well pump that is set about 450 feet down my well. The well itself is about 510 feet deep. I am not sure of the pump model #. It is a 220v pump and tonight it was pulling about 20 amps on my meter, if I remember correctly. My house is off-grid (run by photovoltaic panels and I have a Tri-Metric meter in one wall to help monitor the electricla usage, etc. The pump pumps the water through a 1 PVC pipe that that is about 5 feet underground. The well is approx. 100' from the house. The water is pumped into a 3,000 gallon water tank/cistern for storage. The tank is on the north side of the house. The PVC pipe is connected to about 2 feet of galvanized pipe where the water enters the tank. The water empties the tank through Kitec plastic pipe. Again, I do not know the model but a 120v Goulds jet pump pulls the water from the tank and forces it into a 80 gallon pressure tank. The tank does not have a float so I manually turn on the pump's breaker in my electrical panle box to fill the well. And, yes sometimes I have forgotten to turn the pump off and have over filled the tank. This happend last back on Dec 28, 2006 and I have not turned the pump on since then. However, this morning we ran out of water. The tank barely had enough water to even cover the pump water inlet at the bottom of the tank. There also was a layer of ice on top of what water was in the tank. I figured the water that was still in the tank was covering about half of the galvanized water inlet pipe so it was frozen and preventing the Jacuzzi well pump from pumping water intot the tank. I tried heating the 2 feet of galvanized pipe without success. I still could nto get the well pump to pump water into the tank. I then noticed I had a small elbow with a plug in that 2 foot section of galvanized pipe. I removed the plug with the expectation I would get water out of it. However, I did not get a drop of water. I then looked at the PVC pipe where it came out from under the dirt so the PVC pipe coudl be attached to the galvanize dpipe and enter the tank. I cut the 1 PVC pipe and installed a tee fitting with an approx. 3 foot high 1 PVC pipe riser. I put a garden hose bib on the top of the PVC riser. I turned on the pump and expected to get water out the hose bib. However, no water came out. When I cut the PVC pipe I did have some water come out of the pipe from the well side. I thought I was getting the correct amount of water that I figured is stored in the pipe after the pump shuts off but now I do not think it was the correct amount. I did not get a whole lot of water and the water is not coming up to the hose bib, nor is it filling the water tank. I spent $172 tonight trying to fix it myself without success. Most of that cost was buying six 100' long garden hoses so I could string them all together in order to get water from my friend's house, at his suggestion. I actually only needed 3 of the houses since I decided to use his faucet on his garage, vs. going to the spigot at his well. After 1 hour and 50 minutes I have barley gotten above the water inlet to my tank. Ugh.... Thanks for the help in advance. Have you pulled the pump up to see if it is working? I would pull it up and have someone turn it on while you hold it up (keep a tight hold). If water starts gushing you know the pump is ok (also if the pump has a check valve water should stay in the pipe when the pump is off. If it empties from the pipe then you either dont have a check valve or the pipe in the well has a leak/burst. How cold can it get there? I would assume the pipes are buried below the frost line. Before I dig I would pull that pump and check it. Mike I would think that it would be difficult to pull up a pump from a depth of 475 ft. just to see if it runs. The amps seem a little high, unless your pump is in the 5 hp range. It's doubtful that the well is froze that deep. Have a well/pump person come out and take a look at it. They should be able to check resistance in the motor windings and determine if the motor is bad. If there's a problem, you'll need them to pull the pump anyway. Ron Sorry I didnt mean to pull the whole thing up. I meant pull it up until the pitless fitting is out and then try the pump. That should only be about 6' of distance at the most. If you get water then the pump would seem to be working. And like I said if you know there is a check valve on the pump (which at 400+' there should be more than one... aren't you supposed to put one so many 100 feet when your that deep?) if you see the water in the pipe (pitless fitting) go down when the pump stops then you know either there is no check valve (or it is broken) or there is a burst. Just some suggestions Mike Thanks for the help. I came home tonight and cut the pipe again, and installed another tee to make my own clean-out. While I had the pipe separated I took a hair dryer to the PVC pipe for about 30 minutes, blowing it on the pipe and inside the pipe. I tired to fish some Romex wire into the pipe since I could not find my fishtape but he Romoex would not go past the 90 degree elbows. But, the blow dryer worked. I think what happened is I let the tank get down to empty which allowed air to get iinto the water inlet line and freeze the water in the lines. I am lucky the PVC did not split. I still have the well guy coming up to the house tomorrow because I want them to do some work on the well for me, like add a spigot that works. What I added last night does not work because the water only rises to a certain height!
Related Posts:
Clothes washer drain into existing sump pump and pit
Clothes Washer drain into existing sump pump and pitLooking at moving clothes washer into basement and wondered if draining into existing sump pump pit is a good idea, it has an output pipe that I...
Circulator pump sizing old vs new boiler strugglings to heat house
circulator pump sizing (old vs new) - boiler strugglings to heat houseHi everyone, My old circulator pump (TACO 1/8 HP, 1725 RPM, FR 48, MOD 5KH32EG129EX) was leaking and the service person replac...
Choosing new shallowwell pump 12 vs 34hp gould jet noise
Choosing new shallow-well pump - 1/2 vs. 3/4hp? Gould? jet? noise?Our plumber recommends that we replace our old well pump. Recommends the Gould 1/2hp. So I have a few questions, since I cannot tr...
Do it myself sump pump drywell
do it myself sump pump drywellHi I a newbie to this site, this is great. We have a sump pump, the water table is pretty high in our area and with the recent storm from Ernesto our pump was going a...
Diagnosing an old school mechanical sbc fuel pump
Diagnosing an old school mechanical SBC fuel pump.A good friend recently purchase a 62 Chevy Impala 2dr. Prior to the purchase he asked me to go to the garage where it was being parked and to give...
