Kyler Howdyshell
New Member
Not a question but thought I'd add this as a thing to look at if anyone else has this problem. So I bought my house recently with a well not knowing anything about wells or the well that it had. It had a 2 line jet system. I had a problem with it losing prime and decided I was comfortable with pulling it and replacing the foot valve. The jet assembly looked aged so I figured I'd replace everything so I didnt have it in the back of my mind. I replaced the foot valve, jet assembly, piping, and pump. Raised the pump up higher than all the water lines and tried priming it, but it would not prime. It'd build up pressure but as soon as I opened the valve slightly to bleed air from the system it'd lose prime. I tried for hours over days to prime it. Pulled everything again, checked all my connections, and put everything back in. Finally defeated I called the well company out to replace everything with a new submersible so I wouldn't have to worry about water. They came out and pulled everything, looked over what they'd need, ran back to their business, got everything, came back out and lowered basically a rope with galvanized elbow tied to the end to figure out how deep to set the pump. When they did this it turned out I had 4 or so inches of water in the well. Essentially dry. They said the water table could just be low this time of year and it might bounce back in the spring, but I'd be better off having a new more reliable well drilled. I had to ask the guy a couple times for a guesstimate because he didn't want to throw out a wrong number. $10,000-$15,000 for new well, ouch. He said if I didn't plan on living at my house for a long time that using the cistern I had would be his option, but if I wanted a well drilled to give them a call. So lesson to learn from me, check the water level if you're having persistant problems with loss of prime or no water. Also trust the professionals, the ones I called were very nice and loved talking about their jobs, they hang submersible pumps in my area on schedule 120 PVC, fist time I've ever seen that. Also when buying a house if there's a newer cistern on the property there's more than likely problems with the well. Live and learn.
Last edited:
