Well Pump held by 1/4" cord

[jb5860]

I am new to posting boards (here goes). I am about to buy some property with everything "as is". Well on property is deep well fashion, but it will need complete new piping from well head to the existing mobile home. I plan on building a new house so piping, expansion tank, etc will be reworked. Right now, inline sediment filter has a crack and water leaks (hence need for immediate work). Potential problem--- the well pump and motor appear to only be held by a cord. It comes through a hole in the well cap plate, and is tied to a stick snug against the plate. If I lift on the cord, it has about 10 to 15 pounds of "weight" on it. Curiously the supply piping does not move. This whole thing could have been a "rigged" installation from the beginning.

Question. Since I plan to build a well house complete with service light and even extend the well casing about 12 inches and provide a proper sealing (This thing is about 10 feet from a creek and only about 3 feet from the average creek level) Do I go ahead and snatch this well pump/motor out and re-install it with a more rigid piping and lift mechanism?

James in Atlanta

[Rancher]

What is the supply pipe, and what do you plan to replace it with? Do you know how deep the pump is placed... probably not very deep if the electric cord is supporting it. Why are you extending the well casing?

Rancher

[jb5860]

Rancher, thanks for the reply,

I finally got in touch with the person who had the well installed. He indicated that the 1/4 inch "cotton" cord was a "safety" in case something happened to the supporting well pipe. The well is 330 foot deep and the motor/pump are at 280 +/- feet deep and has 20 foot metal pipe sections. Apparently the "weight" I was feeling is waterlogged cotton cord. I suspect that that cord will not provide much of a safety. But this is no longer the high concern, the concern now will be the fact that the well head is only two to three feet above a creek average and about 10 feet away. The casing is open where the power cord, output piping and that 1/4" cord come through. Fear is if the creek were to rise and overflow the wellhead, then the well could be contaminated. Besides, I need to build a well house for this. Nothing is insulated, an inline filter is cracked (and spewing water) and the expansion tank is located under the mobile home directly on the ground.

Do I need to even worry with a "safety" cord at all (former owner indicated he did that in case the pipe were to break, the pump/motor would not fall to the bottom of the well)? Second, is the concerns of the neighbor about the well being "open" that close to the stream warranted?

Thanks for your input
James

[Rancher]

Saftey rope is not normally used for steel drop pipe, reason being if it does rust thru and drop, the rope would need to be a pretty hefty nylon type climbing rope in order to withstand the fall and be able to retrieve the pump.

Depending on how far your creek can flood up to, I don't see just adding 12" as being cost effective, you're probably drinking creek water anyway. A good well cap with the electric conduit fitting properly waterproofed will keep the creek water out of the well if it does flood over the well head.

Rancher

[jb5860]

Ok, thanks for the advise. well house and a good waterproof cap it is. Ignore the cord (unless that thing breaks and the free end gets into the pump mechanism.) boy, am I being far from optimistic...

Just one of a thousands to do when it comes to buying an "as is" property.

Thanks Rancher.

[Mikey]

From what I've read on this forum, I'd be concerned about the rope breaking somewhere and falling down into the well on top of the pump. Once 200+ feet of cotton cord is wadded up on top of the pump, it'd be a nice trick pulling the pump out. In the excess-of-caution department, I'd be tempted to pull the pump now, while I'm sure I can, get rid of the rope, and generally check thing out.

[Rancher]

If you pull it, replace the pump and drop pipe, it's cheap insurance and then you know what you've got. You can keep the old pump as an emergency spare.

Rancher