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Water Well Problems (AKA How much money is this gonna cost me)

inthefield

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
279
Messages
96
Loc
Texas
The house I'm in is on well water, and apart from changing a few filters twice a year it's been pretty reliable until now.

Current setup as follows:

300' Hole w/ a variable speed Goulds pump at the 260' mark
Aquavar Solo controlller panel
Small (Like 3 Gallon) pressure tank that was put in place to maintiain pressure on startup


Last Thursday it threw an over current alarm for the well pump, and it's been randomly doing that ever since, on what I would define as extended usage (multiple loads of laundry, a load of dishes and a few back to back showers) When I kill the main valve and power cycle the controller it puts about 40 PSI on the l line, and then about a minute later there's a loud bang and the pressure comes to what is normal (70 PSI)

So far I've thrown new filters in after the main, which it was due for anyway, and ran about 300 gallons out of a dump right after my meter ( figured something may be jammed up in the pump and I was trying to flush it) when I was dumping water at full capacity I put a stop watch on it and it flowed 13GPM.


Any other hail mary fixes I should try? I've got the service company coming out tomorrow @ 9.
 
How old is the pump? They don't last forever.

The records I got from the PO of my house showed the pump had been replaced, on average, every 7 or 8 years. I'm going on 10 since the last known replacement and I'm expecting it to go at any time. I'm solo so it probably doesn't get as much use at the POs with families so that's probably what's prolonging it. The old receipts showed $700-1k for replacements. Yours sounds more expensive.
 
All the wiring at the controller and in the well house is good, I ran through that. The previous owners drilled the well and plumbed in a shit ton of irrigation after the 2011 Bastrop Complex fire, it burned two of my four acres. I think he put a meter in to gauge flow rates for on the irrigation systems that were put in to get trees established on the burned out property (or thats what the chart with irrigation zones and measured flow rates leads me to believe).
 
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The wire running down to the pump is prolly getting bad. They tend to rub through from all the starts and stops.
 
bgaidan said:
How old is the pump? They don't last forever.

The records I got from the PO of my house showed the pump had been replaced, on average, every 7 or 8 years. I'm going on 10 since the last known replacement and I'm expecting it to go at any time. I'm solo so it probably doesn't get as much use at the POs with families so that's probably what's prolonging it. The old receipts showed $700-1k for replacements. Yours sounds more expensive.
Click to expand...

7.5 years and if that meter was new when installed it's pulled just about 5.9M Gallons since drilled.
 
Loud bang sounds like water hammer. Is your bladder tank charged? Overcurrent means it is working harder than it should. Check for dropped gates on your valves. Hopefully that's all it is.

M92PV4U , whatcha think?
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
The wire running down to the pump is prolly getting bad. They tend to rub through from all the starts and stops.
Click to expand...

I figured that or the pump, but seeing as though it's one of these fancy ass variable frequency setups, there wasn't any harm in asking.

I'll be so pissed if the tech shows and it's not something down hole, at least that way it's not something I've overlooked in the troubleshooting.
 
It could be the drive itself. It's difficult to diagnose problems like this over the phone/ internet do you have any information with pump or drive?

I was just working on a hydrovar that would randomly throw a over voltage error code then work after a manual reset. It turned out to be the drive.
 
The one thing I do have is documentation the pump has been in the ground for 7 years and one month.

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B8E561B5-A888-4564-9A23-80828236EAC6.jpeg
 
God I love the upper midwest.

The water table is right there in Michigan. And where I live the subsoil is sand. So our water is clean as hell and having a 'drainage field' is merely a formality in this area, you could just leave the exit hole in the septic tank open and have no problems. I mean the only reason there's a pipe is so that dirt doesn't fall into the tank.

In TN I needed like 250' of drainage.
 
evernoob said:
God I love the upper midwest.

The water table is right there in Michigan. And where I live the subsoil is sand. So our water is clean as hell and having a 'drainage field' is merely a formality in this area, you could just leave the exit hole in the septic tank open and have no problems. I mean the only reason there's a pipe is so that dirt doesn't fall into the tank.

In TN I needed like 250' of drainage.
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dunno man, it's all sand at my dad's
he's got a 200' well and they tested it with a geiger counter and it took only 15 minutes for surface water to get down into his well

so naturally his water is shit because there's no filtration going on there, out the poop tank and straight into the well
kinda sucks because he got it drilled to try and get better water than the sand point he was on before, 8k later, just as cloudy and smelly
 
[486 said:
;n160852]
dunno man, it's all sand at my dad's
he's got a 200' well and they tested it with a geiger counter and it took only 15 minutes for surface water to get down into his well

so naturally his water is shit because there's no filtration going on there, out the poop tank and straight into the well
kinda sucks because he got it drilled to try and get better water than the sand point he was on before, 8k later, just as cloudy and smelly
Click to expand...

Hmm. You'd think 200' of packed sand would be one helluva filter, that's more than a municipal water company.

