Our Well is 350 ft deep- need new pump --Advice PLEASE, possible cost?

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OverRunWithSons

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WHat is funny is we live in a "hole", down in the valley you might say, when our land was stripped, they needed to drill a new well, this was about 18 yrs ago I think (we did not live here then), and this well is 350 feet deep! Our neighbors on top of the hill's is only 100 ft deep ! How can this be? Does anyone out there have a deeper well than 350 ft deep ? What is the deepest they can drill , I am just curious? and How much is this likely to cost us ---we live in Western PA ? Does anyone have advice on what kind of pump we should buy , what we should make sure gets done correctly with this repair? How long SHOULD a new well pump last? Does the deeper ones last less time cause it requires more to pump? Glad I found this site, I am just the wife seeking answers , worried about the cost and making sure we do everything right when this is fixed. Do they need special equipment to pull a pump this long ? :confused:Thank you all.
 

Bob NH

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I am assuming from your description that you have a submersible pump in the well. If your pump is above ground, then come back and tell us what it is.

This reply suggests some things you would need to do if you are not 100% certain that the problem is the pump. I am including this because it is often concluded that the pump is bad when something else, such as a leaking pipe in the well, is causing the problem.

The pump is often not set to the depth of the well. The water may come up nearer the surface. Therefore, the pump may not be 350 ft down in the well.

What are the symptoms that cause you to believe that you need a new pump? That is the first thing to deal with because a wrong conclusion will be very expensive.

You should somehow find the characteristics of the pump in the well. It could be from 1/2 to 1 1/-2 horsepower, and there is a wide range of pressure characteristics depending on how far down it is to water in your well.

If the pump must be replaced you probably need to match the horsepower and pump characteristics, unless you find that it is not a good match for your well and system.

Whether you could pull the pump without special equipment depends on what kind of pipe is running from the pump to the top of the well. If it is a soft balck plastic (polyethylene - often called "poly pipe") and it is not too large and not too deep, it may be possible to pull it without special equipment. If it is rigid pipe such as PVC or steel, it will probably require special equipment.

Until you know what your existing pump is, you can't know the cost of a new pump. Depending on horsepower and characteristics of your existing pump, a new pump that you buy yourself might cost in the range of $400 to $1000. If you pay retail it could cost $600 to $1500 for the same pump.

Installation of a new pump could add more than $1000 to that if the pump is set deep in the well. You will probably not be able to get firm quotes from anyone unless they know what is in the well, or any firm quote you get will have a high price to cover the unknowns.

So your first steps should be:

1. Determine exactly what is wrong with your system.
2. Determine the HP and other characteristics of your pump.
3. Determine if you could fix or replace it yourself.
4. Get prices on pumps.
5. Then decide how you want to go about getting your system fixed.

If you hire a well and pump company to fix the problem, they should try to diagnose the problem before pulling the pump, pull the pump, determine the model so they can select a replacement, replace the pump, pipe, and wiring, and get the system working. If it is a normal jpb, it could be done in one day. It would not surprise me if the bill is in the range of $1000 to $3000 depending on depth and size of pump.

If it is not an emergency, you have time to do some things that could save you some money.
 

OverRunWithSons

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Thank you very much for your indept reply. We did call someone--a friend of my dad's who is in the business for this kind of work, and it appeared to be the pump, it was something in that well anyhow. We found out the length of lining or well pump stopped at 240 ft, not the full 350 ft like you said. We got a 3/4 horsepower pump, same as replaced, cost $700. We replaced the 10 sleeves, choose brass over the original plastic, this cost $77, we did get a well guy with Boom on truck to pull it costing $150 and the friend of my dad's who was the one we called ONLY charged us $75 for this job!!!! We couldn't believe that is all he asked ---what a BLESSING! :) So our total cost was about $1000 total to replace a 240 ft Well pump!! You are right, before the guy with the Boom came, they was almost going to do the job themselves, so it could have been possible, he did say the worst thing was if you dropped it into the well -after taking off these sections, But he made a special tool to fish it out for those times when he is called to take care of that situation--which is not an easy situation. Thank you for your reply!
 

Dirtmover

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....and this well is 350 feet deep! Our neighbors on top of the hill's is only 100 ft deep ! How can this be?

My well is 80' deep with the pump set @ 60'. My neighbours well is located about 100' from mine and is 250' deep with the pump set at 200'. The next house up the road from him has a well about 150' away from his and his well is the same depth as mine.
 

Alternety

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It has to do with subsurface geology. Rocks and trapped permeable layers can be displaced hundreds of feet verticaly and change over relatively short distances. Just matters where you are with respect to these layers.
 
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