If you pull it I would go ahead and replace all the pump wire down the shaft - mine had several raw places in it after 18 years down the hole. Also, make sure you have a pull line on the pump - I lost my pump down the shaft when I pulled it because there was no pull line and the jointed PVC snapped below my hands as I was pulling it up. The well is only 75' deep so I could yank it up myself.

I managed to fish a loop or wire through a conduit (like a snake catcher) down far enough to snag the pump wires and used them to yank it the rest of the way out. All this while standing in a 3 foot deep hole in my side yard in the dark - only I seem to have such misadventures.

If it is steel water line for the riser I would highly recommend going back with continuous black PVC (Silverline is what I used). The frictional loss of water flow is much less with the PVC than with the steel pipe - plus it will not rot out over time, and it is alot lighter to drag out and will bend, not snap. Just make sure there is a pull line (safety line) attached to whatever goes back in.

My backyard neighbor has been a plumber for about 70 years - even he says that I have run across more screwball plumbing issues in the 6 years I have been living behind him than he has seen in the last 20 years. Live and learn (usually not to do it that way again )

 

redramnc, sounds like you and me need to see a professional. I thought I was the only one with issues... but that's another story.
It's plumbed with black plastic and the pump is tethered. The pump quit working once during these 18 years due to the wire getting rubbed thru and I pulled it with help (of course) and for days after it hurt to even drive, my wrists were so sore. So I may leave it until it gives up and take Rick's advise and replace it with a full 1 horse one. I have an alternate water source that I can turn on while the well is down so I guess I can afford to wait until the weather warms.

 

You mentioned the pump is 5' off the bottom... Well maybe it's not anymore? Maybe you have enough sediment that the pump pretty well on the bottom and that's where your getting all the rock bits?

 

Rock bits yes. But the felt on the other hand is new. I plan to pull it up another 10' when I re install the inline filter.

 

Update (incase anyone cares) My power bill went up $15 last month and I discovered the pumpswitch was never cutting off. Pressure guage shows 46-48 pounds and the pump was never cutting off. I backed off the switch setting to where the switch would cutoff again and it worked until I had to back it off some more. Bought a 3/4 horse and plan to install it later in the week. Thanks all for the input.
Nat

 

The old plumber living behind me told me that if a waterpump runs continuously against a stand pipe full of water at max pressure the impeller can cavitate, overheat, and burn itself up. I thought this had happened to me at one point but it turned out to be something else.

My wife, who has better hearing than I, kept telling me she could hear the pump switch cycling constantly. I was too busy to crawl under the house and investigate her alleged noises until the power bill came the next month - it was up about $40 Turns out there was a pinhole in a Qest joint that was spraying a stream that was landing behind the abandoned furnace under the house in an area that the light did not shine on into a dip that carried the water to the underhouse drain. When I turned the pressure off to fix the joint with a compression fitting the joint literally disintegrated in my hand - hard water leached all the copper out. I tore out every piece of Qest under the house starting that night.

Good luck. Better you than me.

 

Thanx I needed that. I may find the drop pipe inside the well has a leak but even then it means pulling the pump. I guess 'll replace the pipe along with the pump so I don't have to face doing again for a long time. (hopefully)

 

In his younger days in Texas my boss used to run a well drill on the side - he gets to telling stories at times about what he ran into while doing that. We were talking about water leaching pipes one time and he recalled a well that had galvanized pipe coming up from the pump that was so porous that it looked like a sprinkler system in the casing. The older widow who it belonged to later told him that her power bill got cut in half afer he replaced the rotted pipe. No telling how long that pump had been running or how much she had paid over time for powering that pump and washing down the casing. My boss said it was so brittle that you could snap the pipe off in our hands - supposedly had been in the well since the 20s (it was early 60s when he changed it out).

Hopefully yours is not that extreme a case.

 

My well is 200 feet deep and about 4 years old. I've gotten all of the rock dust out, but I keep getting sand particles caught in the faucet aerators and in the shower head reducers. I think I need a filter. Does it go before the tank or after? The pump is down the well.

 

I would suggest a cetrifugal filter before the pressure tank to catch the big stuff and parallel cartridge filters (with valves on input and ouput lines to isolate filters) after (can be before or after the tank, depending on how much space you have for the filtration components). But then I over-engineer everything

But this setup has worked for my parents place for 15 years.

 

Problem solved! I replaced the submersible pump, wire, and down pipe today. The pump looked fine when I inspected it on the ground, but after removing it from the down pipe I could hear loose parts rattling inside it. Since this was new to me, I decided to remove the motor and dissect the pump. The top sleeve bearing (at the discharge end) had worn out and spun, taking out the ceramic bearing for the center shaft causing the top plastic impeller to contact the bronze pump housing. The increase in drag caused the teeth of the motor to wear away, (not sheer), so the motor came up to full speed while the pump never could.
CSI Nat