Method to unstick pump?

[ChiefEngineer]

Once the wire is out of the way I would drop a cutter over the pipe and lower it to the pump.

Is this a "well guy tool" or something I can buy/resell? I seem to be able to do the other steps. My problem appears to be deconstructing the wellhouse itself along with the fact it never stops raining so I can't get a truck near it without a lot of damage...however with that polypipe gone I would have a perfectly sized heavy boat anchor I could drop with with a rope on the old pump.

 

[Reach4]

Here is something to consider. There is a thing called an air lift pump. It generally requires the static level of the water to be at least half way up the lift path. It could lift some sand, but not quickly. If it is sand holding the pump down, that could be useful. If it is not, I expect that to not be helpful.

It is powered by an air compressor... I am thinking something around 8 CFM, but maybe less. Read up. Watch Youtube. As I picture it, you would run the water+sand into a trap/sluce, and you would return the sand-free water down the well. That is a much lower CFM than the fast method requires.

This air lift pump idea is why I was asking about the static water level.

So the homemade pump would go down the well, along side of the existing drop pipe. One pipe would deliver air. One would bring up water+sand.

Pretend I reiterated all of my disclaimers again.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

Most well fishing tools are home made. You really need to use steel pipe to do the fishing. Plastic pipe, cable, or rope can break and leave your fishing tool at the bottom and you in worse shape than before. I would use steel pipe over the poly and use teeth on the inside of the steel that catch a bite when pulled up. I would run it to the bottom, hopefully touching the pump before pulling up. With steel pipe and a strong wench something will break at the pump.

Also, hard to pound a pump down with a weight, and the weight may damage the casing. I would use the steel pipe and stand the wench truck on it if I needed more weight.

All if this is impossible without getting a wench over the well. Probably the best you can do it just pull until something breaks and hope it is at the pump. It most likely will break at the pump, but running pipe down just makes sure. Also, maybe use a weight on the end of a piece of steel pipe as long as you can fit under the cover. The steel pipe would keep the weight straight and not let it lean over and hit the casing.

 

[Bannerman]

All if this is impossible without getting a wench over the well.

LOL, I guess a wench maybe of some assistance ...

But a winch would probably be more useful for the task at hand.

 

[Valveman]

Lol! Never could speel anyway. Needed the laugh. Thanks.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

LOL, I guess a wench maybe of some assistance ...

That wench doesn't look very strong but I prefer her to what I have now. After 2 days of NuWell the slack I left on the wench has tightened itself...maybe that means the pump loosened. The pressure is about the same. I have to ask: I spent many hours watching the Blackhawks' Murray. Are you related?

 

[Hermannea]

Update: 2 days under tension and 10 sledgehammer whacks did NOT free it, however
upon reassembly the pressure is 10psi+ higher. Does that bode well in anyone's mind?

A word about my mindset: I was the responsible (from concept to completion) executive for some
of the largest international computer networks of the 20th century. I saw presidents of major corporations lose their careers over approving solutions where there was no graceful reversibility of change. Thus,
my AMAZEMENT at a well design that enables this. I owned a really deep, good, very old well in Missouri. I
saw a well at festung-koenigstein that was 450 years with a working pump installed in 1918.

I asked a well guy about dropping a camera down there. He said it wouldn't tell me much and to try a couple gallons of muriatic. What if the pump is stuck in sand? It coughs plenty of it up every time it starts. What if someone put a casement "liner" down there as a last resort and stuck a pump in it? What if someone jammed a second pump down there already (this property was going through bankruptcy when I "rescued" it). Why would anyone but a moron build a wellhouse over a pipe in a corner unless it was some final act of desperation?

The Cotey people say they sell to distributors who sell to tradesmen. None sell to me so I am trending toward Nu Well Tablets...thus my question about their application--again: reversibility of change on a functioning system. I am grown and can do my research if anyone is worried about blame.

