Well Pump - First run in years

[acer66]

Hi,

Inspired by another thread here I have a question about well pumps
which I know nothing about.

I am in the progress of buying a property where nobody lived for at least 6-8 years.

What would be the appropriate way to check if the well is still working?
I thought I just hook it to power and hope for the best but I read in this thread
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=288797
about priming the pump.

I have no access to city water.

I also would appreciate some suggestions for filter and tank since they are gone and what I read so far made my head spin so many options are out there.


Thank you

 

[Rotaris]

Do you know if it is a "Bored" well? Drilled well?
I guess just start with how big does it look?

 

[kbs2244]

What kind of pump is it?
A PIC would help.
There are 3 or 4 basic styles.

 

[gumbellion]

type of pump is a big one. Submersible no worries about prime, jet pump will need primed. Depending on the depth distance from the pump to the water bring a few 5gallon pails of water. Check the "foot valve" on the intake, and make sure that its not stuck open, it will only allow water to flow into the pump and not back into the well preventing loss of prime. Foot valve is good then fill the pump up with water and ensure the intake hose is full as well and put the power to it
the only thing i can think of that might be wrong if the pump ran before is if something rusted together or corroded in the pump from sitting and wont turn or something along that lines

 

[jonjon1]

depends on what kind of pump it is, submersed?

Do you have power in the house?

When I buy houses with wells, and I have bought a few foreclosed units with the copper missing, first thing I do is, plug in a genny and fire her up, see what happens, 99.99% of the time they start blasting out water.... I had one that was bad, it was a submersed unit and when I pulled it and replaced it, later I found out it was bad for a while, the neighbor told me he had ran a hose from his house to their house {spigot to spigot} and was letting them use his water for a couple months before the bank made them move out, he also told me he helped him cut all the copper out and bought the rear sliding door off of him, lol... It didn't matter to me, that bad pummp, missing copper, and missing doors and windows let me buy the house for $39K, when I was done it was worth 8 times that and I didn't have to invest much, pex, doors, windows, and well pumps are cheap...

 

[stikman56]

Hi,

Inspired by another thread here I have a question about well pumps
which I know nothing about.

I am in the progress of buying a property where nobody lived for at least 6-8 years.

What would be the appropriate way to check if the well is still working?
I thought I just hook it to power and hope for the best but I read in this thread
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=288797
about priming the pump.

I have no access to city water.

I also would appreciate some suggestions for filter and tank since they are gone and what I read so far made my head spin so many options are out there.


Thank you

Hook power up and go. Most likely going to be solid rust for a while. Mine hadn't been used in 19 years, we hooked power to it, off it went. Super rusty water after a couple minutes, was pretty clear after two hours. Needs to just run for a day or so and I'm told it will be fine.

 

[Cyberbear]

I didn't see any reference as to what has been used for the previous water supply. Since you have no access to city water, I can only imagine your system is a drilled well and pumps it out of the ground, then into a holding tank, although this isn't always the case.
Some systems are on the cheap and are designed to use water from the deep well pump each time the faucet is turned on, which is a poor way of operating a well system.
You'll need to get some one who knows pumps and see what they say you need to do.

 

[PugetDude]

As you stated in your OP, you need to know if the WELL is working, not just the pump.

What do the county records show for well drilling log and GPM rating? That's the place to start for investigating an existing well.

A good well or pump guy can give you detailed instructions, but I'd check the well and the pump as follows:

Make sure the pump works first, then do a timed flow test. Let the water run for a few minutes, then time how long it takes to fill a couple of 5-gallon buckets to determine pump GPM.

A rudimentary draw-down test is to see if you can run the pump for a half-hour or so with no appreciable loss of flow, if you can you've likely got a good well. If the flow decreases or stops, you've got issues. You'll have to open it up and measure the water height in the well before and after the draw-down test, and time how long it takes to recover. You may have to drill deeper or hydro-fracture it to increase groundwater flow into the well to an acceptable level.

And, of course you'll need to chlorinate the well, pump it until clean and then have the water tested.

If the well produces good water, check the rest of the system, ie pressure tanks, piping, well head, etc.

Keep in mind that property without water is nearly worthless; most lenders won't loan on a property without a viable source of potable water.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[acer66]

First I like to thank everybody for your help, this is my first house and I am pretty excited
and the whole process is a bit overwhelming for me in the moment.

I did not know that there are so many different types of wells out there,,
tells you how much I know.

It looks like the one on the left.

I will take some pics after closing, hopefully this weekend.

I have no power in the moment but I have access to a generator.

So far I am trying to figure out what I can do without damaging anything before calling out the professionals
and it looks like I could just hook the well up to a power source and see what happens.

I will check if there are any county records for the well.


Thanks.

 

[Kevin54]

get the electric turned on, then see if you have water. If something breaks, better to do it out of the starting gate, than in the middle of a cold snap. If you have water, you are good to go, if not, then start backtracking.

BTW....pics of new house is now in order. You know the rules!!!!

 

[PugetDude]

First I like to thank everybody for your help, this is my first house and I am pretty excited
and the whole process is a bit overwhelming for me in the moment.

I did not know that there are so many different types of wells out there,,
tells you how much I know.

It looks like the one on the left.

I will take some pics after closing, hopefully this weekend.

I have no power in the moment but I have access to a generator.

So far I am trying to figure out what I can do without damaging anything before calling out the professionals
and it looks like I could just hook the well up to a power source and see what happens.

I will check if there are any county records for the well.


Thanks.

