I have a shallow well with a Myers Jet Pump. I have had issues with it in the past, but was always able to get it to work. The pump was here when I bought the house, so I do not have all the details about depth and etc.
Here are some general facts. I am in Florida so the soil is sandy and the water table is high. The pump has had issues with sand clogging up things before (like the pressure switch), but I have always been able to unclog the sand and get things going again.
Currently the pump runs but does not suck up water. Or I should say barely sucks up water. The water kinda of bubbles out.
So as you can see in the picture I disconnected the pump intake from the ground and put into that 5 gallon bucket showing in the photo, which I filled with water. I wanted to test the pump seperate from the well. When I did this the pump ran and pumped fine. Of course it is possible the pump works fine from the bucket, but has problems pumping up 20 feet (or whatever the well depth is)
You will also notice a check valve by the bucket. I remove the check valve and tried to reconnect to test the pump without the check valve. Ran pump and again water just barely coming out.
I then took my snake to clean out the well in case any sand was clogging. One thing I noticed is the well does not go straight down. There is a 90 elbow about a foot down. Is there a reason that one would not want to drill the well right next to the house. Anyway that 90 elbow makes it difficult to try and drop a string down to determine the well height.
After snaking out, I got the same results.
I am not sure how to test further to determine if the well is the problem. One person said if I fill the well pipe with water; the water should flow back down the well. My water does not flow down or if it does it is very very slow. But it has always been like that. I am not sure what is at the bottom of the well, but being it is a shallow well, I doubt there is a check valve at the bottom. is the fact tha the water does not drain down a problem?
I am thinking about digging up to where that pipe bends again and goes straight down to the water supply and try and determine how deep the well is.
The pipe was full of water and when doing this test I filled the pump with water so there is not a priming issue.
Any sugguestion on what to do next?
Here are some general facts. I am in Florida so the soil is sandy and the water table is high. The pump has had issues with sand clogging up things before (like the pressure switch), but I have always been able to unclog the sand and get things going again.
Currently the pump runs but does not suck up water. Or I should say barely sucks up water. The water kinda of bubbles out.
So as you can see in the picture I disconnected the pump intake from the ground and put into that 5 gallon bucket showing in the photo, which I filled with water. I wanted to test the pump seperate from the well. When I did this the pump ran and pumped fine. Of course it is possible the pump works fine from the bucket, but has problems pumping up 20 feet (or whatever the well depth is)
You will also notice a check valve by the bucket. I remove the check valve and tried to reconnect to test the pump without the check valve. Ran pump and again water just barely coming out.
I then took my snake to clean out the well in case any sand was clogging. One thing I noticed is the well does not go straight down. There is a 90 elbow about a foot down. Is there a reason that one would not want to drill the well right next to the house. Anyway that 90 elbow makes it difficult to try and drop a string down to determine the well height.
After snaking out, I got the same results.
I am not sure how to test further to determine if the well is the problem. One person said if I fill the well pipe with water; the water should flow back down the well. My water does not flow down or if it does it is very very slow. But it has always been like that. I am not sure what is at the bottom of the well, but being it is a shallow well, I doubt there is a check valve at the bottom. is the fact tha the water does not drain down a problem?
I am thinking about digging up to where that pipe bends again and goes straight down to the water supply and try and determine how deep the well is.
The pipe was full of water and when doing this test I filled the pump with water so there is not a priming issue.
Any sugguestion on what to do next?