Pressure issues

Hello Folks,
I have a deep well and just replaced the ancient stuff that was in there after the pump lost prime and a screw driver went through old pipe while trying to clean it off.

History: We move into this house about 2 years ago. All was well until we got nailed by a hurricane and lost power. When the power was restored I got me first taste of having a well as it lost prime. I finally got it to work and all was well until I lost power again. Each time, every couple of months for whatever reasons it would loose prime. The last time, a couple weeks back, the motor just kept running and would not get past 40 pounds of pressure. When I started to take a look at things I began to remove some corrosion and my screwdriver went through the pipe. So I removed everything, after seeing what was in there I couldn't believe it worked to begin with.

I replaced everything: A new Flotec 1 HP deep water pump on a 2 inch well with a Flotec 42 lb Bladder Tank. All was well until today, a week later when all of the sudden the pressure dropped to almost nothing. Now it keeps running like before and wont build pressure beyond the pressure from my neighbor’s hose, 40 lbs, I can turn it off and it will hold the pressure very well. Mine is set for 30 and 50.

I'm stumped; any help will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Thank you in advance,
Gaddock

Looking back at several other like problems it seems that the jet package may need to be repaired / replaced.

How involved would something like this be? I can't find a thread addressing such.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Gaddock

How deep is the well and is it steel or PVC?

SAM

I THINK it's 50 ft or so coming from a conversation I had with a guy
I spoke with at home depot that appeared to know what he was talking about. The shallow water here is actually better but they dug wells until they hit rock, 50 feet, to be sure the well never went dry.

The pipe that the wellhead is on is galvanized.

Steel well + Jet Assembly = New Well. The thing is with your situation is that overtime the inside of the steel casing builds allot of iron and that build up keeps the packer from coming out of the well. Allot of times if it does come out the new packers get torn up going back in. Any attempts to get it out would have to be done by a hydraulic winch and is not something that can be done by hand. I would call a well company out to take a look. Most companies tell you not to waste your money and drill a new one.

SAM

Ouch .... hated .... any guess what something like that may cost?

Yeah sorry for the bad news. The cost depends on where you live. Here in New England something like that would cost around 1500.00 maybe a little more depending on what your setup is like. I wouldn't waste your money with that type of well. I would get some estimates on a 4" well so you can have a submersible pump. There are less parts that are likely to fail and you can get more water with them. You can always return the flow tech equipment and get yourself some much better more reliable equipment from your local well guy. If you spend some extra money to get it done right its worth the piece of mind. I have always installed Goulds pumps and Welxtrol tanks,you cant go wrong.

SAM

Just curious. Glossing over the difficulties in pulling out an old packer assembly from a galvanized well, can the inside surface of the old pipe be cleaned up a bit, by something akin to a drain snake? The idea, of course, being that it would make insertion of a new packer assembly less of a problem.

I realy wouldn't waste my time even if you could get the packer out. Usualy with that setup they very rarely come out. Most drilling companies dont even attempt to pull the jet. They yank the whole well out and drill a new one because they know what they are up against. Who knows maybe someone will try it but i wouldn't waste the customers money trying to fix it.

SAM

Pulling the jet will clean the casing pretty good. That's why you don't try to pull one by hand. We have pulled them with one straight pull on clean wells and had to beat them to death with a walking beam and a set of jars for hours on the mean ones.

But like Sammy said, today most wells are 4" and the 2" wells are mostly old enough to be getting ready to rot through. When this happens the packer jet no longer works anyway.

Bite the bullet and get the new well, 4" or larger. You'll be glad you did.

bob...

I think most of my inquiries about these well point systems are resulting in answers that reinforce my beliefs that solutions might be possible, but aren't anything one can really count on.

Is there an outside number for the life one might hope for from a well point packer install? (not counting the pump)

I have changed screens in 2" wells that were only 1.5 years old. These folks had some horendous sulphur. Iron will also plug one quickly. I have seen others that had gone for over 20 years. Water quality was on the excellent side. The other big thing is the velocity that you pull the water through one. I don't know why this is, but the ones with the big hog pumps plugged much faster than the little 1/4 hp piston pumps would.

bob...

Clogging screens would really screw things up for me, if a packer was involved. I have some well points that can't run indefinitely without needing redeveloped, which at least gets them through a season or two.

What do you mean by redeveloping?

I might be using wrong or regional terminology, but 'developing' a well point was forcing water into the point, on the suction side of the pump, them pumping the point, then repeating the process. Maybe it only applies to a new installation. One old point in heavy soil (doesn't even produce 6 gpm) needs me to repeat this forcing/pumping procedure every couple of years. Since I have a 100 mesh strainer on the pump outlet, I go by the strainer content to let me know when I've cleared up the well point screen enough to resume operation.

From the sound of it, your pushing water down the well which could knock some of the mineral build up off the screen. That may make it work better for a time. If it's really plugged up, you might try Nu-Well tablets. They are made especially for that purpose. The trick is to keep fresh water running past them in the screen to dissolve them and let them work.

bob...

The 5 gpm point is in an area not known for well points, so I'm glad it even produces anything. Not sure why the point was even installed in the first place, and how old it is, I don't know. It took an effort to spread that low gallonage over an acre of lawn, but the city water was expensive enough to buy back the pump in a year or two.

I agree with that. I couldn't believe what some people in the Tampa area are spending in a month to water their weeds. It's highway robbery.

The pump is definately the way to go, or at least until they take that right away from us.

We already have the Water Police that go out and ticket people for watering on the wrong day or during daylight hours. Just another money grab.

Points and pumps around here have become something of a lost art. Smaller lots, with a longer payback period. And most importantly, the loss of the 'well exemption' from drought restrictions. That really put the point-pounders on the fast track to retirement.

One thing you can be sure of, is until they have taken every freedom we ever had they will keep trying to extract them from us. It just happens a little at a time so we don't notice. All in the name if environmental, draught, hurricant, tornado, you name it. They are making our world so much safer for us, I just get a warm and fuzzy feeling every time I think about it.