check valve in old well?

Springs have dried up, need to start pumping water for the cattle. I have a 1 1/4" windmill well with a leaky check valve about 10 feet down, water comes up to 6 feet below ground level....I would like the valve out out so I have more flow and easier priming with an electric pump. How are the check valves constructed? How hard is it to break the valve and let the pieces drop? I am thinking of using a bar attached to a chain to hit it. I think the pipe is too rusty and weak to pull.

pull up the pipe and take the check valve out, but then it will be harder to prime.

Pump always looses it prime after being shut off for a few hours...I would like to put a new foot valve at the end of a drop pipe.

It is a one way door, lets the water into the vertical pipe but keeps it from going back down the well. Without a check valve you may have a hard time getting your pump to prime and start pumping.I am only familiar with the check valve being at the bottom of the intake pipe. It is sometimes referred to as a "foot valve". You will not be able to disable the check valve without pulling the pipe. You could just put a check valve on a new line and push it down the well. I think that is what I would do. just my opiion. gobble

If putting in electric pump why not just drop in new pipe with foot valve on end of it instead of trying to use old pipe. Use plastic thats my solution.

Best try to pull pipe and all, foot vales aren't that heavy, if you get to screwing round trying to break off the foot valve then you may break off a joint of pipe and get it stuck in the well.

if you lose your prime you have a air leak. put a new check valve on the end of the pump and a foot valve on the the other end double clamp every thing. don't use used parts. your only looking about 40.00 of parts.

don't say how deep your well is but check valve should be near or at bottom

Having been on well water forty years Ive had plenty of experience. Ive had BOTH an inline CHECK VALVE (one way water flow device) up top right at the pump plus A FOOT VALVE which is also a one way flow check valve butttttttt its at the very bottom of the well suck pip

I found it easier to prime using a foot valve. The foot valve is a simple small lightweight brass flapper type of valve but if you dont wanna pull the pipe you may get by with an in line check valve up top it depedns on the pump you have. No harm in giving a check valve a try I reckon

John T

this is a windmill pump,but your going to try to remove the windmill and go electric in the same pipe is that correct?maybe i am not understanding here,but the easiest way would be to simply drop a new pipe in the casing beside the old drop pipe.submersable pumps are available down to 1 3/4" diameter to do this. windmill would have rods down the center of most often a 1 1/4" pipe that would stop you from dropping much of anything inside. and this would preclude you from haveing a check valve above the foot valve too easily. Probably unless you have a pitcher pump that wont pump over 25 ft or so max,with a really GOOD pitcher pump,what your seeing there is the pump cyl itself.often times folks would put the cyl near the top of the well in a shallow well simply for conveience. but,,yousay water is down 6 ft this check valve(or whatever) is at 10 ft its underwater anyway pulling it wont help,its self priming, etc to 6ft.in other words its under water and wheather its open or not makes no difference. IF in this case you have a cyl at the 10 foot depth,you need new pump leathers,check valve would have no effect whatsoever. like i say maybe im misunderstanding what your trying to do.,and heres another little tip,theres probably a hole drilled in the side of the pipe 4-6 ft down to drain pump during winter,so if you have water inside the 1 1/4" pipe at that level,while the water inside the casing is lower,your check valves are holding. this also would as you say make it very hard to get pumping with the mill simply because most of the water you pour in top to prime would runn out this hole unless you poured it in real fast.once you got enough water above this your mill may pump but as you say it wont stay long. basicaly we need to know for sure what you have in your well for sure that your trying to work with,but i assure you if a check valve is under water its NOTyour problem regardless on any type pump.all its there for is to keep water youve pumped above the water level in well from draining back to that level .other than that it has no effect whatsoever. i would strongly suggest you dont try to break whatever it is there,if it is the cyl and you manage to break it your either going to lose your well,or your going to be trying to fish out pieces,because everything below that is falling.pull it up,remove it whatever it takes,go from there. my opinion of course.

After the pump looses prime, the pipe should be empty. This will make it lighter. I would pull the old pipe and valve out and replace it with schedule 80 PVC with a new foot valve at the end. Will last for many, many years.
Pull the old pipe up 10 feet at a time and cut it with a sawzall to make it easier. I would not let the pipe fall into the well.
Richard

take a picture of your windmill pump and post it,the part above ground.with some good pictures we can decide what you have and how to better proceed.a picture will tell us what type of pump you have on your mill and what your likely to have below. but DONT break anything and let it fall ever! unless of course your filling in a well.

If your well pipe is only 10 feet long you should be able to pull it right out. If it is so rusty that you are afraid of it, it Really needs to come out! Hammering on it hard enough to break a check valve will for sure break it or cause it to leak. Chances are it has holes in it already and that is why you are losing prime. The check valve, being brass, is probably the least of your problem.
Pull the whole mess and replace it with PVC as others have recommended.

