Jet stuck in well

I have a shallow well with a 2 pipe jet pump. Short story, bad foot valve. Tried pulling the pipes out of the well but they wouldn't pull out, evidently the jet is stuck to the casing down in the well. Had to call a well drilling company. Thay came out and poured about 5 gallon of muriatic acid down a pipe to the jet, supposedly to free up the rust etc. Have to wait 2 days for the acid to work and they will return to try to pull the pipes. Anyone ever heard of doing this?
How do you get the acid out of the well when done?
Thanks

acid

You don't. It mixes with the water just as it does in a swimming pool. But unless the well was plugged, it would only stay in concentration for a few minutes so I cannot see why they would wait two days.

Thanks for your reply. I don't know why they would wait either, other than the fact that is was friday afternoon when they did it. They told me I could see if it had broken free the next day.
I guess one of my questions is. Is the acid diluted enough that it's to use the water when the well is put back in service?

The acid will sit right where the incrustation is and eat away at it. It takes a bit of time and thats why they are waiting. If they are able to pull it, they will get a new foot valve in there and pump the well for a while to flush it.

Sammy

Thanks for the info. I just hope their able to break it loose. Don't know what will be involved if they can't.

I would never use Muriatic Acid in a well for any reason. But if they still can't get the jet out, your probably looking at a new well.

What kind of pipe is it hung on? Plastic or Galvanized?

bob...

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface/mi/01mi061.html

The pipe is plastic. Guess thats why they can't bump it out.

There are a number of acid and alkaline products used to rehabilitate and clean wells. They are used to take the pH down to 2.0 or as high as 12 to remove encrustations caused by hard water or bacteria scale.

If those guys can get the jet out they will purge the well one way or another (air, bailer or pump) and clean the well out before they put the new jet in but.. without a camera inspection, I would doubt that encrustation is what is holding the pipes from coming out unless you have IRB problems. My guess, if you have a rock bore well is that something has collapsed or a piece of rock fell down or the well twists (cork screws) as it goes down and they may need to twist/untwist the pipes to get clearance to pull them out. If so they'd maybe have to push them down a bit to start with. Submersible pumps do the same thing in some rock wells.

Thanks Gary. I know very little about wells. All I know about mine, is that it's a shallow well with a 4 inch well casing that the jet and foot valve go down into. I don't know how far down the casing goes. If the jet is seized to the casing, it looks to me like they could run a rod or steel pipe down the well and try to bump the jet to knock it loose. But there again that's just me thinking out loud.

Well I guess they knew what they were doing. I gave the pipe a couple of good tugs after the acid had sit for a day and everything came right up, a lot easier than I had suspected. Also found the problem. The 1" line had a split in it about 10 feet from the jet and the the jet had a hole in the side of it about the size of a pencil. Also found out that the foot valve is a about 60 feet down from the top of the well.
Thanks for all the info.

I would consider putting a submersible pump in it now since you got it out. Galvanized pipe can be beat on to remove such things as jets and pumps. Plastic on the other hand is useless for jarring or pulling hard.

bob...