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Posted: 6/16/2017 12:54:52 PM EDT
My 4 inch submersible well has died after 30 plus year of service.
Suddenly started producing a large volume of really nice looking beach sand. I caught it, but not before getting sand into the house. This includes the water softener, which may be toast. I won't know until I can try to backwash it. I'm now joining the ranks of those people connected to a local water system, and I'm glad I reserved a tap several years back when the system was upgraded. I'll maintain my rain barrels and possibly add some storage, now. Probably got a hole in the casing or screen which would require re-drilling. Not an option for me, due to expense and the possibility of a move in the future. Not really a question, just a sad story. 
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Posted: 6/16/2017 1:04:40 PM EDT
[#1]
Well, that sucks.
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Posted: 6/16/2017 1:07:47 PM EDT
[#2]
Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed?
I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. |
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Posted: 6/16/2017 1:52:38 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Well, that sucks. |
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Posted: 6/16/2017 2:21:09 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Well, that sucks. 
Oh and I saw what you did there. 
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Posted: 6/16/2017 3:38:59 PM EDT
[#5]
Well hell.
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Posted: 6/16/2017 3:45:17 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Well hell.
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Posted: 6/16/2017 4:11:33 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This.
Oh and I saw what you did there. 
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Posted: 6/16/2017 4:19:44 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400! |
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Posted: 6/16/2017 4:51:54 PM EDT
[#9]
Here's something to consider. You can pull the pump yourself with a wooden A frame and a come-along/pulley system. Replace it with a jet pump foot valve (I think they make them small enough). Sell submersible pump on CL, buy cheap jet pump.
Now get a plastic 55 gallon plastic drum and make a cone bottom for it as per the pic below. Pipe the sandy discharge from the pump to a tangental entry in the tank side - basically DIY cyclonic separator. Draw from the top to a cistern, settling tank, or straight to a hose bib. Voila - free (ok, not free, but not super expensive) irrigation water. 
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Posted: 6/16/2017 4:54:06 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
80 Feet? Wow! that's a shallow well. Mine is about 120 and its too shallow for my comfort level. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400! |
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Posted: 6/19/2017 8:36:04 PM EDT
[#11]
Mine is 160, but the water is somewhere between 85 and 120. The driller could not find water sand so he put in 60' of plastic well screen.
I got lucky, most in my area only can draw at best 8 gallons per minute, but my well produces 15 gallons a minute. I limited myself to a 110 volt 1/2 hp pump (It's a 10 GPM pump, but I'm getting 12 GPM since my pump is only 50' down) so I can run off solar at a later date. |
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Posted: 6/20/2017 6:57:08 AM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Mine is 160, but the water is somewhere between 85 and 120. The driller could not find water sand so he put in 60' of plastic well screen. I got lucky, most in my area only can draw at best 8 gallons per minute, but my well produces 15 gallons a minute. I limited myself to a 110 volt 1/2 hp pump (It's a 10 GPM pump, but I'm getting 12 GPM since my pump is only 50' down) so I can run off solar at a later date. My well produces around 0.25 gpm... it's 190 feet deep into solid limestone and it takes a while for the water to seep through limestone. I have yet to run out of water, and we were able to add about 2500 gallons of water to the pool a few weeks ago to get it full and opened. 0.25 gpm is still 400 gallons a day, it took less than a week to refill the 2500 gallon buffer tank. |
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Posted: 6/20/2017 11:35:03 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. |
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Posted: 6/20/2017 3:32:28 PM EDT
[#14]
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X2 I bet the casing cracked. We had that happen on one of the artesian wells and trap the pump. Funny thing is it still runs iron water out on the ground. Probably going to use for garden and fruit trees until it quits. Pump is at about 250'. |
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Posted: 6/20/2017 6:08:38 PM EDT
[#15]
You might look at installing a Dole valve to reduce the pump output, maybe that would reduce the amount of sand getting sucked in.
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Posted: 6/20/2017 9:46:57 PM EDT
[#16]
Some kind of volume reducing valve? Makes some sense when I think about it.
Can you tell me any more? |
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Posted: 6/20/2017 10:34:05 PM EDT
[#17]
They call them Dole valves and they are rated at gallons per minute.
I had an old well that I had a guy change from a jet pump to a submersible and we think that the new pump sucked out the screen. We got a ton of sand out of it. Then the new pump would suck the well dry and then trip. He added a Dole valve to match the well output and we limped by until we could get a new well drilled. |
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Posted: 6/21/2017 3:50:09 PM EDT
[#18]
Very helpful, sir. Thanks.
