no water in house.

[jeff duprey]

I have a 280 foot deep well, I have two pipes going from the well to the pump. my pump is a Rapidaytor 10TA with a new 1 HP Dayton motor. and a new control switch. I have no idea how old the well is. It's all steel but seems to look fine. it has some rust but nothing leeks and there is no water polling around the well. The motor runs fine, the pump spins the impeller and had 0 psi. I have 60-65 psi. when it worked correctly. One day I had no water in house, so i went out to the well and it was running. So I by-passed the filter and still no water in house. I thought my be the water level in my storage tank went too low and it burp up some air into the pump. (I was told that my storage tank was bad, the diaphragm was tore and leaks air into the bottom of the tank.) So I tried to prime the pump. When I removed the pressure gauge to dump water into the pump it only took like two cups of water. I put the pressure gauge on and fired it up. With the valve to the house and the valve to the tank closed I had 15 psi. If i open the valve to the house the pressure drops to 0 psi. and still no water in house. If I open the valve to the storage tank and not the one to the house the pressure stays at 10-15 psi. Every thing from the valve to the house is brand new. we had a house fire and everything was replaced. So I called the man to come and give me an price to fix the well. He said there is a jet or a check valve it the bottom of the well that has to pulled up and fixed. and it would cost about $1200.00 to fix. I don't know why he called it a jet. He also said if he can't get it out he will have to put in a new well. I also noticed that when I'm running the pump I get condensation on the line that goes to the center of the pump housing. like the pump is pulling water up from the well and putting back into the well. The second line just below the one that is condensing has clear plastic. it is really hard when the pump is on. When i turn of the pump it seam to shrink like it has a little vacuum in it. I just can not get the water into the house or the storage tank. The guy that came to check out the well adjusted a screw with a jam nut on the front of the pump housing and now I get almost 90 psi at the gauge. But it seams to only be in the pump housing and will not put water into the storage tank or let it in the house. The two valves I have are ball valves so it is real easy to know if there on or off. I tried to force water down the well using the pipe that goes to the center of the pump housing with an air compressor. But all it did was force all the water in the well pipe up and out the the pipe just below the pipe that hooks to the center of the pump housing. It took a lot of water to refill the pipe and pump for priming. and still no change. Is the man correct on the diagnostics of my well? Is $1200.00 to fix it a good price? One of my friends has a 400 foot deep well and he needed a new submersible pump. it only cost him $1500.00 and I don't need the pump. So I was thinking my guy seam a little high on his price. It will probably take me 4 to 6 weeks with out water to come up with the money. Is pulling up the pipe to get to the check valve the only solution? Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

[ballvalve]

You DO need the pump. At 280 feet, get some quotes to pull all the old stuff and replace it with a one pipe submersible pump. Your system is an antique and not reliable or desirable. A 1/2 hp submersible will out perform a 1 hp deep jet pump. By the time you diagnose it, your new pump will be installed.

But if you are a mechanical engineer,you do not need any contractor to do this. Read a few pages on sumersible pump installs and just DO IT.

[jimtum]

You are better off putting in a submersible pump and you will need a 1hp or 1 1/2 hp pump. You will have to factor in the price of the pump, wire, pvc pipe sched 80, control box and the cost per foot from your well guy to install the pump. I would call around and get the best price, some guys will take from you what they can so take this time to check. Unitl then I would take the pipe apart right after your pump and put your hand against it and see if you can stop the flow, if not then you may want to check your check valve, it may be stuck and can prevent you from having the system work right or if you have a gate valve it may not be open completely