I've been having trouble with, what I think is, a 2" well for years now. When I bought the house the original pump would cavitate (or "howl") loudly (the home inspector told me the bearings were going out of it... he was wrong) so I replaced it. I quickly discovered that any time I used enough water for the pressure to drop to around 20psi the new pump would scream too. I "fixed" this issue by restricting the flow to the house by partially closing a shut off valve.
Over the years this has gotten worse and worse and I've had to reduce the pressure on the shut off switch ever lower and lower. Now it's to the point that the well won't make more than about 22psi of pressure and is constantly cycling between howling and no howling (I can also hear loads of silt coming through the line and my filter housing is black... the well has always pumped up tons of junk and I have to service the housing monthly).
I have sought help from other forums and no one really knows anything about these old 2" wells and from some other posts here it looks like there may be some guys on here that are still working on them. I called a couple of local contractors and they won't even touch them anyone (with one guy stating that the cost to even pull it up and look at it would be $1500?!?!).
The plan for my well that is on record with my county is terrible. It's a hand drawn sketch that says the well is 21' deep (which ever driller I've talked to finds highly unlikely in my area) and that's it. My pump is a jet pump that has been converted to deep well use (2 black plastic irrigation pipes connect to it and run out of the foundation). That's the sum total of what I know about its construction.
Also... Last night I ran into a problem where the well just WOULD NOT get over 10psi. I've been tinkering with the booster tank pressure (which appears to be fine) and the only way I could get the pump to start building pressure up again was to put more pressure in the tank to get the pump some "back pressure". Now it pumps water again, but not past 22psi or so. The pump doesn't appear to be losing prime and I confirmed this by loosening one of the priming plugs and it shot water out (which to me, makes sense since the gauge said 10psi). My pump has also been highly abused over the years due to the clear defect with "something" in the well. So there could possible be some damage its internal parts (from erosion and whatnot) but I've never read of anyone fixing a problem like mine by simply bolting a new pump on. If that could work, I'll try it.
I know the "most correct" answer here is to have a new well drilled and have a submersible pump installed. I'm currently unemployed and dealing with a back injury so financially that's just not an option (I also can't go out and dig a 4' deep pit with a shovel in my insanely hard clay... I'd need to rent a small excavator to dig anything so I need to know what really needs done before I even start). My area is also in the process of being annexed by my local government so city water is "eventually" coming. If I can do something, practically anything, to make this thing work remotely correctly again for maybe another year or two that's absolutely what I want to do.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. I have attached a few pictures of the well in the yard for your reference. I once tried putting a breaker bar with a large cheater on the top most nut but it appears to be ultra tight and I didn't want to break something without knowing what I'm doing. Someone else suggested that I needed to dig down to the pitless adapter on the side of the case before I can even get started, but even if I did so I wouldn't have any idea of what to do after that.
Also, if it matters at all, I'm NE IN if there is a pro on here that specializes in these old wells and wants to look at it. I've got to think $1500 is crazy just to pull it up and take a look, but what do I know?
Over the years this has gotten worse and worse and I've had to reduce the pressure on the shut off switch ever lower and lower. Now it's to the point that the well won't make more than about 22psi of pressure and is constantly cycling between howling and no howling (I can also hear loads of silt coming through the line and my filter housing is black... the well has always pumped up tons of junk and I have to service the housing monthly).
I have sought help from other forums and no one really knows anything about these old 2" wells and from some other posts here it looks like there may be some guys on here that are still working on them. I called a couple of local contractors and they won't even touch them anyone (with one guy stating that the cost to even pull it up and look at it would be $1500?!?!).
The plan for my well that is on record with my county is terrible. It's a hand drawn sketch that says the well is 21' deep (which ever driller I've talked to finds highly unlikely in my area) and that's it. My pump is a jet pump that has been converted to deep well use (2 black plastic irrigation pipes connect to it and run out of the foundation). That's the sum total of what I know about its construction.
Also... Last night I ran into a problem where the well just WOULD NOT get over 10psi. I've been tinkering with the booster tank pressure (which appears to be fine) and the only way I could get the pump to start building pressure up again was to put more pressure in the tank to get the pump some "back pressure". Now it pumps water again, but not past 22psi or so. The pump doesn't appear to be losing prime and I confirmed this by loosening one of the priming plugs and it shot water out (which to me, makes sense since the gauge said 10psi). My pump has also been highly abused over the years due to the clear defect with "something" in the well. So there could possible be some damage its internal parts (from erosion and whatnot) but I've never read of anyone fixing a problem like mine by simply bolting a new pump on. If that could work, I'll try it.
I know the "most correct" answer here is to have a new well drilled and have a submersible pump installed. I'm currently unemployed and dealing with a back injury so financially that's just not an option (I also can't go out and dig a 4' deep pit with a shovel in my insanely hard clay... I'd need to rent a small excavator to dig anything so I need to know what really needs done before I even start). My area is also in the process of being annexed by my local government so city water is "eventually" coming. If I can do something, practically anything, to make this thing work remotely correctly again for maybe another year or two that's absolutely what I want to do.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. I have attached a few pictures of the well in the yard for your reference. I once tried putting a breaker bar with a large cheater on the top most nut but it appears to be ultra tight and I didn't want to break something without knowing what I'm doing. Someone else suggested that I needed to dig down to the pitless adapter on the side of the case before I can even get started, but even if I did so I wouldn't have any idea of what to do after that.
Also, if it matters at all, I'm NE IN if there is a pro on here that specializes in these old wells and wants to look at it. I've got to think $1500 is crazy just to pull it up and take a look, but what do I know?
