Well Problem

We bought our house in Feb 2004 and it was hit by lightning in jun 04. The lighting damaged anything that was connected to the electrical and phone system. Since then we have had problems with our well. The well pump circuit breaker has been replaced. Sometimes the switch will go off and we have no water. We go down under the house and reset it and it is fine, until the next time. There is no set time it usually does this but it is usually one time in a couple months. The well is a 1/2Hp submersible pump. Last July I had someone come out and look at the well. They pulled it up and determine the check valve was bad so they install another one. I have also installed a low pressure switch on it so it won't burn up the motor. Just recently we heard water flow very quickly under the house. I went and shut off the main water valve to stop the flow of water. It appears the water was flowing back into the well. This has happen before when the first check valve went bad. I then went into the garage where we have our water softener tank it was collapse. As if our well was pulling a vacuum and sucking in the water softener tank (not the brine tank). Do you know what could be causing this vacuum? These well problems are generally happening in the summer time, around June - Sept every year.

The check valve which is a part of the pump rarely misfunctions - maybe your well guy changed a add-on or loose check valve somewhere in the supply line. Maybe he pulled the checkvalve flapper out of your existing pump [?] if it was bad. Water flowing backdown the well certaily would create suction on the supply end, but any open tap would quickly solve that. Many [most] tanks made for very high pressures just do not work in reverse - vacuum tanks are much heavier than pressure tanks. I use vacuum clamping in my mfg. business - it can break 3/4" plywood quite easily, so its not much of a surprise to see a light tank implode. Mainly I would replace the guy that claimed to have put in a new checkvalve.... Dont let lightening strike three times! Also for insurance you can add a vacuum breaker valve at the tanks for a few bucks....

Thanks for the reply. I will try and get another well man out here. The one who installed it isn't willing to come take a look at it. I have been reading on this forum about the Biac switch in the 2-wire motors. Our motor is a 2-wire Franklin Electric, model number 2445059004, 1/2 Hp, 230V 3450 RPM. After reading these forum I am wondering if the biac switch has gone bad and we need to replace the motor. Any thoughts?