Old style well not pressurizing, trouble getting water

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jimheem

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So let me start from the beginning and get out everything I can tell you about this. Sorry if it gets long but I want to be complete as possible.

So I have a 200 year old house. The well is probably nearly as old, hand dug, and rock lined. I wish I could tell you exactly how deep it is, and I will try to get the exact number, but I can say for sure it's pushing the limits of 25 feet. I'd guess it's 30 to 35 feet to the current waterline.

A pump (half horsepower, shallow well style) sits in the basement and one copper line goes under a part of the house and then in the well about 5 feet down, it connects to a black plastic hose which connects to a foot valve. My neighbor and I installed that about 5 years ago.

From there, I go into a 20 gallon bladder style pressure tank with a 30/50 pressure switch. Tank is about 2 years old and Pump less than one year. I also have a Symcom Pump Saver Plus that I just installed a few months back.

I live in Connecticut. We are under drought conditions. There's no doubt that theres much less water down there than there used to be, but there is water, I can see it.

Problems started over the summer, but were as simple as there just being some air in the system. I would pressurize to 50 PSI easily and we'd have water. The only time there would be a major problem is if we used too much water at once ( multiple laundry loads) - to which I'd have to turn the pump off manually for an hour or so, and then it would pressurize again.

Now, The system will not pressurize at all. if I turn the pump on, most of the time I can get a toilet flush out of it, but the pump will just run run run and not go over 20 PSI. If we flush again, most of the time it will continue to bring water up - some days, not though. Often re-priming fixes that.

Oh, I did not mention that there is a one-way check valve also in the basement that I put in when I suspected the problem may be the foot valve. it's about 3 feet from the pump.


A couple "DIY" problems that I will admit to - The black hose going to the bottom of the well still has some curl to it from it being stored in a roll at the hardware store. Also, when we put that tube in, we were about a foot higher than the old copper pipe that went down the well previously.

So, I don't want to start speculating on what my issues might be in order not to cloud the expert opinions on this site. I make no qualms that I'm anything more than a hack DIY-er.

As for climbing down the well, my fat ass could never do it, and I really don't want to ask my tall skinny neighbor to do it again, I was really nervous him just scaling his way down there.

Any thoughts, or discussion starters... please.
 

Reach4

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I think you are asking how to get water out from deeper. You think the surface of the water in the well is maybe 30 feet or so lower than the top part of pump?

I presume there is an underground pipe that connects the pump in the basement to an elbow that connects to a flex pipe going into the water.

You would probably be better off with a submersible pump on its side at the bottom of the well, but held off of the bottom.

Is there a cover to keep the well from freezing?
 

jimheem

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I think you are asking how to get water out from deeper. You think the surface of the water in the well is maybe 30 feet or so lower than the top part of pump?

I presume there is an underground pipe that connects the pump in the basement to an elbow that connects to a flex pipe going into the water.

You would probably be better off with a submersible pump on its side at the bottom of the well, but held off of the bottom.

Is there a cover to keep the well from freezing?

Well.. I think thats part of what I'm asking, but I'm not really versed enough in other things to know is that is really what the problem is. You are correct in that there is an underground pipe that then has an elbow going to the flex pipe. There is a "Doghouse" type structure at the top and a wooden circle "cover" that goes on the top. I've never had a freezing problem before, and that includes last February where we saw record cold. It has not gotten much below 25 degrees here yet this year - but - your point brings more tought as it does seem that on the colder days it seems to perform "worse"

Now that I read your words though, I was guestimating the depth from the TOP, not from the place where the pipe enters the well. Yes, I'm going to have to drop a line down there to actually measure it
 

Reach4

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The important numbers will be the surface of the water and the highest point of either pipe or pump. You would like the difference to be less than 25 feet, but that number has some margin in it. If you found you only had a 25 ft difference, then you would figure your pump is not working right. If it is 30 ft, then you would be limited by what a suction pump can do. If the pump is the problem, I am not familiar with troubleshooting those.

You could get some 10 ft PVC pieces, couple them together, and use that to measure with. 1/2 inch schedule 40 could probably do that job. You could measure down to the surface of the water, and then you could probe the bottom. If there is plenty of water below the water line, then a submersible pump could do you some good. Submersible pumps are quiet, and they don't need priming.

If you have access to a laser level, you can shine that out of the basement window. Then measure the altitude of things relative to the line of light. Otherwise maybe set up a string with a level to use as a horizontal reference.
 

Valveman

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20 PSI means you probably just have something stuck in the jet or nozzle. Use a wire to clean it out. That 1' of water you left in the well with the pipe being 1' shorter than before could make a big difference. I would lower the foot valve as deep as I could.

I don't thing you have enough standing water to use a submersible. Your jet pump will suck from a much smaller section of standing water than a sub will.

And DO NOT let anyone go down that 25'-30' deep well. Lack of air or bad air won't give you a second chance.
 

Craigpump

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We've replaced at least a half dozen of those wells with drilled wells this year. In Easton the ground was dusty at 17'.....

To measure the water level well depth use a tape measure with a weight on it, fumbling around with PVC is a pain. I think you're probably right at the limit of what the pump can do, but clearing the jet won't hurt and will eliminate one possible problem.

Valveman is right about not going in that well for a number of reasons.
Bad air
Slip and fall to the bottom getting hurt on the way down
IF your insurance company found out they'd drop you in a heartbeat. They might drop you now if they knew about that well.
A guy in Watertown drowned in his hand dug well a few years back while working on it...
 
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