I am "imagineering" when this fails that what now produces
30psi could do so indefinitely WITHOUT BACKPRESSURE (full head) to worsen whatever fissure
may or may not be present. I am drawing a design
whereby I pump into a cistern with a float cut-off controlled by my pressure switch, then use an on demand smaller pump to pressure my tank. Can anyone suggest a good pump for this with it's own controller?

If/when the well dies I might have something that could be used for rain catchment that I could tie into my house main with a check-valve while a new well is dug.

​

Hi, sorry to hear about the well troubles you're having. We put in rain tank systems to help supplement wells and in some cases, replace them. Sometimes the cost of a system is significantly less than a new well. We have just ventured into replacing well pumps due to the backlog of all the local well companies. There is a local manufacturer of pumps near you on 290 (Walrus). We use them on our rain tanks, i have one on my personal 30k rain tank and haven't had an issue even through the last couple freezes.
Let me know if we can help, or if you just want another pair of eyes to take a look at it...

Eric

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Hi, sorry to hear about the well troubles you're having. We put in rain tank systems to help supplement wells and in some cases, replace them. Sometimes the cost of a system is significantly less than a new well. We have just ventured into replacing well pumps due to the backlog of all the local well companies. There is a local manufacturer of pumps near you on 290 (Walrus). We use them on our rain tanks, i have one on my personal 30k rain tank and haven't had an issue even through the last couple freezes.
Let me know if we can help, or if you just want another pair of eyes to take a look at it...

Eric

Not sure how you located where you thought I was, but I am on on acreage between Victoria and Corpus. I'm not sure what I require so far but will keep you in mind. A 30K tank is enormous. It rains a lot here and I think between a crippled well and some rain, a few IBC totes will manke things look happier. We have hurricanes here, so I have solar backup that never worked cleanly for 220V well pumps anyway.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Just reporting the "outcome" of my NuWell pellet adventure. So far the effects are this:

1)My new brass check valve has failed...water now runs right straight back down the well...not sure
if sand stuck in it or acid ate it, but it seems like it is not even there.
2)If there was a hole in my pipe it is now bigger because my pressure went from 30psi to 10psi max.
3)My house water is dingy. Even after running thousands of gallons (not through house pipes but out a hose
on the back of the wellhouse) it would seem whatever was "residual" has "helped" clean rust out of the house pipes...and it seems never-ending.
4)It did not budge the pump, which may still be frozen in rust of stuck in sand.

Aside from that I am more curious than ever what is going on down there. There has to be
some sort of wireless battery-lighted IP camera I can lower on string down there and look around. Does anyone know of such a prefab device? I guess I could invent one since they make them to mount on drones.

 

[Hermannea]

Not sure how you located where you thought I was, but I am on on acreage between Victoria and Corpus. I'm not sure what I require so far but will keep you in mind. A 30K tank is enormous. It rains a lot here and I think between a crippled well and some rain, a few IBC totes will manke things look happier. We have hurricanes here, so I have solar backup that never worked cleanly for 220V well pumps anyway.

Gotcha. Thought i read something about Dripping Springs on an earlier post... As a buffer, a 3k gallon tank would help alot. Just some pvc, filters, UV light, and a pump and you're good to go for a few weeks. We have a 30k so we can be 100% rain water is all...
Sounds like you may have a cave in down hole. They do sell a downhole camera, but they are pricey. I know there are a few places that rent them, you might try that or call around and see what someone would charge to run their own camera down hole. Easier to formulate a plan if you know what you're up against? Good luck!

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Any cure for whatever this is? It's been quite awhile and it is the same. The
colored water comes through the house taps which get multi-stage filtetred
after the well; the clear comes from the back of the wellhouse spigot which
bypasses all filters. The water was clear and Ph normal after the tablets and lots
of flushing. ONLY THEN did I turn on the valves to the house plumbing. Obviously
this is from house pipes which are all copper. Ancient mineral deposits or part
of the copper sweats? Dawn dishsoap does not froth up in a tub of it.

