Anyone know how to pull a well?

[riverbend_rich]

We have had problems with our well since we moved out here almost 5 years ago. The well is great as long as you don't run it for more than 20 minutes. After that it goes dry. If you turn it off and wait ten minutes it works just fine. Has anybody experienced this before?
Details:
I think the well is 190' deep but I really don't know.
We have a pressure tank so that may be why it runs good and strong at first.
Also I talked with a guy at the local ace hardware that knows a lot and he said it may be "sanded in" and I may need to pull the pump and clean the filter(I think it is a sump pump)

HELP! My garden is suffering!
Thanks
Rich

[nelson96]

I know nothing about pulling the pump to clean it but that doesn't sound likely to be needed if it works fine for a while.  Your well may be drying up.  My brother had a similar problem with his.  It couldn't pump large amounts of water for long periods of time.  He put in a holding tank so that the pump didn't have to work as hard or as long.  He had a secoondary pump that pulled from the above ground holding tank and in to a pressure tank feeding his system.  It's been working for years.

[never_retreat]

It the well pump is at 190' you might not be able to pull it "by hand".
Older wells will have steel threaded pipe in 20' lengths screwed together. Meaning you will have to lift it 20' at a time and disassemble it as you go. Plus that can be a couple hundred pounds of crap to lift.
Also you will not want to drop it back down the hole. That will require a drill rig to come out and drill out the old pipe and pump. Yes it will get diced up and pushed out of the hole.
Depending on your frost line is will determine how far down the pitless adapter is. You will need to lift it from that point.
If the pump is hung on polly pipe it might be doable.
The only one I ever pulled was only 20' down.

[Morning Sunshine]

oh golly.  sounds like the problem we had last summer.  Let me hack out a longer reply and get back to you tomorrow.

[riverbend_rich]

Well crap this is sounding bad. I called a Plummer today maybe he can get me some better news. I just usually tackle this kind of stuff myself and learn along the way but I'm kinda scared of this one

Thanks for the replies even if it is not what I wanted to hear!

[Cedar]

What does the static mark on your well log say? And recovery time? Your well master will have a copy from when it was put in. Check from then to now.

Cedar

[kckndrgn]

Could be as simple as the screen at the inlet end of the pump/well is plugged with sediment.

The only experience I have with well is that growing up we had a well, which was a pipe driven into the ground with a sandpoint.  After about 15 years it had a reduced flow so my dad and I pulled the pipe out using jacks, replaced the sand point and put it back down.

[Morning Sunshine]

We moved in a bit over 7 years ago.  One of the conditions on the house contract was a good tasting, clean water.  We have it.  We had it tested soon after moving in and the guy kept trying to verify that the water was from a well.  It is the best tasting water anywhere.
It is 385' deep, with water at 100-something.  We have always had enough water and water pressure to run 2 showers and the dishwasher or washing machine at the same time.  And, as long as one of the kids didn't leave a hose on somewhere, we didn't run out of water.
Last summer, suddenly the water was gritty, low pressure, no water, etc.  We spent lots of time and money trying to diagnose the problem.  The über fine silt that is my land has slowly settled into the bottom of our well.  It is not that my well is going dry - there is plenty of water coming in.  It is that the bottom is getting full of silt, and it has finally reached the pump.  It used to be that the pump was 10 or so feet above the silt.  Now it is less than a foot, so when the water gets low (usually from watering the lawn or garden), the pump has to work extra hard and starts pulling up the silt, which in turn is gumming up all sorts of plumbing parts.
We can get it cleaned out, but that is a whole lot of money.  We decided to wait a year or so, being very conservative in the meanwhile, then have the well re-drilled to a larger diameter and get it cleaned out at the same time.  It is only 6 or 8 inches diameter - the smallest standard around here.  We want it at least 12".

As for pulling it out ourselves - couldn't happen with our depth.  We spent much time talking to the well guy as he pulled it up, sent a camera down, and put it all back together.  We learned a lot.  It was an expensive lesson.

[TexasGirl]

We had two wells in SE Texas experience water level drops in the different aquifers they were in.  Like MS said, the wells were drilled to a certain depth but the pump was set much higher since the water came up that far in the casing.

