I also have a plastic housing Flotec 3/4 hp shallow well pump, as I've seen on another post. It has been working for over 20 years (with maintenance, as needed). I'm new to this forum, and hoping my problem rings a bell with someone that has already had the same situation.
This spring the pump and well worked as it always has for several days and then just stopped pumping. I could not get it to prime, and eventually found an air leak in the inch and a half PVC well pipe, and also replaced the brass check valve that had a split poppet with a new PVC CV. I also disassembled the pump. There was no distortion or clogging. I put it back together with new gaskets and o-rings, but still couldn't get the pump to prime. I back flushed the well with city water and used a manifold I made with ball valves to allow me to hook my air compressor up to the pipe and apply a high pressure surge of air to the water column to help blow out the screen - if a clogged screen was the problem. Yesterday the pump primed and I got great flow - for several minutes and then it slowly went down to nothing. If I turn the valve off, the pump builds pressure in the normal time it has always taken and turns off. But, when the water is turned back on, the water flows normally until the pump turns on and then the pressure slowly drops to nothing. This has repeated after 24 hours, and I am stumped.
I took the pump off today and checked the well pipe with a string line and large sinker. The well pipe is 49' deep and I have a 32' water column with the top of the water at 17' down. I have no idea what is causing this once prolific well to act so strange, and don't want to throw money at it hoping to get lucky and fix it.
One last thing: when I dug down to uncover the well pipe to disconnect the pump, there was a foot of solid clay(we live on something called the Pungo Ridge which is a natural geologic formation of talcum powder-fine clay that goes from this north end of VA Beach all the way to the southern area of the city), but below that there was a void around the well pipe that was deeper than anything I had to stick down it to try to see how deep it was. I water-jetted the dirt around it to try and fill it and couldn't get past about 12 foot depth. It now appears sealed, but don't know if I should do more or get bentonite involved?
I will appreciate any advice, and a list of steps to take to establish what the problem is and how to determine the solution.
This spring the pump and well worked as it always has for several days and then just stopped pumping. I could not get it to prime, and eventually found an air leak in the inch and a half PVC well pipe, and also replaced the brass check valve that had a split poppet with a new PVC CV. I also disassembled the pump. There was no distortion or clogging. I put it back together with new gaskets and o-rings, but still couldn't get the pump to prime. I back flushed the well with city water and used a manifold I made with ball valves to allow me to hook my air compressor up to the pipe and apply a high pressure surge of air to the water column to help blow out the screen - if a clogged screen was the problem. Yesterday the pump primed and I got great flow - for several minutes and then it slowly went down to nothing. If I turn the valve off, the pump builds pressure in the normal time it has always taken and turns off. But, when the water is turned back on, the water flows normally until the pump turns on and then the pressure slowly drops to nothing. This has repeated after 24 hours, and I am stumped.
I took the pump off today and checked the well pipe with a string line and large sinker. The well pipe is 49' deep and I have a 32' water column with the top of the water at 17' down. I have no idea what is causing this once prolific well to act so strange, and don't want to throw money at it hoping to get lucky and fix it.
One last thing: when I dug down to uncover the well pipe to disconnect the pump, there was a foot of solid clay(we live on something called the Pungo Ridge which is a natural geologic formation of talcum powder-fine clay that goes from this north end of VA Beach all the way to the southern area of the city), but below that there was a void around the well pipe that was deeper than anything I had to stick down it to try to see how deep it was. I water-jetted the dirt around it to try and fill it and couldn't get past about 12 foot depth. It now appears sealed, but don't know if I should do more or get bentonite involved?
I will appreciate any advice, and a list of steps to take to establish what the problem is and how to determine the solution.