The electricians on the board may shudder at this, but I'd wire a pigtail into the pump leads in the LB fitting on top of the well casing, then plug into the generator. (this way you're downstream of the pressure switch.) Give the pump power, open a hose bib and see what happens.
Then post pictures...

 

[larry_g]

The electricians on the board may shudder at this, but I'd wire a pigtail into the pump leads in the LB fitting on top of the well casing, then plug into the generator. (this way you're downstream of the pressure switch.) Give the pump power, open a hose bib and see what happens.
Then post pictures...

I would not do this as I know that two of my wells have a 'control box' above ground that contains the start cap and other controls. So just sending power to the motor as you suggest will not work.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[csp]

That picture doesn't do anything to tell what kind of pump it is. It just shows two different types of termination at the top.

If it has a casing like that it's a subersible pump in the aquifer.

 

[acer66]

I forgot about the pic of the new house rule and of course I did not take any
while I had my final walk thru just now but I will at the weekend.

But I took a pic of the pump head, I hope that helps.

View media item 50145

 

[jomobco]

Go to the county and look up who did the last work on it. If it's anything like out here in CO they have to give all results of changes to the wells to the county. Call the people who did the last work if it isn't in the county records as to what they did.

 

[jhelrey]

Pump isn't even wired up

 

[PugetDude]

Pump isn't even wired up

Yeah, that picture was interesting.
Makes it easier to hotwire, though.

 

[acer66]

They cut the cable when they winterized the house, not sure why since the house has no power anyway.

And I will see what the county has to say, never thought about that.

Thanks

 

[brokenjaw]

I forgot about the pic of the new house rule and of course I did not take any
while I had my final walk thru just now but I will at the weekend.

But I took a pic of the pump head, I hope that helps.

View media item 50145

Hi there Acer! The pic you took is actually the "well head" and not your pump head. I would say you have a submersible pump as the wires are headed down the casing, if it were a jet pump there would be no wires here. It appears (from the pic) that you have a drilled well in a dug well. Common practice, an old dug well dries up due to being in a shallow water table, so since all the wiring and plumbing are already in this location, a "new" drilled well gets punched in through the old dug well. Aside from your pump, you will need to get this well's casing (typically 4"-6" steel) extended above ground and properly sealed to prevent surface water runoff entering your drinking water source. As well a new well cap will need to be installed, as the one in your pic is an old style and definitely not "vermin" proof (meaning, keeps bugs out of your water).

Cheers, and enjoy the new house!

 

[rentprop1]

you can easily wire up a pig tail and put power to the pump

open up some of the hose bibs, I recently had an electrician jump our well pump to my sons new house, the dirtbag previous homeowner took a lot of the breakers and stuff from the sub panel, during the inspection process he only had about 2 hours to add power to everything and see if the a/c heat and well worked

I'm not an electrician but I think it was 230 v too

 

[acer66]

wow brokenjaw, member since Jun 2014 and today your first post and you jump right in. Thank you.
I was told that the well drillers switched to pvc or something around '95 here,
while this seems to be metal.

I was at the county office and they only required permits from 2005 on so no records.

But the lady was saying it should have a tag giving some more information.

I will see if I can find out if the pump is 230V, another thing I did not think about.


Thanks

 

[brokenjaw]

Lol! Ya I've been more of a lurker, drooling and yearning over sweet shops.... Well drilling runs in my family (licensed driller/pump installer myself, but currently run a 60 Million liter/day water treatment plant), so when I saw the topic pop up, I couldn't resist....

 

[acer66]

Took awhile until I got around to finally do something with it.
The only thing I did before starting was to pour some well/outdoor specific type bleach in the well.
Just jerry rigged a wire onto a generator and the pump, fired right up
and after a second or two of dirty/rusty looking water it runs clear.

I will use the water for mixing concrete etc. for a few days and then I will send out a sample for testing.

From this angle it looks like the water is close to the electrical connection but it is way higher.

View media item 53225

 

[fordbroncodave]

This made me laugh. I haven't logged in and did any sort of reading for months since I got a new job as a well driller and here I am.


Check with the county or just about any well drilling company for a well log. a well log gives detail about the formations above your water table and depth of well and service records...

It would be an equivalent to a carfax for a car but more detailed.

I believe it is public records too so you shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get it.

as for the pump, it should have a check valve up from the pump so it will stay primed. scale is the biggest problem you may face if it does work. it can plug a screen fairly quickly

 

[acer66]

This made me laugh. I haven't logged in and did any sort of reading for months since I got a new job as a well driller and here I am.

I am glad that I could entertain you after months of hard work
and thank you for coming to the rescue.

Check with the county or just about any well drilling company for a well log. a well log gives detail about the formations above your water table and depth of well and service records...

It would be an equivalent to a carfax for a car but more detailed.

I believe it is public records too so you shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get it.

There are no county records of the well.
I talked to the guy who grew up in the house and he could not remember
who drilled it or when it was done.
I called a few local companies and got nothing.

as for the pump, it should have a check valve up from the pump so it will stay primed.

There is nothing above ground since everything was removed and the way I understand it there could be at least one in the well.
Is there a way to check if the check valve is working?

scale is the biggest problem you may face if it does work. it can plug a screen fairly quickly

The way I understand the scale problem is something I should leave to the pros, correct?


Thank you

 

[csp]

A check valve would be just above the pump underground. The idea is to keep water in the pipe above the pump at all times to keep the pump from having to fill the vertical column every time there's a call for water.

If water begins to immediately flow when you power up the pump the check valve is working.

 

[acer66]

Thank you for clearing that up csp, water runs fine but it does not look pretty anymore.

Mostly reddish from the red clay we have here, I guess.

This feels more and more that I should call in the pros.