# WATER WELL PUMP QUESTIONS N/T



## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

We have been in our house for thirty six years. We have a well for our water that has been very good to us. The water is supplied via a Sears Deep Jet Well Pump, located in the basement. The storage tank is also located in the basement. The well head is located in a small spring house just outside of the kitchen wall. It is time to replace the pump, as it is getting louder, and storage tank, as it has developed a small leak. I have been in contact with local well contractors. *It seems that the consensus is to go with a submersible pump this time.* I understand that they are more efficient. But what is the life span of a submersible pump? I would like to hear from any of you that have experience with either type of system.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan, 
My submerged pump lasted as long as I owned the house, 7 years. They are pretty easy to service too if they ever stop.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

My well has a 10 year life so far with a submersible pump.... 

John


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Never had trouble with the submersible pump. It had been down there 20 years already when we bought the house.


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## Richard Weatherby (Jan 3, 2008)

First one lasted 20+ years. The second one is now 12+ years. When we replaced the first, we also replaced the tank. 
Been through more hot water tanks.


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## jamarti (Jan 2, 2008)

After upgrading from a 2 inch well to a 5 inch well my first submersible lasted 11 months. The bolt of lightning took out 2 televisions, one audio receiver, the garage door opener and the pump motor. It has been 15 years since and I use the well to supply the underground sprinkler system, the household, fill the swimming pool, etc. I have a 1 hp motor. The well man said make sure when I water the lawn I keep enough sprinkler heads going to keep the pump running as the on/off cycles are worse than continual running. It would be rare to install anything but a submersible well in this area anymore.


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## Matt Vogt (Jan 2, 2008)

The pump that came with our house went bad about 5 years ago. It was manufacture dated 27 years prior to that. I took it to a motor repair shop, who said that was one of the oldest they'd seen. Considering the relatively low price of the pump, I would think the increased efficiency would more than make up the cost of a shorter life - if that is even the case. just MHO... 

Good luck


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

If U live in an area blessed with a lot of lightning, U may want to stick with the jet pump, only problem I ever had
with them was with foot-valves, have to replace one of them every once in awhile... Seems like around here more 
down-hole pumps get taken out by lightning than anything else...
Paul R...


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

My submerible is 12 years old. My well is 450 feet deep. It is set at about 400 ft. It pums a fine silt. Why I have no idea done it from day one. I just added a 2500 gal tank. about a year ago. It keeps the tank full. I have a thing called Well Tec. It monitors the load on the pump. ( curent) When the load drops becasue of no water it tuns the pump off for 90 minutes. If you get a submeriable I would Highly recomend a well tec. If you spring a leak and it pumps your well dry the well tec will keep you from burning up your pump.


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## jamarti (Jan 2, 2008)

Living in S.W. Michigan makes a difference. Unlike JJ's at 450 ft my well is 64 feet and the pump sits at 50 ft. I don't even think about pumping my well dry, I don't think I could unless I put in a larger pump. The well driller tested/pumped at 30+ gpm for 2 hours before installing my pump. Most wells in my area are drilled and 5 inch pvc well casing installed. When lightning took out the first pump it was pulled out by hand without the use of a service truck or rig. That was 15 years ago. I have been pleased with my submersible and well.


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

JJ, sounds like Ur pick-up is too close to the bottom of the well, raising the pump a few feet would probably do 
wonders for the silt problem... Well may not be quite as deep as U think it is...
Paul R...


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02 Jan 2011 04:37 AM 
My submerible is 12 years old. My well is 450 feet deep. It is set at about 400 ft. It pums a fine silt. Why I have no idea done it from day one. I just added a 2500 gal tank. about a year ago. It keeps the tank full. I have a thing called Well Tec. It monitors the load on the pump. ( curent) When the load drops becasue of no water it tuns the pump off for 90 minutes. If you get a submeriable I would Highly recomend a well tec. If you spring a leak and it pumps your well dry the well tec will keep you from burning up your pump. 


John, I have only known one other guy that had a large storage tank like yours. His was located in the attic of his house. I never went into any details of his operation. Is the tank for your domestic water? If so does it operate on pressure from a head of air in the tank, or possibly gravity feed downward for your needs?


