Scheduled Maintenance - Deep Well Pump

[Dirtbiker]

Hello to the group...first time poster here.

We're here in Pennsylvania and live in a 1o year old home with a deep well pump sitting at about 180'. Our pump and system is working fine right now; however our neighbors have experienced a rash of failures over the past couple of years. I suspect that the installed pumps were all about the same and therefore ours is probably on the radar screen for failure any time now! Therefore, my goal is to do a "scheduled" replacement of the pump rather than an emergency $$$ professional replacement.

From reading the forums, I completely grasp the construction with respect to the piping, pitless adapter, wiring, torque collar and so forth. My biggest question is: how much weight can I expect to have to pull up and can two men pull this unit out by hand without mechanical means? My plan would be to make a "T" bar pipe lift to pull the pittless adapter, then go hand-over-hand to pull the assembly out of the casing. I'm guessing that it's a 1/2hp 3-wire pump on 1-1/4" tubing, and my best guess on the weight is 30lbs for the pump, 50lbs for the tubing and 40lbs for the water weight in the stack. Does this sound about right? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jim

 

[Jimbo]

Your guess totals 120 pounds. That sounds a little on the low side, but even at 120, your arms get tired pretty quickly hand-over-handing that! I hope you plan to have some help!

We don't have any wells here in San Diego, so let's wait until some guys with well experience wake up and offer some more advice!

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Dirtbiker]

Thanks Jimbo for the quick reply!

Yes, perhaps my concensus of one was a bit optimistic with respect to the weight. I did however take a look at the pump controller in the basement last night. When you pull off the front panel containing the relay and capacitor, it says 1/2hp - single phase...so I suspect that this is what I have in the hole.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Alternety]

Have you looked down the hole to make sure it is the black flexible tubing not rigid pipe of some sort?

 

[KD]

Your pump weighs about 40 lbs, if the pipe is 1 1/4 there is 1.5 cu ft of water in the pipe, x 64 lbs per cu ft = 90 lbs of water, if the pipe is pvc it will weigh about 50 lbs, total about 200 lbs It takes 3 men to pull my 130 ft well hand over hand and one additional person to drag the pipe out into the yard.