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The Well Pump Went Out... Now Life Is Not Fun.


Cholla

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We are in the process of getting our house on the market and my 86-year old FIL, bless his heart, didn't hear his toilet running and ran our well dry. In the process the pump locked up. So, in the meantime we are buying water jugs at Rural King so we can keep things clean. Dealing with an elderly person with an ostomy and has the reasoning skills of a five-year old with no water is hell on earth. His plan was to empty his pouch in the trash can... Oh, heck no!

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Cholla,

     I feel your pain.

     Wishing the best results possible in the shortest amount of time. 

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 If the well is not too deep (ours is 40'), they can pop the head off and drop in a new pump in under an hour. But we didn't run it dry, so that may be another issue.

 

We got a new pump about 3 years ago. Old pump was from 1977.

 

Pump and labor was just under $1000.:(

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$1680 later we have a new pump and water pressure again.

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Water wells are a pain in the butt on a good day. We have one here at the house for watering the yard and one at our farm. The one at the farm ran dry and burned the pump up once when the toilet flapper didn't close and ran the weak well dry. :angry:

JHC

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 A new downhole pump (the locals don’t like that term) for a well like mine that is about 90 feet deep, costs about $2000 for the pump service to come out, pull the well and install the new pump, then check everything out.  

 

That says nothing for the dry hole that you now have . So maybe the well bore will refill or maybe you need a new well?  Or maybe you can deepen the existing well? 

 

If a “ running” toilet is going to draw your well down, maybe discuss that with the pump company.

 

ALSO........   maybe you already know this, however you should strongly consider having the pump service install a switch, (instrumentation) that will sense that the well bore water level is below the pump and will shut the pump off when that happens.  (The pump depends on the water for its lubrication, and will seize up if the water level drops below the pump for an extended period.)   Discuss that with the service company.  If the service man does not understand what you are talking about, you need a different service company.

Cat Brules

 

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Not that city supplied water is not without it's down side. When my dad passed away, we started to remodel the house for resale. His water bill was around $30 a month.

Then the infamous toilet flapper didn't seal completely.

 

Three days later, I get a call from the City Clerk where the house was. She asked if someone was close by with a key, as their computer detected a big spike in water use. I called a friend who met the water department at the house, and the flapper was fixed.

 

But next month I got a water bill for $840! The mayor admitted their water monitoring system failed and I should have been called immediately. But not one dime off on the bill. That was city policy.

 

So much for your hometown helping you out of a jam!

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Is it common to have the pump far above the bottom of the well?  My well is 250’ and the pump is just about at the bottom but with the water table around ten ft there are about a 1000 gallons available before the well is dry. All I have to do to replace it is pull the pipe and wire and change the connections.

 

my neighbor burned his out because he loves having a lawn.

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Just replaced ours a couple months ago. Pulled pump and replaced it in about 4 hours. I had a spare pump I purchased just in case, and it paid off. It was 200 feet 1 1/4 inch pipe, pretty heavy. Pulled it with the tractor bucket. I have experience with well pumps so not a big deal.

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My well is over 600 feet; pulling the pump is a mighty task.  After the original pump went, I got to thinking about all the years that I had been cleaning all of the sink faucet spout strainers every week - they would clog up with sand and fine gravel.  So, I asked the pump guy to lift the new pump at least 20 feet off of the bottom.  He did.  No more sand, no more clodgged faucets, no more burned out pumps (I hope).

 

LL

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4 hours ago, Cholla said:

$1680 later we have a new pump and water pressure again.

That's what I paid, for a new pump, 8 years ago in CT. You did good.

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