Well Pump - No Water

ddurrett896 · Apr 22, 2015

I move into my house 2 years ago and the well pump has never worked. When i plug in the pump, it turns on, but water doesn't come out of the spigot. The pressure gauge is showing between 40 and 50 PSI.

Attached is a picture for reference...

The first thing I did was disconnect the hose end labeled 1 and put into a bucket of water. When the pump turned on, bubbles appeared. Conclusion: The pump is good.

The second thing I did was to connect my city water to the connection labeled 2 in an attempt to prime the well. I have never done this and that was the only inlet that would accept a hose connection. I ran the water for 10 minutes, reconnect the black hose, turned on the pump and opened the hose bib. Water ran until the tank was empty then nothing. Conclusion: it pumped the city water but nothing from the well.

Question:
1. Did I prime the pump correctly?
2. Is there a way to see if the well still has water?
3. The bottom tank is rusted pretty bad. If I replace everything, do I NEED a tank or can I just pump water from the ground to the spigot?
4. Anyone have any tips of guide to replace everything from the checkvalve up? I figured I can remove everything from the checkvalve up and replace.

Thanks!

WJW · Apr 22, 2015

Have a well for yrs. First thing I would do is try and take the pump apart to see if the impeller is good. Also the rusty tank is a bad thing. If you get it going look around for a used 250 gal. food grade storage tank and make a on off switch for it and you will be better off due to the less cycles on the pump. Tanks are all over ebay for 100. http://www.ebay.com/itm/141390465923?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
The running of the pump for just on demand water use is a iffy ? Might cut pump life down. On priming your pump try to search web for it. My pump is in the ground so cant really reply on that.

Cyberbear · Apr 22, 2015

Make sure there is sufficient air pressure in the air reserve tank by looking at a gauge or checking with a tire pressure gauge if there is a valve stem for filling the air reserve tank.
You may wish to call out a well pump service company who can quickly diagnose your problem, and help set up your system with the correct operating pressures for your water system.

432bullet · Apr 22, 2015

Check and see if your pump is setting in water ? If it has not been used in yrs the water level maybe lower than the pump ? The water table is dropping all across the country because we are using more water than is replaced. X2 on having a water well service check it out before you start putting a lot of money into it.

ddurrett896 · Apr 22, 2015

432bullet said:
Check and see if your pump is setting in water ?.

Any idea on how to test that?

pcmeiners · Apr 22, 2015

"Check and see if your pump is setting in water ?"
His pump is a shallow well pump, why would it be sitting in water?, the pump is showing in the picture.

As far as priming....your method should work but the better way would be to have a Tee at the top of the well pipe (instead of elbow) with a plug. During priming you attach hose (air tight) to Tee, feed city water, but only enough to maintain water in the pump. You want the pump to **** up the air in the well pipe. If you maintain full city pressure it might not pull up the air.

I used to drill well , what I would do.....
At the union, remove the pump, remove the check valve (check the check valve for damage). Run water from city main into pipe. If ,after some time, it overflows, the screen at the bottom of well is blocked from sediment or corrosion. If it overflows, you might be able to remove blockage by sending a 3/4" hose down to the point and "washing" it out. Sometimes the screen needs to be cleaned chemically with sulfamic acid (Not sulfuric).

If it takes the full flow of water continuously, you need to find out if you have a head of water or the water table has dropped below the point/screen. Now it gets more involved, so a well service would be your best bet. If you have neighbors, you could ask about their well depths, and about issues of water table dropping. If you do have standing water in the pipe, the more city water the pipe can take , the better the well.

kd3pc · Apr 22, 2015

then make sure the end of the suction line, is actually beneath the water level.

barnee · Apr 22, 2015

Classic line leak from well to suction pump. The slightest leak will prevent priming. Another issue could be that the foot valve at the bottom of the draw tube is defective.

ddurrett896 · Apr 22, 2015

Ok pump works, check valve is good so the problem is below the check valve.

I'm not sure how deep the well goes - any idea to check?

My next step was to thread my hose onto the well line with an adapter and hope the pressure clears whatever is blocked. I looked down the pipe and see water, so there should be a block somewhere. Any ideas??

KANSASBOY · Apr 22, 2015

Looks like a sand point well to me end could be clogged . http://www.instructables.com/id/Un-plugging-a-sandpoint-well/

teal95 · Apr 22, 2015

When we had a shallow well the screen would eventually plug up and then we wouldn't have water. So we would take the cap off of the top of the well (which had a straight shot down), stick a .22 rifle in, wrap a rag around the barrel to fill the space and take a couple of shots. The pressure pulses would blow the crud out of the screen enough to get a few more months out of it before we would have to drive a new well, or try to pull the old one and put a new screen point on it.

ddurrett896 · Sep 15, 2015

Hey guys I finally got back to messing with the well.

