Stackz
Member
I will get pics as I can, I'm at work after another unsuccessful trip around town trying to get pieces/parts...now for the fun!
background:
Ok, I inherited my grandparents place and back in 1948'ish, my grandfather (who used to work at the charleston naval shipyard) made his own shallow well. It used a 2.5" metal threaded-end casing (scrap pipe from the shipyard if I had to guess) and a wwII submarine bilge pump which had leather pistons and it was hooked to a 110v electric motor. The pump output went to a home-made 30~40 gallon tank with a 40psi pressure switch on it and it fed two spigots in the backyard that are used for watering grass/garden and such.
again 2.5" metal casing. hits water at around 13' (will check/confirm this later) and its about 50' deep. The old 1" suction pipe had a foot valve on it and was that long black flexible type pipe. All other piping is 1" pvc after you get out of the well itself.
worked great many years making its ole' faithful loud pumping noise. finally the leather seals gave out. I spent a year tracking down a place that could make replacements and they sent them and they never sealed right again. finally, the 110v motor locked up on me. I pulled the pump setup and set it aside, should I ever get brave enough to pull it completely down and try to fix it.
I grabbed a shallow well jet pump off craigslist and hooked it to the system and never could get prime. went on vacation for two weeks and apparently the little pump house doors opened up and it rained and the jet pump froze up.
left it two years until I got tired of my water/waste water bill and this winter spent some time trying to get it working again.
I went to harbor freight and grabbed this pump:
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-horsepower-shallow-well-pump-with-stainless-steel-housing-69302.html
I couldnt get it to prime for anything! finally in frustration I dug up the well so I could check everything out going from the pump inlet to inside the well. after repriming a couple times and watching after I turned off the pump I saw that the 1" suction line was cracked at the junction where it adapts to the pvc. basically, the pump would pull the water I put in the line and then pull air through the crack and lose prime.
At this point I just said screw it and wanted to update to a more modern well seal setup.
ISSUES
as I said, the well casing is 2.5" threaded pipe. I went to a large plumbing supply store and had them order me a female threaded 2.5" to 3" threaded cast iron adapter. My intention was to then go from the metal adapter to a pvc 3" threaded female -4" slip fit adapter, add a small section of pvc 4" pipe and then get a compression type 4" well seal (all from lowes).
the well seal I intended to use is like this:
the issue is none of the ones in stock at lowes have the center 1" pipe like in the picture (best I could find is one with a dual 1" and 1-3/4" pipe holes and then two small screw caps in case there's no submersible pump)
regardless of that I was still going to use the dual seal but when I took it over to the 4" pipe section to get a small 2' section the stupid rubber seal portion will not fit inside the pipe even in the store! I dont want to assemble it all and then have to basically hammer on the seal...or is that what I should do? seems like it would be impossible to get it off to service it in the future.
I guess my last question is have I really really overthought this?
the old well cap was a threaded cap that my grandfather apparently just sorta set on top of the pipe and had a 1" hole drilled in the middle of it. then he inserted the black flexible suction pipe into it up to the adapter which just sat on top of the cap and then he caked it in plumbers putty for a seal. by the time I dug it up, the plumbers putty was all dry and cracking and falling off in sections and the pipe was just sorta wobbling around in place. I kinda want to keep dirt/rain run off out of the well in the future is why I'm wanting to update to a modern well seal.
happened to have the old well seal, the 2.5"-3" adapter and the generic 1" foot valve in the car with me at work so here's a pic of them as well.