My parents well is much less than that, water is clear and sweet. MN is a lot of glacial gravel, wonder if that's what's going on? 200' of packed sand in 15 minutes? That's a little hard to believe.

There are a good number of clay seams around here, maybe that's blocking it and the well is in a different water table? Dunno.
 

Thanks for the info, that's what I pulled from the manual I have as well. I guess I was hoping it was one of those, "oh yeah that error says this, but means that" scenarios. guess I'll be watching a pump come out tomorrow.
 
evernoob said:
God I love the upper midwest.

The water table is right there in Michigan. And where I live the subsoil is sand. So our water is clean as hell and having a 'drainage field' is merely a formality in this area, you could just leave the exit hole in the septic tank open and have no problems. I mean the only reason there's a pipe is so that dirt doesn't fall into the tank.

In TN I needed like 250' of drainage.
Click to expand...

whathefukk
does that have to do with op's post?
 
Clb said:
whathefukk
does that have to do with op's post?
Click to expand...

Nothing. That's why it's called Shit Chat. So that I can shit up threads.

No seriously it's an informal discussion forum, what's the issue? Now you're cluttering up OP's well thread with non well-related blather, so knock it off. :flipoff2: My post is about wells, your post is about personalities.
 
I have a 'Low Yield' switch on my pressure tank. It blows early and often when the pump starts straining. Do you have one in place?
 
check the pressure on the tank. I would also press the valve stem with a screwdriver - if water sprays out the bladder is busted. You can still use it by repressureizing and trying to get it about half full but it will slowly go away without the bladder. Make sure the pressure is right.

You can also check the resistance of the wires going to the motor. You should see resistance that is low (under 30ish ohms) across the coils. If it is high then you have damaged wiring - could be corroded, burnt, etc. If you see zero or near zero then you could have a short.
 
So the pressure on the tank was set at 60 PSI, and appears stable. The guy that drilled the well showed up yesterday, looked at the error codes and called the manufacturer. Showed back up today (I was at work, but the GF let him in the pump house) got into the controller and and made an adjustment to the current threshold. He sent me a text letting me know that it was set low and I should be good to go... just as I expected 2 hours and 2 loads of laundry later it's shut down with the same error. Hopefully they're here tomorrow to pull the pump and fix whatever is wrong. I'm to the point that I really don't give a fuck how much it cost, I just need reliable water again.
 
inthefield said:
All the wiring at the controller and in the well house is good, I ran through that. The previous owners drilled the well and plumbed in a shit ton of irrigation after the 2011 Bastrop Complex fire, it burned two of my four acres. I think he put a meter in to gauge flow rates for on the irrigation systems that were put in to get trees established on the burned out property (or thats what the chart with irrigation zones and measured flow rates leads me to believe).
Click to expand...

The flow rates/meter will also let you know if you have a break in your irrigation lines.

Good luck with the second attempt to fix it!!
 
buy a new pump and change it yourself :homer:
Wife and did mine for about $500 , knew nothing about it figure out I was not strong enough to pull it up by hand ( 190 ft) , used the tractor, engine crane and snatch block.
 
Ransil said:
buy a new pump and change it yourself :homer:
Wife and did mine for about $500 , knew nothing about it figure out I was not strong enough to pull it up by hand ( 190 ft) , used the tractor, engine crane and snatch block.
Click to expand...

Yup. pulled mine with a borrowed crane truck in may, 380' No big deal. new pump was in in an afternoon.
 
$3070 and I have a new pump and motor with a 5 year warranty. Turns out the docs I had were wrong and the pump was at 300', and the hole was punched to 320'. I also have the piece of mind in knowing that the static water level is way up at 180'. Either way I'm still out less than I would have been paying a water company for the 34 months I've lived here.


I asked a few friends about pulling it with a hoist on a bucket and I was given a resounding fuck no response, so that's all folks.
 
inthefield said:
I asked a few friends about pulling it with a hoist on a bucket and I was given a resounding fuck no response, so that's all folks.
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You roll a 45 gallon drum (yeah drums are bigger in Canada!) over next to the well and voila instant sheave. Now you just tie the hose to your truck and drive 300 feet away.

Bingo-bango, easy-peasy*









*I have never changed a well pump, but I have watched a lotta youtube videos. YMMV.
 
Muckin_Slusher said:
You roll a 45 gallon drum (yeah drums are bigger in Canada!) over next to the well and voila instant sheave. Now you just tie the hose to your truck and drive 300 feet away.

Bingo-bango, easy-peasy*









*I have never changed a well pump, but I have watched a lotta youtube videos. YMMV.
Click to expand...

Most wells are attached to the pump with 1-inch or so PVC pipe. Have fun rolling that shit up. Tie that hose up, eh Hoser ?? :laughing: Better shit around to roll up and smoke . . . . :laughing: Canada has 45-gallon drums that are bigger than our 55-gallon ones. :laughing:
 
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