Heres when I got…I disconnected the connection between the check valve and pipe in the ground and placed the check valve in a 5 gallon bucket. Turned the pump on and it sprayed water like it should.

So everything is good from the check valve up. I have no idea how deep my well is, but being 6 miles off the atlantic coast and talking to neighbors, id estimate it's less than 50 feet deep. I ran a fish tape down the well and it stopped after 5 feet and couldn't get it to go any further. Im thinking is 90s out to the yard from my garage and goes deep, but who knows.

Any thoughts on what to do next? I wouldn't mind trying the gun idea as a worse case, but with a 90 5 feet from the top I'm afraid it's just going to put a hole thru it and end the cause. Thank you!

pcmeiners · Sep 15, 2015

Bullet down the well sounds logical, though I would be more tempted to take a .308 bullet, remove bullet, wad of paper to replace it. That would produce a decent pressure wave without hurting pipe. Perhaps pipe to well froze and split. Connect supply hose to pump, run 1/4 open, should prime in minutes. If air is bubbling after pump is on for 10 minutes, likely you have a supply side leak.

Victorymike18 · Sep 15, 2015

Ok, I'm not too knowledgeable with well pumps, but I am an owner of one which has had occasional issues that I've worked through.

Firstly, I see one pipe going from the pump to the well which is likely a shallow-well jet pump. I have the same type of setup, and it has its pros & cons.

From my reading, shallow well jet pumps do a decent job of self-priming, but I found that priming the line as much as possible helped significantly with pulling water faster.

One common issue is that the jet nozzle (or venturi) can get mucked up with crud, which will kill the jet action, thus killing the suction. The pump will run and run, but can't **** water up. You can disassemble the jet/venturi assembly, clean it and reassemble to see if it works.

A recent issue I had with mine was that the foot valve was leaking, so the water in the pipe would drain back down into the well after a short time & resulting in loss of prime. A well Co. came and installed a new foot valve, as well as a new check valve and the issue was resolved.

Do you have a way to check if the foot valve is functional? IE: isolating the pump (and everything after it) priming the line and watching to see if the water drains down into the well?

Sorry I can't be of more help. These things are a pain when they aren't working.

slip knot · Sep 15, 2015

Sounds like you have an air leak in the well pipe. or the foot valve is not working correctly. pull it and find out. The well should be easy to pull thats a shallow well pump. I'm betting its on 20-30 ft down.

wuck · Sep 15, 2015

You have a jet pump that has been converted to a shallow well pump. A shallow well pump can't lift water more than about 20-25 feet, so the static water level down the hole should be higher than that.

Victorymike is correct, one pipe down hole, but two pipes from pump. Look at the large cast "Wye" pipe bolted to the pump, that is the jet/venturi. The pump output is towards the outside circumference of the pump, it merges into the center hole and flows through the venturi. This water flowing through the venturi creates the vacuum as it expands into the larger diameter of the center pipe, this is what "pulls" water up the pipe from the well. I say pulls loosely, the atmospheric air pressure actually pushes water up the pipe into the vacuum.

I think your priming method is OK, but like others have said a plugged venturi/jet body, a hole anywhere in the down pipe, a bad check valve or a plugged foot valve/sand point will keep everything from working.

You don't need a tank, I'm not sure that rusty tank is doing anything but the small blue tank should provide a buffer to keep the pump from short cycling due to pressure variations, if the pump and sprinkler are mismatched then the pump will still short cycle.

I would: Disconnect down pipe at union, set the end in a tub of water, prime and start pump with an open hose (run it back into the tub) to check pump/jet venturi operation. You'll need a check valve somewhere between the jet and open end of pipe. If that works, suspect low static water level, a collapsed well, a hole in the well pipe, plugged pipe/sand point etc.

With the possibility of water spraying everywhere, use a GFCI circuit, thanks!

Pat

ddurrett896 · Sep 16, 2015

wuck said:
I would: Disconnect down pipe at union, set the end in a tub of water, prime and start pump with an open hose (run it back into the tub) to check pump/jet venturi operation. You'll need a check valve somewhere between the jet and open end of pipe. If that works, suspect low static water level, a collapsed well, a hole in the well pipe, plugged pipe/sand point etc.

Pat

I disconnected the check valve from the well pipe in the ground, set it in a 5 gallon bucket of water and turned on the pump. Water sprayed out of the pump like it should. I assume this means it's a well problem below the check valve...right?

pcmeiners · Sep 16, 2015

"I assume this means it's a well problem below the check valve...right? " Correct

jdieter · Sep 16, 2015

Looking at your setup I'd be surprised if the well pipe is a straight drop. You may have to do some detective work to find you casing. If the well pipe below what's looks like a check valve won't keep water standing in it you'll need to deal with the well not the pump.

Well Pump - No Water

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