 

[Valveman]

Sounds like you need to do a major flush of the house lines.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

I just want to update this thread one year and 4 months later. I created an IBC tote sytem in the wellhouse with a booster to the pressure tank that has worked pretty well with what has become a low-yield well that now seems to be in its final stages. The Nuwell failed to do much, but I can report the following phenomena: I winch/stretch the polypipe up over 3 ft without breaking it, seal the opening from contamination, and it runs better. When I lower it back down then back up I get what appears to be really nasty sticky sand---like reddsh clay-colored. It has gotten where the well will fill buckets on the ground but stop altogether when I run a pipe just up 6 ft to the top of the tote. Does this say anything to your experienced gurus? I suspect something having to do with the fact that all the check valves and foot valve have failed, or there is a hole in a pipe at some level that equalizes the pressure so the lift is gone? The pipe must be good because I stretch it up for days under 6 tons of tension and nothing ever breaks...in fact I am worried I CAN'T break it off eventually.

 

[Fitter30]

1" bronze check valve has a load capacity of 1700 lbs. Couldn't find anything on pvc.

NuWell-100 Pelletized Acid

Well house roof shingles come off, cut the roof deck for access when finished goes back together. Piece of sheet metal to cover the hole just push it under the upper shingles.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Thanks for that. I am guessing I will invite a guy with a truck and a hoist, since that pump will be at
the ceiling in another couple feet. I installed a stout eyehook from a rafter support beam supporting my winch.
There is already a metal roof I can remove a piece of. This experience has made me miss my clean,
naturally soft Ozark water that was in a stone formation with no sand.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Here is something to consider. There is a thing called an air lift pump. It generally requires the static level of the water to be at least half way up the lift path. It could lift some sand, but not quickly. If it is sand holding the pump down, that could be useful. If it is not, I expect that to not be helpful.

It is powered by an air compressor... I am thinking something around 8 CFM, but maybe less. Read up. Watch Youtube. As I picture it, you would run the water+sand into a trap/sluce, and you would return the sand-free water down the well. That is a much lower CFM than the fast method requires.

This air lift pump idea is why I was asking about the static water level.

So the homemade pump would go down the well, along side of the existing drop pipe. One pipe would deliver air. One would bring up water+sand.

Pretend I reiterated all of my disclaimers again.

I have been researching this fascinating suggestion. My static water level is 105ft. The well depth is unknown, but is presumed to be at least 140 ft. Based on what you are suggesting I would have to drop a pipe to 210ft to do this. If that were the case how is it that I see all these videos of people cleaning wells by jetting them out? Some seem pretty deep. The thing is that I don't really need anything "fast or high powered" to delivery something to a tank...the tank provides enough capacity for the family.

 

[Valveman]

If you can get a small pipe down to the pump between the casing and drop pipe, you might be able to jet out and loosen it enough to get the pump out.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

If you can get a small pipe down to the pump between the casing and drop pipe, you might be able to jet out and loosen it enough to get the pump out.

Great suggestion. Do well guys usually have such a thing? I had kind of thought of buying a giant roll of 1/2 inch pex and attaching a compressor to it and seeing if I could snake it down there. It is a 4 inch casing and the pump/polypipe/electric-casing (which is doubled up here and there as slack or to act as a spacer or something) take up a bunch of room. I was thinking if I bought some polypipe it would be more useful later for putting another pump down there, but I think the larger diameter might not give me much pressure from my non-industrial air compressor. Also, if I stirred up something the well pump that is already stuck down there seems ideal to puke sand out of there into a bucket or the ground potentially.. .just looking for any more tips...

 

[LLigetfa]

I think the larger diameter might not give me much pressure from my non-industrial air compressor.

Pressure depends on nozzle (orifice) size, not the pipe size. In fact larger pipe means less pressure loss from friction.

I would use a jetter nozzle that has one jet facing down and several facing up.

 

[Valveman]

With as much air as you need to jet a well, plastic pipe will not stay in the well. I would use 1/2" steel pipe with a 1/4" jet nozzle facing down on the bottom. Sometimes you have to hold the steel pipe down as the air will make it want to rocker out of the well. Every fishing job is different. I just make what I need for each job because the stuff I used for the last job will probably not work on this one.