As the pump would run, the level dropped down in the casing causing the pump to cavitate.  The well guys ended up lowering the pump by extending the drop pipe and replacing the wire.  We had a well log so there wasn't much guesswork.  Pulling a well usually involves a rig unless the drop pipe is black polyethylene plastic.  The plastic is flexible enough to feed onto the ground as it's pulled.

~TG

[Fixit]

Haveing pulled a 210' well by hand I can tell you it is not fun. This was sch.40 white PVC . That said what I did was to just pull the pipe hand over hand with a person standing by to tie off the rope when I needed a rest. The other option would be to set up a tripod with a pulley  run the rope over pulley and hook to a truck,tractor,car or what ever and go slowly away . Tripod must be anchored well
 Didn't see where you are from so don't know soil conditions. The well casing has holes in its lower sections to allow the water in. Sometimes these get plugged and a back flush is needed to open these holes back up.o

[Zef_66]

My dad, brother, and I pulled a well pump on my brother's 310' well over my lunch hour. It wasn't fun, but we did it. This was of course with PVC pipe, not the old rigid pipe.

[riverbend_rich]

I spoke with a Plummer that does well service and he said there has been some wells in sandy areas cave in in our area which may be our problem. Cedar, we have not seen any well log or any thing written anywhere. Would the well master be listed in our abstract? Should that be in the top of the casing or is it like a little book ?

Anyway thanks for all the help! Oh and Fixit we live south and east of Oklahoma City about two hours drive. My top soil is hard clay but we do live near a sandy river so there may be sand down deep.

Thanks again!

Rich

[kckndrgn]

Rich,
I don't know about your state, but in TN all wells are recorded at the state level.  I called the states office to find out about wells in our area after I bought some land so I could get estimates on drilling one.

If you start with county or state they may be able to tell you who dug the well (along with depth and anything else they have). If you get the company you could call them and see what they have to say.

[chuck_3]

I am probably south of you, two counties up from the Red River.  If you are close, PM me and we can talk more.  The well drillers who have historically worked that area have not reported information on all of the all of the wells drilled, and I am not sure they have to.

A lot depends on well construction.  If the sub pump was suspended with a safety rope, you can tell a lot about the rest of your potential problem by raising up the pump and seeing what it is pumping through.  If it is PVC or poly pipe, two strong people should be able to pick it up by hand.  If I was doing it, I would try lowering the pump first, adding whatever type of pipe it has been pumping through and enough wire to cover the additional depth.  As someone said before, be sure not to drop the assembly.  There is almost certainly at least silt built up in the bottom which will make it hard to extract if you drop it.  Twenty feet would make a lot of difference in how much water you can pump. 

If lowering doesn't work, then you will have to pull it. 

A lot of the wells in SE Oklahoma have pipe straight to the surface, without an underground connection for frost proof operation, and a pump house with a few heat lamps for really cold days.  If you have such a pump house, you will have to move or otherwise get it out of the way to do much work - my experience has been to not try to work inside a pump house. 

Also, I had a friend who had a filter right after the pressure controls, and when it fouled, he lost virtually all water flow after an initial surge.  I would check that the very first thing. 

As to the type of pump, it is likely a roughly 1 horsepower submersible pump - look at Lowe's or Home Depot online to see what you are likely working with.

Good Luck

[chuck_3]

To add to my earlier comments, I had a little time to do some looking, and found the image at

Picture Link

The only differences between what I have generally seen in Oklahoma the image is the safety rope which you indicated you had.  Generally, the safety rope is used to pull the pump along with the tubing, rather than just with the tubing, whether it is PVC or poly pipe.  The tubing is secured directly to the pump, but if it pulls loose, then you have only the safety rope.  After the pump is pulled, make a detailed drawing of the entire assembly.  It is possible to "fish" the pump if it should be dropped, but you have to know what you are trying to fish out of the hole.  Fishing can be expensive, but is cheaper than drilling a new well or trying to mill up anything left in the hole.

Nicodemus - Picture Link Fixed