Old well with a plugged sandpoint?

I have an old shallow well at my lake cabin that has very poor draw. I recently had the check valve replaced and the plumber mentioned the well had an extremely poor draw. His comment was, "Wow, this is really slow". It would take 10 minutes to go from 20 psi to 40 psi. The pump had a bearing going out, so I tackled replacing the pump myself. I put in a 1/2 horse red lion jet pump. I guess it’s not the best pump. Priming the pump was very easy and worked every time. But is would take a long time (20-30 minutes) to get to pressure. When the pump would cycle, the pressure will sit at 20 psi for a very long time. Sometimes it would cavitate and would sometimes lose prime. If it lost prime at 25 psi, turning off the pump and back on again, it would start to draw. You could feel the draw by the temp of the pipe but had issues getting up to pressure. But most of the time, around 30psi, it would stop cavitating and run up to 40 psi in less than a minute.

I assume the well isn't very deep since the cabin is 10 ft above lake level. During all of my messing around, I have had a lot of rusty chunks plugging the screens of my faucet. So I assume my sand point is plugged and causing my poor draw. I don't believe I am sucking air. I believe the pump isn't the best design and cannot handle the lack of draw.

Is there a way of clearing the screen of a sandpoint that is plugged by rust? I heard of people shooting a 22 down the casing to create a shock to break things free. I don't like that idea. I also heard of acid pellets, but that could eat through the screen and then you’re all done any way.

I never thought of pulling up the sandpoint until I read many of the posting on this site. So that is an option. I don't have the tools for that, but I could get them.

I don't know what brand the previous pump was, but the well was working before I changed the pump. And with the new pump, I don't detect any leaks on the suction side. Maybe there is a slight leak and the old pump could work thru it. I don't know. I believe it is a 1 1/4 pipe with a check valve

Any suggestions would be of great help.

Tiredwell said:

Is there a way of clearing the screen of a sandpoint that is plugged by rust? I heard of people shooting a 22 down the casing to create a shock to break things free. I don't like that idea. I also heard of acid pellets, but that could eat through the screen and then you’re all done any way.

Click to expand...

You definitely do *not* want to introduce any explosive force into your well, but NuWell tablets should not hurt anything. Put them in slowly with plenty of agitation and some water so they do not solidify as a mass and plug everything up, then cap the well and let the solution force itself through the screen and into the surrounding area overnight. To clear the well after the treatment, wear protection and use a pitcher pump.