I'll be looking at some variation of this to keep the well alive as an alternative water source. I think the well was flowing 15 or 20 gpm from an open 1.5 inch pipe, so a restriction would still allow a good deal of water and possibly not produce the amount of sand. To drill a new well to the 400 foot depth recommended by the driller would be 12-13,000 dollars. |
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Posted: 6/21/2017 5:59:23 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
They call them Dole valves and they are rated at gallons per minute. I had an old well that I had a guy change from a jet pump to a submersible and we think that the new pump sucked out the screen. We got a ton of sand out of it. Then the new pump would suck the well dry and then trip. He added a Dole valve to match the well output and we limped by until we could get a new well drilled. |
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Posted: 6/22/2017 3:08:43 PM EDT
[#20]
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450 here but I'm way up in the mountains. Different situation. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400! 
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Posted: 6/22/2017 3:22:05 PM EDT
[#21]
I would think they could just replace the pump and not hang it as low long as you have the water depth to cover your demand?
Replaced my pump last year that's 850' down for about 1400 bucks. |
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Posted: 6/22/2017 3:25:51 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
450' ha! That's kittens play. My well is 850' Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
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Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400! 
I thought for sure I'd have one of the deepest. I'm at 8,700 feet in the mountains and that generally means going down a ways to find water. I guess being in the desert means you have to go pretty deep too (or maybe you're in mountains plus desert  )
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Posted: 6/23/2017 1:27:13 AM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
450' ha! That's kittens play. My well is 850' Is that the norm for where you are? |
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Posted: 6/23/2017 7:53:31 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
450' ha! That's kittens play. My well is 850' Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400!
We have a 1500 GPM NFPA approved well at work that is only 260' |
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Posted: 6/24/2017 5:22:43 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
450' ha! That's kittens play. My well is 850' Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
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Yeah, that sucks! If the motor is still functioning, can't it be fixed? I just had a 20 year old 1hp well motor die. At the bottom of an 80' pipe. $2,300 to pull it up and replace. Ah well, no water bill for 20 years is worth it. My parent's is 360 feet and my Step-Grandpa's is 400! Someone at work asked me recently what it cost to drill a well like that. I told them about $25/ft is the going rate around here. To say they were shocked is an understatement. |
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Posted: 6/24/2017 9:04:20 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Damn. I know AZ and all, but every time I read these threads, I'm amazed how shallow the wells are. Mine is (I think) 700 ft on the drill card and pump hung at 675. Someone at work asked me recently what it cost to drill a well like that. I told them about $25/ft is the going rate around here. To say they were shocked is an understatement.
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Posted: 6/25/2017 2:05:31 PM EDT
[#27]
Owned a place in southern ohio. Well was at a bit over 80 ft and it could be pulled by hand if you were a big fella. I paid a guy to do it the first time but when it needed done again I did it myself. Measurement is done by using a single wide since that is about how far it had to walked out if you did it in a straight line. When I did it myself I coiled it up like a monster water hose.
Reason I had problems, original owner skimped on getting it done right and I did not realize problems of overall system. As original poster did, I had paid for a tap when they ran city water down the road and while I never ran the pipe to the single wide I had installed a frost free spigot up at the road to make use of my water. Sold the place before I felt the need to actually dig a trench and bury the pipe. Hauled water and learned to get by without running water. Taught me that tons of water is way more important to me than electrical service or having city water pressure. Gravity does alright and if you have an air compressor and some containers you can pressurize stuff for a shower or whatever. Anyway, Due to water levels in well pipes I would probably consider making a pvc well bucket and messing around to try and figure out where the thing cracked at. |
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Posted: 6/25/2017 2:27:54 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Heck,I'm shocked by the number that just came up on my calculator. Quote HistoryQuoted:
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Damn. I know AZ and all, but every time I read these threads, I'm amazed how shallow the wells are. Mine is (I think) 700 ft on the drill card and pump hung at 675. Someone at work asked me recently what it cost to drill a well like that. I told them about $25/ft is the going rate around here. To say they were shocked is an understatement. Contrast this with some friends who live about 60 miles north of here, ironically at the foot of the NC foothills (i.e. mountains) and they have wells on the farm that are 30-50gpm. I want to say they paid $3500/well and drilled them to 120ft with the large diameter casing. |
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Posted: 6/26/2017 9:44:18 AM EDT
[#29]
My childhood home has a 14' sandpoint well.
My Mom still lives there at the age of 82. Every 10 years or so we have to pull it and replace the point. It's in a corner of a finished basement so it's not a real fun job.
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Posted: 6/26/2017 10:01:40 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Heck,I'm shocked by the number that just came up on my calculator. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Damn. I know AZ and all, but every time I read these threads, I'm amazed how shallow the wells are. Mine is (I think) 700 ft on the drill card and pump hung at 675. Someone at work asked me recently what it cost to drill a well like that. I told them about $25/ft is the going rate around here. To say they were shocked is an understatement.
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