Need help- well pump

As usual, this problem is coming to a head right before a major holiday and when I'm at work- probably my own fault for letting it go on this long. anyway- Submersible well pump about 10 years old. Occassionally- but more often today apparently- we get no water at the faucet. When this happens, I've turned the pump off ( I can hear and feel it running), waited a bit, turned it back on and it's pumped up. Once up, the system held pressure ( based on the guage) for an extended period, which lead me to beleive that i don't have any serious leaks. I have a hard time beleiving the well is going dry- it's rained cats and dogs for months out here- but I haven't flipped open the well yet. i assuming bad pump- maybe bad impeller?- but I guess actually looking in the well will tell the first part of the story. Any one experienced anything like this? What did you find?

You may have a pinhole in the plastic pipes. Does the pressure bleed off over time when no water is being used? That's what they found on my late mother's water pump when she was alive. They had to pull the pump and replace the piping. Hal

Yes, I've had something similar happen a few times. Check valve in the pump leaked and the water in the pipe coming up drains back to the bottom after sitting for awhile. But it always worked if I let it run long enough. Just had to fill up 150 feet of pipe before anything came out the faucet. By the time the check valve sticks, it might be time for a new pump. But 10 years is "almost new" for a sumberged pump. I changed my pump here last year. The one I pulled out was installed in 1959. I also changed out my ex-wife's pump last year. It was put into the well in 1979. Wasn't even a pump problem. The wires broke because the rubber twist-shock restraint wasn't installed correctly.

Same leak-down thing happens with in-house Jet pumps when the footvalve down in the well goes bad.

In your case?? If the well was dry, it OUGHT to work right away after sitting and then , run out.

If the well was low, your water ought to look cloudy, sandy, murky, whatever. I don't know what kind of ground you've got. A well pump is never supposed to be at the bottom. It needs to be up a bit so it doesn't suck up mud and sand. When a well gets low though, it gets into the pump anyway. That is unless you're in solid rock. Rock usually does not bear water though.

I have a jet pump at my house. Had this happen last year when we are living at our rental house getting it all revamped to try and sell. Went back, no water. On my jet pump there is a small screw to loosen, turn on the pump, and it will prime. On mine it's at the base of the pump where it connects to the stand pipe coming out of the ground. I ended up rebuilding the pressure unit on my pump. There is a big rubber donut in there with springs that regulate the pressure. My rubber donut was well eaten and not holding pressure well. I also did not have the tank plumbed correctly. One of the many things wrong on the long list with this house. I did have to dump water down the pump to get mine to prime. Took about 2 gallons.

Sounds like a dry well, pull the cap off stick your ear over it trun on the garden hose leave the water run , you shoud hear the pump runing will be a humming sound, leave it pump water for 15 mins or so if you hear it gurgleing and you run out of water round the same time then you have a dusty hole good luck.

Could also be the nipple between the tank tee and pre. switch is pluged with crap. but check the well 1st. fraid you have a dry hole.

She's goin' dry, Pard.

Allan

I Agree 100% with you up till you say "Rock usually does not bear water". 90% of ours wells here in NW. Pa. are in sand stone or shalestone, will make between 100+ gpm. down to 1 gpm.

"Solid" rock will not yield water but you are right, shale is probably the best supplier.
From my experience, a month or more of heavy rain will not immediately effect the output of a well. It sounds like the well is drying up or the vein is being blocked off by buildup of sand or silt.

Can you hear it running when it holds the pressure up there? I just had to have a new one put in about 2 months ago. Same thing,no water at times. When it did pump up,it would either shut off,the guage would drop and it would start right back up or it would hold and the pump would still be running.
What had happened was that a few months before,there was a lightening strike and it burned out the seal. Insurance paid for it even waiting that long,thank God. It was better'n $1600.

yeah, depends how deep his is, may take years for the rain water to get down there.

Had a problem kinda like that one, pulled the pump out of the well and found a hole in the fitting on the top of the pump. It was a galvanised pipe fitting , and replaced it with brass.

Holding pressure sometimes, sometimes not makes me think it might be a check valve problem. I have to put in a new about every 10-12 years.

What type of well do you have? Mine is bored(36")forty foot deep/18' of water.
Teenagers and long showers put mine down a couple months ago.
Would run a couple pump up cycles then quit/no water at faucet. Wait a couple/three minutes to cool off then pump back up. Submersible pumps have a thermal switch that shut them off. Gets worse as time goes by.

My well is drilled 180 ft in granite. Puts out a good 30 gpm and in 21 years of pumping is still going strong. I irrigate my 1 acre lawn with it. Runs for 6 hours straight every day during the summer. Water is in rock, just got to find the seam where it flows through.

after 1 of those small earthquakes in SE PA, our well pipe plastic fitting cracked at an elbow, leaking water back down the well. Had to call the plumber for that one.

Even though your getting a lot of rain the well could still be going dry this happened at my grandfathers. Wettest year on record and his well went dry nearest anyone could figure was when his new neighbor built his place about 2 miles Away and drilled his well he must have tapped into the same vein just upstream of grandpas

sounds like well going dry. install a pump protector on it. this device can be purchased at any well supply place. what it does is sense the current draw on your pump motor when its under load, when pump starts sucking air it senses the drop in amp draw and shuts pump off so you don't burn up to pump from lack of cooling. the device can be preset to stay off from thirty minutes to up to two hours. this lets the well recharge and when it turns the pump back on the motor is cooled properly. i am able to keep two 2500 gallon tanks full with a well that only allows the pump to run sometimes only for ten minutes. but it is cycling like this 24/7 and the water production is enough. i would not have a well pump without this protection device on it.
good luck

don deere

Marty, my well is pretty similar to yours. must be a va thing.. I measured it at 65 feet and had about 22 feet of water in it( rope and barbell plate method) . I think mine drained down from a toilet issue