Well pump stuck 1" poly, not doing a thing, yet pump checks out okay??

[PumpDr]

Very weird problem I just encountered with a customer..

About 6mo or so ago he called us, typical no water, so we pulled the pump, gave him new pump and new wire, I believe it was about 150' on 1" poly. The static level is very high, only about 6' or so, just about 2' from the pitless. Anyway, the customer called us the other day, no water. We've had some nasty thunderstorms recently so our guess was that it was hit by lightning. Well, we go there, throw an ammeter on the pressure switch, its drawing 0 amps. Checked, getting power at the well head. Checked the wire going down to the pump, everything is good. Even checked the motor windings and they are right on the money. The poly pipe is filled with water right upto the pitless. Ive never had a pump check out this good and not pump.

We go to pull it and snag. About 2' up and its stuck. It wont spin freely, after an hour and a sore back, I go back to get my rig. 4T smeal, we set it up, give her a yank and end up stretching the poly so much it looked like 3/4, but, we were able to and save the pitless.

The well is 6" steel casing, I believe the earth is mostly granite. Our plan is to go back today and lower a 3" grundfos 10gpm 3/4hp next to the pump about 80' on 1" PVC. We decided not to snap the poly and instead we are going to put some tension on the line and hold it to the side to use it as a guide for the PVC. Our fear was if we snapped it, the excess wire and pipe could ball up.

Anyone have any idea why the pump would just fail like this when everything is okay? My father has been doing this since the 70's, he is stumped. Wish us luck!

Thanks!!

 

[Texas Wellman]

I dunno but I would like to find out. This is the main reason we hung all ours on galv. steel pipe for many years until the quality got too low and the price got too high. All our domestic wells here are 4" so getting stuck is a major ordeal and not hard to do if you don't know what your doing.

Can you run a camera down?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

Ive never had a pump check out this good and not pump.

That is a weird one. The only thing I can think of is that the overload in the motor has tripped and won’t reset. But even that should show an open leg down hole. If it checks good and has power, it should pull amps of some kind.

Our fear was if we snapped it, the excess wire and pipe could ball up.

I helped a guy a few weeks ago to make a cutter he dropped down over the wire and pipe using the sand line. When the cutter was at the bottom he pulled the poly pipe tight, then pulled on the sand line until it cut the poly and wire off right above the pump. We used a U bolt and a piece of angle iron sharpened up to make the cutter.

 

[Craigpump]

Out of curiosity what brand of pump and motor? It does sound like the overload tripped and hadn't reset. Maybe the pump locked up due to crap falling in the hole and that's why that's why its trapped.

 

[PumpDr]

Pump was a 2 wire Grundfos 7gpm 1/2hp.. I was able to drop the new 3" grundfos down 80' on 1" pvc. We hit a wire guide at about 60' but were able to break it.

A good friend of mine has a camera, but I don't want to be responsible if I lose it. Ive lose too many probes in wells already with wire guides and toque stops.


The new pump works fine.. Still puzzled and the worst part is I cant even get the old pump out to dissect it and investigate further..

 

[Valveman]

We hit a wire guide at about 60' but were able to break it.

Ive lose too many probes in wells already with wire guides and toque stops.

Add this to my list of reasons not to use cable guards and torque arrestors.