Can't disconnect pitless adapter

Better late than never so they say. So for future reference for others inquiring about this adapter...

It's most likely a Weises. Made by Weises Inc. of RisingSun, Ohio. Don't think they are made anymore... and more's the pity because it is a great pitless adapter. The pics below are of my Weises.

There's also a possibility it's a Merrill:

The Weises pitless adapter is made of bronze and inside the top is a 3/4" threaded bolt with the top formed into a key (think it's stainless as it's non magnetic) with a slotted end. To turn it, you need to take a black iron or galv. Iron water pipe and pound one end to flatten it enough so it will fit snugly over that key. I forget what I used.. 1/2" pipe most likely but it might have been 3/8. Will check later and edit this. So you slightly flatten one end of an iron pipe, add a t-fitting and two small pipes at the top to make a handle, and insert your new tool thru the tee, into the pipe down to the pitless. Then you unscrew the key. When you do, it lets the tension off the "foot" and the rubber gasket at the front of the pitless comes free and you can then pull everything up.

Once the pitless is loose, pull out your tool and stick a rag or something in the end so if you loosened the key too much, it won't fall out. I neglected to do this once and the key was a royal pain to find again since it's non-metallic and dragging with a magnet was useless. Luckily my GF found it and saved the day : )

Oh... make sure to make a mark on the casing where the tee at the top is set so you can line up the pitless the same way when you reinstall it.

I'd love to have another Wieses pitless, shame they are so rare now, but I might check out the Merrill.



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Daniel Earl Keith is a genius! Dude, your answer was the exact one I needed for my problems. I too have a weises pitless and couldn't find really anything like it anywhere. My neighbor built the house originally and was no help whatsoever, ha,ha. Anyways, it had a 1" pipe coming out of the pitless, and a "bridge" across the top of the casing to support the weight I guess. The bridge had female threads, and inside, was a piece of stainless/galvanized pipe. Not knowing what it was, I pulled it out. I made a "T" handle like i'd seen done and tried like crazy to just pull it out, beating it with a hammer, rigging a pully system, etc., to no avail. I gave up at this point. We have county water and I didn't need to have a working well, just wanted to get a hand pump hook up to it, and didnt think I could sneak another drop pipe beside the pump pipe due to the stout spacers I saw down in the casing. After seeing pictures of the top of the weise pitless, it made sense that the pipe that was inside was a key. Unfortunately, I had tried to use it as a prybar and bent it, then seeing no use for it, scrapped it. BTW, I also tried prying it out with a spud bar, I tried hitting the piece that rest against the casing on the backside of the pitless with a spud bar (as I could see it was pointing down and I thought it was stuck). So finally I saw this thread and made another t handle out of 1/2" galvanized pipe. 2 things, 1, Mr. Keith says to use 3/4" pipe for the key, which may be the case in some instances, but I used 1/2" and pounded one end almost closed, leaving about 3/8" open for the "key". 2, I didn't need the other pieces to make it a "T", as at no point will it hold any weight. I put the end I had beaten partially closed down to the pitless (the 1/2" pipe was 60" long for me btw, which left about 18" sticking out of the top of the casing), and turned it counter-clockwise (lefty loosy) witha pipe wrench and watched before my very eyes as the actuator released on the backside of the pitless. Amazing!!!! I then hooked my 1" T handle into the top of the bridge, barely lifted, and the pump came right up and out. Word of advice, you may not even need the T handle with this setup, you may be able to just lift up on the bridge. My T handle broke the pipe when I got enough out that it bent over. 2 things in my favor, I had a good grip on the pipe, and my pump was only down about 25'. Good luck, it's really easy if you find this thread before you incur too much heartache. Thanks again for the info Daniel Keith!!!.

Nice solution, and nice searching.

I have the stainless version of the Merrill MCK, and it does look very similar. I wonder if the O-ring is compatible. Ideally you would replace the O-ring before putting the pitless back in service. In any case, you do want to lube the O-ring with silicone grease or silicone release compound.