If you drop anything down a well you are looking at getting a pounder type well driller in ti break it up and clear the well to get a bump back in.

another thing you could have is a driven well if its not cased. In that scenario what you may be hitting is the well point. It is basically a piece of pipe made in a point to drive in the ground but it has a fine wire mesh screen around it to keep out sand.If you ruin this screen or break your well point your well is going to pump a lot of dirt and your pumps wont last long.
If this well is cased,you can tell basically what you have on your mill by simply dismantling your pump head.a well with the cyl below ground level MUST have rods running down the center of the 11/4" pipe to operate the the cyl which is a mechanical pump. if it doestnt have these rods running below ground level you have a whats known as a PITCHER pump. they wont pump much over 25 ft simply because the leathers in the cyl cant hold the suction and they collapse and leak by.BUT a pitcher pump will have a check valve built into the bottom of the cyl itself to stop water from draining back and losing prime. this is most times two pieces of metal with a leaher flapper sandwitched in between.this works more or less like a flapper in your toilet tank. the bottom piece of metal is tapered and sits often times in a tapered seat to hold it in position. If thats what you have thats your problem..two problems with a pitcher pump.one is that they are not self draining because of this flapper so they either freeze in cold weather or they must be left running constantly.OR if someone removes this flapper they must be primed each time its used to wet the leathers. the advantage of a pitcher pump is simply that it all can be serviced above ground.
if you dont have a pitcher pump ,you will have rods running down into the well below ground.these rods help you when you pull the pump simply because even if your drop pipe is rusted in two above the cyl the rods hold it,so your fairly safe pulling your well.as far as pipe breakage goes above the cyl. to decide what you have and how to proceed,start by putting a rope around the pump RODS at the top of your well head and start dismantling pump.NEVER EVER turn loose the pump rods untill your 100% certain your drop pipe is not broken below the pump base. if you do and pipe is rusted in two somewhere youll lose it all below the break if you have a cyl below ground. best and easiest way to pull the pipe is to lay a plank through your tower near the top, haung a double pulley on this,and run TWO ropes through it.one rope attatches to the rods,(thats your safety line) the other to the pipe. theres vices available to hold your pipe as you pull it. but if you dont have one or cant find one.two heavy pipe wrenches put on the pipe andlaid side ways will often hold it.or you can simply use another rope snubbed off to the tower and tied around the pipe so it wont slip. AGAIN let me say NEVER EVER turn loose the pump rods!!! Regardless of what people tell you here, you cant simply cut it and be done if your intending to use the mill ever again. due to you having a cyl in the equasion thats usually ten to twelve inches long you must unscrew or cut the drop pipe at each joint raise it this amount and unscrew rods. now in your case as i understand it your going electric so you could just cut it off, but when you do your LOSING your hold on your pump rods thats VERY often the only thing holding the whole mess together.. anither reason you really dont want to do this,, just fyi,, you can sell these parts very often for more money than it costs to drill anew well and install a new pump!
once you get to the cyl,and it can be ANYWHERE below ground your going to lose your safety line on the rods. dont let it bother you anything rusted in two below that point is allready gone anyway.its simply fell to the bottom of well.just be care full and dont break it yourself and lose a piece.before you unscrew or cut pipe make sure you have a good grip on the pipe below.i personaly use both lines with one alternately holding and one pulling. it sounds hard but its relly not all that difficult to pull one,and heres atip.once you get to the cyl if the pipe has water in it everything below that level is intact.no reason to pull it unless like in your case you need it out of the way.if it doesnt youve either got a bad foot valve or a hole in the pipe. i hope this helps.without pictures or something its nearly impossible to know what you have,theres a thousnd different pump jacks and just as many ways to rig them up for different uses ,but this is the basics.

In YOUR case,only,easiest fastest way to get water to your cattle is to simply .pull your well pipe up six feet or so ,ther youll find a hole drilled PURPOSLY on a windmill system to stopit from frrezing .cut the pipe below this hole,rethread, adapt to a pump with ten feet or so of lift install acheck valve at the pump inlet. the problem is that your sucking air,through this hole. and when you shut well of its doing what its intended to do which is drain the pump below the frost line. as long as you find a pump with enough suction to lift water high enough you should be good.not the best way but fast and dirty way to water your cattle.

Call a well driller outfit they can come out and look things over and make any suggestions as what to do to get you back online. Usually this is free service. They may be able to get you back up an working with a small cost and it will last a lot longer than piecing it together haphazardly.
Walt

A check valve can be next to the pump, dosent have to be in the well.Some electric pumps have a check valve right in the pump.

I think the check valve is a brass valve made into a half foot of brass pipe. The check assembly screws in line with the cast well pipe. The valve leaks fast enough that the pump looses its prime after setting for half an hour....the water leaks out the pump , back down the well.

Ill repeat, put the check valve right next the pump.