Repairing a well, questions

[Gilman]

I found out that our well has a leak in the pipe somewhere between the submerged pump and the top of the well.  I've never pulled a well before and was looking for some advice.

What kind of pipe do I use to replace the old pipe?

Proper way to clamp/wrap the pipe with chain to lift and hold it?

Any other question I should be asking.


Your advice would be appreciated

David

[red]

any idea how deep the well is ?

[Gilman]

Unfortunately I do not know how deep it is.  I'm guessing 30-150' deep.

[beenthere]

There is a clamp designed to hold the pipe when turning off the section above the coupling. Might be able to jury rig with a chain, but be sure to keep from dropping the pump back in the well.

Just went through the routine of pulling the pump that is 290' down. 14 twenty foot sections of pipe. Used to be galvanized, now is plastic (heavy schedule 40 I believe. Threaded couplings. Different clamp used for galvanized and plastic.

Someone else a year or so ago was pulling a pump. Afraid he was going to lose it due to corroded/rusted pipe. Came out ok.

Have you googled for more info?

[Gary_C]

I would say that job calls for a lot of caution. If you have galvanized pipe and it's corroded, chances are it is partially rusted thru at the threads and could easily break as you are pulling it up. Best way obviously is with a well drillers boom where you can lift straight up for over 21 feet.

But if you really want to do it, you can just use a pipefitters clamp like they have on those pipe threading tables to hold the pipe for both lifting and as a safety stop. The other thing you will need is a flat plate with a slot cut exactly the diameter of the well pipe which will not let a coupling pass thru. You can set that plate on top of the casing to prevent it from falling, but only when there is a coupling on the end of the pipe.

Then it depends on what the top of the well is like. If you have a pitless adapter underground, you may have some problem getting that adapter to break loose when you start lifting the pipe. Make sure you know exactly what you have before you start.

Get more details and come back with more questions if you are not sure before you start.

[Gilman]

If I understood correctly, the pitless adapter is basically an elbow that does two things.  First, be an elbow that puts your water line below the frost level.  The second is to act as a hanger that the pipe and pump hangs from.  Am I correct in this?

In WA state we don't have much of a frost level, that and the well is inside a building I'm pretty sure there is just straight pipes down to the pump.

Makes me a bit worried about dropping the pump though.  I called my neighbor and he said his well was about 45' deep.  I was told that there is one aquifer that feeds houses in this area.

[jbeat]

Gilman, you'll need a 5' length of 1" or 1" 1/4 pipe  threaded that will thread into the pitless adaptor. Rig some kind of pulling loop on the top end. Pull straight up it's a slip fit. Once it breaks loose from the pitless it should be easy to pull. Put it back with plastic sched. 40 pipe. If the wire looks knicked up I would replace it also. Look down the well casing with a flashlight and you'll see what needs to be done. It'll make perfect sense once you see the adaptor apart.

[Dan_Shade]

i used to rig up a tee out of pipe to make a handle to get the pitless adapter out.

[Lud]

Years ago my submersible pump quit.  Called the old regular well guy and his 3 sons couldn't pull it out.  The old man immediately started pushing a new well or cistern system.

Wife called another guy .  He and his little brother, Buster, came out, ran into the same jam and asked my wife if she had any vegtable oil.  Poured a slug in and out  came the pump.  Lubrication can be a miracle cure.

Sure was nice to tell the old man to go away.  Wife had my back, eh?  Gotta love'em........... 8)

[Don_Papenburg]

We  use Orangeburg  Black plastic water pipe . Comes in a roll 50' 100' 150' and so on That stuff is tuff and kinda flexable  ,large radiusbends .  thenouonly need coupleing on the ends.

[Gary_C]

Here is what a pitless adapter looks like:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/productIndex.shtml?operator=prodIndexRefinementSearch&originalValue=pitless+adapter&L1=Well

If you do replace with plastic pipe, you need some additional things like a torque arrestor which keeps the pump from twisting every time it starts. Check out that page in the grainger catalog for more well parts.

As far as the depth, the well usually has to go much deeper with the casing and the depth the pump is set is determined by testing when the well is drilled. My well casing goes down about 170 feet to bed rock and the water level is at about 40 feet deep. So the pump is down three 21 foot lengths of galvanized pipe. Some counties have well records and the well driller should have records from when the well was drilled.