Lost pump -

[southofwalls_Paul]

4” residential well, pvc and wires broke and pump and motor are at Otto of well. Any suggestions on how to retrieve?

 

[PCustoms]

4” residential well, pvc and wires broke and pump and motor are at Otto of well. Any suggestions on how to retrieve?

Call well company ASAP, they are used to dealing with issues.

 

[The Cobbler]

go fishing with a large hook?

 

[mreisner]

Out of curiosity, how deep is the well?

 

[mreisner]

I believe this is the little piece of brilliance you're looking for..

 

[30-30remchester]

Spent 50 plus years in the industry. So have a lot of experence. There is an old saying that is as true a a mothers love. The first attemp at retriving a fish is the best shot you will ever get. Doesnt mean repeated attemps cant get results but with every attemp the probability of loosing additional stuff down the bore hole increases. Now for the OP's problem. There are a few issues. First and foremost, a 4" well most likely has a 3 7/8" pump. Very little clearence or room for error. First thing to try to figure out, is what is the first thing the fishing tool is going to encounter down the well? If it is the PVC drop pipe or the cable. Is there that demandable yellow nylon rope? If the drop pipe will be the first thing encountered, then a fishing spear is about your only hope. If cable or rope is the uppermost lost item then either the tool in the video or a wire spear should latch onto the cable. When I saw the above video I cringed at the amaturish retrieval. All went well but I doubt they would show their failures. Can you imagine what would happen had after the latched onto the wire, if the pump was wedded tight and all the pulling resulted in a broken rope. Now you have a fishing tool and more rope down the well. I repeat, the first attempt is your best chance of retrieval. Be prepared. It should not have been with Wallyworld rope, but instead with wire rope capable of pulling the pump wire apart should it be stuck. Amateur hour. Depending on how much pump wire, rope and drop pipe is in the well should be considered. If there is enough depth and standing water, it is common to just put another pump on top and leave the old pump. I detest 4" wells for their lack of options. I would encounter stuck pumps several times a year and they were all 4 " wells. If the situation was that the pump itself was all that was bad and it was hopelessly stuck, I devised a method to shoot off the pump drop pipe at the top of the pump and retrieve the wire and drop pipe and simply install a new pump on top of the old and this would only result in @5' of well. Should the drop pipe be the first thing encountered down hole and you have no access to a fishing spear, the retrieval tool in the video will not work but there is a chance a small shop-built wire spear could be fabricated to get past the drop pipe and latch onto the wire. But for all that is holy, attach your fishing tools to a wire rope of sufficient strength to not be lost down the well should things be tight.

 

[southofwalls_Paul]

I believe this is the little piece of brilliance you're looking for..

Many thanks

 

[southofwalls_Paul]

Out of curiosity, how deep is the well?

About 60’

 

[CraigStu]

If you pull the pvc up and out and then can conform that there is less than say 2ft of pvc left on the pump, I'd forget that pump and drop in a new one.

 

[30-30remchester]

After seeing this thread I watched a few videos on Youtube just for the grins of it. Watch the one titled, "Going fishing for a dropped well pump". The guy was supposed to be a proffesional. First idicarator of ametuer status was his arrival with a spool of yellow rope and a cable spear. First try he got ahold of the fish and guess what. He could not pull the pump as it was stuck in the well. Now he has a stuck pump, pulled apart wire, loose rope and a stuck fishing tool in the well. The rope was not strong enough to pull the pump and it was now stuck in the well. Had he attached the cable spear to a good sized wire rope, then he could have pulled the pump. He finally retrieved everything by bring in a "crane as he call it" which is a pump hoist and built himself a second cable spear and using the correct tools and a wire line, was able to retrieve everything and salvage the well.

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

If there is stuff left on top of the pump, wires especially, you can use a retriever that looks like a pigs tail, coil of sorts, on the end of pipe sections. (make sure you make the coils the same direction as the pipe threads so as to not unscrew when turning to get the wires "hooked" / "tangled")

Should work well on that shallow of a well.