Water Well Problems UPDATE

To answer some of the questions raised before.....
My well is 225' deep but is considered a shallow well because the water sits in the well pipe 4' below the ground.
We hit water several times on the way down but kept digging to get to good water. (Remember I am only 10' above sea level)
I can not use a submergible pump because I have a 2" well.

Pump was loosing prime and sucking air.
Things I found..... ..... .

I was sucking straight off the 2" well casing. Was told this was normal in our area and could be done if your check valve and well casing was in good shape.

Pump was taking a long time in my mind (2 min+) to build up to 50 lbs pressure.

Took pump apart and found impeller was bad. Rather than just rebuilding pump we decided to replace the whole pump since elect motor is 25 years old. We bought a 1hp Sta-Rite.

Replaced all pipes in pump house and added a 1 1/4" drop pipe and foot valve into 2" well casing.

Run new pump with out hooking up tank and it pumps water as fast as pump will run. Shoots water 5' out of a 1" pipe. Pumping over 20 gals a min under no pressure so water quantity is there.

Checked tank and it is holding precharge air pressure so we used old tank again.

While I may have had a leak on the suction side I feel not because my check valve was holding. You could hear air running in well pipe as water was released when I took check valve off. It also had water sitting on top of it when taken apart.
I feel the pump impeller was my major problem and I just did not want to look at it because of the cost of repair. Trying to rule out all other things first.
I also feel the drop pipe I have added and raising the pump above the check valve will help prolong the life of my new pump.
Here
is a drawing of how I have the pump/well set up now.

So now $400 later we have all new in the pump house except the tank.
Now all I need to do is to rebuild the 4'x4' pump house. I decided to evicted all the mice; ants; and termites from there 25 year old house while I was at it.

Happy New Year
John

You also did not need the 1 1/4 pipe down inside the 2" casing. Just using a 2" to 1 1/4 reducer at the well casing would have worked fine. As long as you have an air tight connection. Then to the check valve in the 1 1/4 line to the pump. This would accomplish the same thing.

One thing to watch with the setup that you now have is if there is an air leak at the 2" to 1 1/4 reducer, and your water level gets pumped down it may drop below the bottom of the 1 1/4 pipe and not pump, or pump some air.

In all the messing around getting my well to work properly I tried dropping a poly pipe down the casing to get around an air leak in one of the casing couplings. I have a sand point on 1 1/4 inch pipe. The pipe inside the 1 1/4 pipe would pull the water level down too far in the 1 1/4 pipe. Water would not run in the point fast enough. But once I got the leak in the joint fixed, hooking the pump directly to the pipe (with no poly pipe inside) would suck enough water through the point and the well worked fine.

Regards
Gary

Just using a 2" to 1 1/4 reducer at the well casing would have worked fine
This is how it was set up when I was having problems so I tried something different this time.

My well must be very be a gusher because when testing I ran a discharge pipe into the yard with no tank hooked up. I let it run for about 5 mins and it shot water 5' out a 1" pipe the whole time. Did not measure the water but I would say about 15 to 20 gals a min.
That is enough for my single family home + some.

Two of my neighbors went down 75 ft and stopped.
I told them what my well digger had said but they would no listen.
Both wells lasted about 18 months then the water turned nasty.
One has redug his well deeper.
The other only uses his well for bath water and such. He has one of those bottle water companies for drinking water.

Do not know what the min well casing size is now a days around here.

Keith

Yep, sort of as I said on Christmas Day.....bad pump. What an awful day for it to happen though. I have to chuckle at your post as I too tore down the old pump house as it was eaten up with termites etc. I wanted to get mine done prior to winter which I did, even added a water softener while I was at it. The best part? The wife is happy. Can"t go wrong as long as she is happy!
Glad you are up and running once again, congratulations!
rgv tx
The pic is of my new well house..... not much, but it"s a million times better than the old one....and all the lower stuff is treated. Take that, termites.

I pick the bugs every time.

My well house sits on a 4'x4'x4" slab so I insulate the house. I also have a light bulb.
All I need now is a thermostat that turns the light on and off as needed. LOL..... .