Look at this fouled pump, whew! what now

[davidl340]

So after the last hurricane I noticed my pump was taking 40 minutes to fill my tank. Long story short I had it pulled and replaced and these pics show some of why it happened.

1st: how do I prevent this from happening again? I believe this pump is only 9 years old.
2nd: I like to tinker, think I may try to rebuild the old pump, anyone know where I can buy Grundfos parts (in particular part # 96479873)
3rd: Thinking about getting an iron breaker air injection filter... if you know of a good reasonably priced recommendation to install DIY let me know.

 

[Reach4]

1st: how do I prevent this from happening again? I believe this pump is only 9 years old.

It's possible that you could clean the accumulated sediment from the bottom of the well. How old is the well, how deep? How far down is the pump? And how high is the static water level?

3rd: Thinking about getting an iron breaker air injection filter...

A filter would not help the situation at the pump, but can certainly help the water for the house.

 

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[davidl340]

Pumps is at 140 ft. I was told the well was 500 ft deep (have no proof) which is pretty common in this area with a 4" PVC casing. I am unsure of the static water level but do know we generally have a pretty high water table here, most of the pipe coming out of the ground had plenty of red/brown slime on it indicating it was sitting in water so I would guess water is sitting 20-40ft down the hole.

Yeah, I know there is no helping with the water in the hole, but I was going to bleach it anyway assuming this is iron bacteria. Was wondering if perhaps something else is in order.

That lovely brown/red material pretty much coats everything the water touches all the way to my fixtures in my house.

 

[Reach4]

For removing sediment accumulated in a well, there are a couple of ways. A big engine-driven compressor can blow water through a PVC pipe to the bottom, and eject sediment as a geyser.

An air lift pump can raise solids as long as the water it has to lift through is higher than the lift above the water.

So if you have 50 years of sediment accumulated, cleaning might do some good. For trying to kill IRB, I think a good sanitizing that drives disinfecting solution to the bottom is needed. Just s sanitizing the the top 140 ft of a 500 ft well will leave a lot of untreated space for bacteria. They have pellets that you can use to reach closer to the bottom if your casing is 5 inch or more. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my sanitizing writeup.

I was looking for maybe a source of records of your well. Maybe the county has depth records.

https://deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/...quality-monitoring/private-well-water-quality had some interesting info, including the incidence of excessive nitrates in NC.

 

[davidl340]

Here is the water test results if any interest. The red/orange stuff is what nobody can tell me for sure what it is. Online it looks like iron bacteria left overs, but it could be find red clay. One thing of interest the red slime only existed on the well pipe to about the 100ft down mark, then it went clear all the way to the pump.

 

[Valveman]

So after the last hurricane I noticed my pump was taking 40 minutes to fill my tank. Long story short I had it pulled and replaced and these pics show some of why it happened.

1st: how do I prevent this from happening again? I believe this pump is only 9 years old.
2nd: I like to tinker, think I may try to rebuild the old pump, anyone know where I can buy Grundfos parts (in particular part # 96479873)
3rd: Thinking about getting an iron breaker air injection filter... if you know of a good reasonably priced recommendation to install DIY let me know.

I don't think that is a Grundfos pump. Where did you get that part number? Show a pic of the label on the pump and the motor.

Also look into the Sulfur Eliminator as it will work on the water in the well before it gets to the pump.

 

[davidl340]

It is def. a 3" sq series Grundfos. I took it apart the other day. You should have seen the mess of installation, the 2nd pic is a 1 1/2" to 1" galv. reducer with a 1/8" size rust hole in it.

Old pump is a 22 SQ15-220, They went back with a
15SQ10-250. Can't say either of them seem like the optimal pump based on the efficiency curves, but I'm not a well guy.

 

[Valveman]

Didn't look like a 3" pump, but hard to tell in pictures. Never worked on an SQ, and not sure you can get parts. But I am betting that 10,700 RPM pump is part of why you have so much build up inside. A normal 4" pump only spins 3450 RPM, which won't churn up the water as bad and may not make stuff build up like that.

 

[davidl340]

Yeah, they were going to put a 4" in the hole but they had a 3" sq on the truck and told me they were 'much better' and were a bit concerned about getting a 4" down the hole since a 3" had some issues coming out. I will say the SQ is much easier on startup for my generator, very soft ramp up. Hindsight is 20/20.

Next time I'll probably yank it out myself if I can get enough guys together, it is hung on 1 1/4" threaded PVC.

 

[Valveman]

If a 4" pump is too tight a fit a 3" is your only choice. Big trade offs though. Soft start is not good from most submersible motors, but it won't hurt that one as it has ball bearings instead of a Kingsbury. May want soft start with batteries from a solar system, but not needed for any other kind of power.

 

[Reach4]

Yeah, they were going to put a 4" in the hole but they had a 3" sq on the truck and told me they were 'much better' and were a bit concerned about getting a 4" down the hole since a 3" had some issues coming out.

If that is a steel casing, probably a good call. I expect if I need a new pump some day in my 4 inch steel casing, it will be a 3 inch pump.

I agree that 15SQ10-250 is too much pump for a house, and that 10SQ05-160 or 10SQ07-200 would have been better.

 

[davidl340]

3" probably was not necessary for my 4" PVC casing, but oh well, it was getting snagged on something on the way up and were worried about that slime build up. I do have a 220 gallon tank so hopefully it being over-sized will be OK.

 

[Reach4]

3" probably was not necessary for my 4" PVC casing, but oh well, it was getting snagged on something on the way up and were worried about that slime build up.

They make "4 inch" pumps that are 3.75 inch od vs the 3.9 inches. These are called things like slimline, trimline.

Usually these are 5 or 7 gpm, but there may be some 10 gpm.

 

[VAWellDriller]

More than likely iron bacteria....I've seen wells/pumps that look like that and need new pump and pipe every year. You may try treating / cleaning the well but that's more of a pro job. Brushing / swabbing an acid mixture or a product like boresaver ultra C ...followed by airlifting, would be a good procedure (but not cheap). I see a lot of this and in my opinion no reason to think a 3" or 4" pump would be better or worse.

 

[Reach4]

Running 1-1/4 pipe or 1-1/2 pipe, instead of 1 inch, might make the closing up of the pipe happen slower.

 

[Reach4]

So after the last hurricane I noticed my pump was taking 40 minutes to fill my tank.

If this was more event-caused rather than years of buildup, that might be a better reason to get the well cleaned out. But so is years of buildup. How high is the top of your casing compared with the flood water? If the flood was higher, I would get your casing extended.

Have you looked into that?

This video might inspire you:

 

[davidl340]

That is awesome. Yeah, this one has no risk of flooding. Casing is 18" or so above the ground