hygron
Member
As I said. I have the entire thing apart. There is no blockage. In a post above I mentioned I am in SC. An hour or so SW of Myrtle Beach. I am pulling pump back out tomorrow.
You said its a DEEP well and then the pump is at 30 feet - what is that about? You should have bench [barrel] tested the pump before reinstallation on PE pipe. Learn how to assemble PE correctly before doing it - LONG brass or SS barbs with 2 or 3 not chinese clamps per joint, warm the pipe with hot water not a torch. You said the pump was tight on the wires and rope ..... no no no no no. Loosen it up to hang on the PE. That brand pump is poor quality, but likely has a Franklin motor that is good. You might re-use the motor and just buy a good pump head.
I did actually realize that it might be a good idea to guage the well. As long as I am replacing the guts, I might as well upgrade to current methods, and try to drop the pump deeper.If your pump is at 30 feet, is it deep enough? I live about 100 miles from you and I, like you, I(I think) get my water from the floridan aquifer. My pump is about 130 feet down and I think the well is about 3 or 4 hundred feet deep total. I know the aquifer depth varies a lot, but 30 feet doesn't sound deep enough to me. Have you tried to determine the water level?
Ichabod
You cannot use those 39 cent pvc fittings vertically. You need a Graingers stock number 5ym18 brass hose barb with rope fitting [or another without the rope hole] Go to 5YM18 item numbers page and you will see the sort of fittings you need. You must use a TURNED, machined barb if you like your pump to stay on the pipe. The machining provides a "fish hook" rather than the injection moulded junk that is softer than the pipe and without any bite.
I forget what size pump you have but it's probably a 1/2 hp so I don't think the nylon fitting is a problem at 30'.Well it is done. I wish you had posted yesterday Gary. I had to run all the way to Charleston to find 1-1/4 brass fitting. It took me stopping 4 places to try and get PE pipe. The Plumbing supply in Charleston, sold out of 1" PE 160 psi before I got there. So I had to chase that down to a mobile home, 'doit best" hardware store,and had to settle for 100psi PE. they are getting me some 160psi, but I might let her fly with the 100psi.
So there was 1 place in the entire eastern 1/2 of the state that had a 1-1/4 brass fitting to a 1" barb. Guess what!? After removing the bushing that had been used with the schedule 80 (bushing was nylon btw, and hadn't failed in 15 years) I grabbed my 4 hours of driving brass fitting to find that the outlet on my "aermotor" pump was 1-1/2". So I put the 1-1/2" nylon bushing back in the pump and inserted a galvanized 1" to barb fitting that I bought as a back up. Thanks God I bought that backup!
The only problem now is that the pressure switch is cutting on and off too quickly. My man at the Plumbing supply stated I needed pump to run for a minimum of 1 minute. Pump goes on for about 15 seconds and cuts off. I know that is bad.
I did not have time to wait on grainger to order the part. I had no water for days, while researching how to correctly upgrade my well. Everything is working great. Like I said if you read my post. Roland Supply was the "only" place that had a fitting I could use "TODAY!" All quality parts. Not chinese. All well diggers, and commercial plumbers shop at the store Roland Supply for all their plumbing hardware.I hope you hung it all at 30 feet again, otherwise the nylon bushing will be your next failure, and after that goes the galv. chinese barb. Why not Graingers instead of 4 hours driving? GS:I dont fish with my barb fittings, but a machined fitting has bite.
I knew that Gary, thanks. I set my pressure switch last night, and I have better pressure than before, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the bladder tank...So far (fingers crossed). It wouldn't surprise me if something else (the tank) failed just because I replaced a big portion of the system with new stuff. Just like when you fix your car. Fix one thing, something else breaks...hope not. LaterYou should check the pressure switch but the tank itself is more likely the problem. If you have a bladder type tank the pressure ( pump off, tank pressure drained) needs to be 2lbs less than the pump cut in. You may have a bad tank also. If you get water out of the air valve the bladder is gone.
Plan on getting the brass. Also; The store where I got the 100psi is getting 160psi within the week. plan on getting a roll of that, asap.I forget what size pump you have but it's probably a 1/2 hp so I don't think the nylon fitting is a problem at 30'.
The galvanized needs to go though, it will rust adding iron to your water.
The 100 psi should be OK at 30' but I would use at least 125 psi but 160 is best.
The PE and nylon will probably go forever unless the pump gets hot from no water etc..
What that guy meant about the pump running for a minute has nothing to do with the switch, it is the size of the pressure tank and the draw down gallons between pump runs. The pump should stay off for a minute (60 seconds off) so the motor can cool before running again. Less than that and the pump short cycles, and too little air pressure in the tank can cause that too. So 1-2 psi less air than the cutin setting of the switch. 30/50 gets 29-28 psi with no water in the tank.