At this point I'm wondering if I should just try to find a grommet to fit the old well head, use a wire wheel to clean off the threads in the well casing so the cap threads on better (with some teflon to seal the threads) and then drop down new 1" pvc pipe into the well and cap it that way. I'm just scared of the plumbing cement coming loose on the junctions between pipe inside the well for some reason. also, how far from the bottom should the foot valve be? I've read around 1' or so? I honestly have no idea exactly how deep the well is if anybody was wondering. I dont want to deal with the black flexible pipe anymore if possible just because its walls are so thin and its so old and might crack again.
any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! this is frustrating me to no end.
background:
Ok, I inherited my grandparents place and back in 1948'ish, my grandfather (who used to work at the charleston naval shipyard) made his own shallow well. It used a 2.5" metal threaded-end casing (scrap pipe from the shipyard if I had to guess) and a wwII submarine bilge pump which had leather pistons and it was hooked to a 110v electric motor. The pump output went to a home-made 30~40 gallon tank with a 40psi pressure switch on it and it fed two spigots in the backyard that are used for watering grass/garden and such.
again 2.5" metal casing. hits water at around 13' (will check/confirm this later) and its about 50' deep. The old 1" suction pipe had a foot valve on it and was that long black flexible type pipe. All other piping is 1" pvc after you get out of the well itself.
worked great many years making its ole' faithful loud pumping noise. finally the leather seals gave out. I spent a year tracking down a place that could make replacements and they sent them and they never sealed right again. finally, the 110v motor locked up on me. I pulled the pump setup and set it aside, should I ever get brave enough to pull it completely down and try to fix it.
I grabbed a shallow well jet pump off craigslist and hooked it to the system and never could get prime. went on vacation for two weeks and apparently the little pump house doors opened up and it rained and the jet pump froze up.
left it two years until I got tired of my water/waste water bill and this winter spent some time trying to get it working again.
I went to harbor freight and grabbed this pump:
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-horsepower-shallow-well-pump-with-stainless-steel-housing-69302.html
I couldnt get it to prime for anything! finally in frustration I dug up the well so I could check everything out going from the pump inlet to inside the well. after repriming a couple times and watching after I turned off the pump I saw that the 1" suction line was cracked at the junction where it adapts to the pvc. basically, the pump would pull the water I put in the line and then pull air through the crack and lose prime.
At this point I just said screw it and wanted to update to a more modern well seal setup.
ISSUES
as I said, the well casing is 2.5" threaded pipe. I went to a large plumbing supply store and had them order me a female threaded 2.5" to 3" threaded cast iron adapter. My intention was to then go from the metal adapter to a pvc 3" threaded female -4" slip fit adapter, add a small section of pvc 4" pipe and then get a compression type 4" well seal (all from lowes).
the well seal I intended to use is like this:
the issue is none of the ones in stock at lowes have the center 1" pipe like in the picture (best I could find is one with a dual 1" and 1-3/4" pipe holes and then two small screw caps in case there's no submersible pump)
regardless of that I was still going to use the dual seal but when I took it over to the 4" pipe section to get a small 2' section the stupid rubber seal portion will not fit inside the pipe even in the store! I dont want to assemble it all and then have to basically hammer on the seal...or is that what I should do? seems like it would be impossible to get it off to service it in the future.
I guess my last question is have I really really overthought this?
the old well cap was a threaded cap that my grandfather apparently just sorta set on top of the pipe and had a 1" hole drilled in the middle of it. then he inserted the black flexible suction pipe into it up to the adapter which just sat on top of the cap and then he caked it in plumbers putty for a seal. by the time I dug it up, the plumbers putty was all dry and cracking and falling off in sections and the pipe was just sorta wobbling around in place. I kinda want to keep dirt/rain run off out of the well in the future is why I'm wanting to update to a modern well seal.
happened to have the old well seal, the 2.5"-3" adapter and the generic 1" foot valve in the car with me at work so here's a pic of them as well.
At this point I'm wondering if I should just try to find a grommet to fit the old well head, use a wire wheel to clean off the threads in the well casing so the cap threads on better (with some teflon to seal the threads) and then drop down new 1" pvc pipe into the well and cap it that way. I'm just scared of the plumbing cement coming loose on the junctions between pipe inside the well for some reason. also, how far from the bottom should the foot valve be? I've read around 1' or so? I honestly have no idea exactly how deep the well is if anybody was wondering. I dont want to deal with the black flexible pipe anymore if possible just because its walls are so thin and its so old and might crack again.
any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! this is frustrating me to no end.
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