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By Madman on 02 Jan 2011 07:46 PM 


Posted By John J on 02 Jan 2011 04:37 AM 
My submerible is 12 years old. My well is 450 feet deep. It is set at about 400 ft. It pums a fine silt. Why I have no idea done it from day one. I just added a 2500 gal tank. about a year ago. It keeps the tank full. I have a thing called Well Tec. It monitors the load on the pump. ( curent) When the load drops becasue of no water it tuns the pump off for 90 minutes. If you get a submeriable I would Highly recomend a well tec. If you spring a leak and it pumps your well dry the well tec will keep you from burning up your pump. 


John, I have only known one other guy that had a large storage tank like yours. His was located in the attic of his house. I never went into any details of his operation. Is the tank for your domestic water? If so does it operate on pressure from a head of air in the tank, or possibly gravity feed downward for your needs?





I have a weak well. The well pump would presurize a 80 Gal bladder tank. If I did 4 or 5 loads of laundry in a row the well would go dry for about 4 hours.

I added a 2500 gal tank. The well pumps right into the tank. When the well is empty the pump turns off. Every 90 minutes it turns on and pums what is in the well till there is no more and turns off again . and The cycle continues.

NOw There is a second pump that draws water from the 2500 gal tank and presureized the 80 gal blader tank for the house. The 2500 gal tank allows the well weak as it is to keep up with my consumtion of water

This was ok because I live a lone and the weak well was no problem....Then I went to a swamp kooler to save on electrick bill. That taxed the well 

JJ


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Interesting John. 

What is a swamp cooler?


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## Andre Anderson (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Madman on 04 Jan 2011 08:59 PM 
Interesting John. 

What is a swamp cooler?
I can answer that one as my parents had one. Out in the desert you will see metal boxes with lots of vents in the sides, either sitting next to a window or on the roof. In side is a filter material that a small pump recirculates water through the filter material, then a large fan pulls air through the wet filter material cooling the air by evaporation, this air is then circulated through the structure. These work real well where the air is dry, they don't work back east due to the high humidity levels. Since you are only spinning a squirrel cage fan and a small pump so they don't eat much electricity. To keep the water level at where you want it they have a float valve kind of like one in a toilet tank. Surprisingly they work quite well.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Technicaly we call 'em Evaporative coolers, good if water is plentiful.... not so much if you're JJ.... 

John


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## RRwannabe (Jan 20, 2009)

Had to replace my submersible last summer and the one I pulled out was definitely old don't remember the exact date but around 15 yrs I think. The cure to lighting is to not hook up the ground wire. Your house has a ground outside by your meter box but if you have a well and your ground wire is hooked up lighting is going to try and ground through your well as its the deepest ground.

@JJ you can make a silt trap using a large piece of PVC and some large PVC Ball valves. But I've also heard if your pumping silt constantly that can create a sinkhole but I don't know if there's any truth to that.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I ran a swamp kooler all this summer. My electric bill dropped by 40 bucks. It gets kind of yucky around 4 pm. But I just get in the shower four and five times a day.

My new 2500 gal tank kept up with the swamp kooler even on my weak well. 

All I really care about is night time. Just so the house is cool enough to sleep. 

I am working on a sedement tank. It is a 100 gal plastic horse tank.

The well pumps into it. When it is full the well turns off. ( Float switch)

The tank slowly drians into another 100 gal horse tank.

The float in there turns on a pump that pump it into the 2500 gal tank when the horse tank is full .


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Well, the new well pump was installed today. Nice not having to listen to the jet pump in the basement. The well contractor was in and out in less than four hours. Nice job, I thought, until I went to inspect the finished product. They used 14 Gauge wire on a double twenty amp breaker. A no no. They were very good about coming back in the afternoon to replace it with 12 Gauge wire. Now I am happy, and my wife can rest at ease. 
The odd coincidence is that our neighbor suffered a total loss to his house due to an electrical mishap on Monday. No concrete cause has been decided on yet, but whatever happened caused our cable to be energized killing the Comcast cable box, our DVD surround sound player, and the HDMI ports on our TV. Not to mention Comcast's equipment between our house and the street. So we are now paranoid about electrical issues.


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