Galaxieman
New Member
I have a 50 foot drinking water well.
The pump is a 1.5 hp Gould’s Pump (Model Number: J15S). The serial number of the pump is J9910598, so maybe it was made in 1999?
Anyway, this pump has run flawlessly since I installed it new, about 10 year ago. Recently I noticed a slow seeping leak at the head end of the pump. The leak was coming from both of the pipe plugs in the pump housing. In the picture below you can see the two plugs and the rust stain from the leaks. Finally, the leak became bad enough that I had to do something (the pump is in my garage). I tried to slightly tighten the pipe plugs. Big mistake!....they both turned very easily and immediately sprung very big leaks!
I removed both of the original iron plugs, cleaned the threads in the pump housing (the threads were dirty but in perfect shape) and replaced with two brass plugs using teflon sealing tape. Those brass plugs were in the pump when I took the picture, below.
The second picture below is of the hex head iron pipe plugs that I removed from the leaking pump. Notice that the plugs are severely eroded on the inner thread end. There is at least 1/4 inch of the plug that is missing! I put a similar uncorroded plug in the photo for comparison.
My questions....What caused these plugs to corrode away? Is this a common failure? Should I be replacing them with brass or the original iron type?
Thanks.....
The pump is a 1.5 hp Gould’s Pump (Model Number: J15S). The serial number of the pump is J9910598, so maybe it was made in 1999?
Anyway, this pump has run flawlessly since I installed it new, about 10 year ago. Recently I noticed a slow seeping leak at the head end of the pump. The leak was coming from both of the pipe plugs in the pump housing. In the picture below you can see the two plugs and the rust stain from the leaks. Finally, the leak became bad enough that I had to do something (the pump is in my garage). I tried to slightly tighten the pipe plugs. Big mistake!....they both turned very easily and immediately sprung very big leaks!
I removed both of the original iron plugs, cleaned the threads in the pump housing (the threads were dirty but in perfect shape) and replaced with two brass plugs using teflon sealing tape. Those brass plugs were in the pump when I took the picture, below.
The second picture below is of the hex head iron pipe plugs that I removed from the leaking pump. Notice that the plugs are severely eroded on the inner thread end. There is at least 1/4 inch of the plug that is missing! I put a similar uncorroded plug in the photo for comparison.
My questions....What caused these plugs to corrode away? Is this a common failure? Should I be replacing them with brass or the original iron type?
Thanks.....