Water stops then starts again

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RayWorth

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I've seen this addressed many times and I think I have read almost all of the answers, but I've checked all the normal things. I have a 350 ft well and a brand new well pimp, all my pressure tanks and valves and bladders are good, there is no issues with that. My water stops running when two or more things are on, washing machine and faucet, or toilet flushing and shower, etc. and is increasing in duration, now up to 10 minutes. When we replaced our pump the first time around 5 years ago, it went right back into the well no problem, dropped it in there and it seemed to suck itself down and ran great. This time, the pump was extremely difficult to get back in so I'm afraid to pull it back out and check the wiring. I did not replace the wiring with the pump because it looked fine to me. Do I have a short in the wires? If I pull it back out, can I just drop the pump to the depth that it falls into easily? What is the most likely cause of a pump not going freely back into the well?
 

Reach4

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What pump was that that you put in? (brand and model number)
 

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Looking at http://www.lowes.com/pd_313836-57366-UT200_0__?productId=3087297 that is a 0.5 HP pump that 'Pumps water from 150 Ft. deep ". So it may be that the water level is too low at times for the pump to pump water up. It is the water level that determines how hard it is to push water up, and it is the place where the pump is mounted that determines if the pump will try to suck air. It is likely you just don't have enough pump.

HP is only one measure of a pump. With enough stages, a 1/2 pump could provide maybe 3 or 4 GPM from 300 ft down in theory. But few would install a 0.5HP pump to pump water from even 150 ft down. If you decided to choose a different pump, people would be offer you some good suggestions. Knowing how deep the water might go would be useful. It might also be wise to add a device to shut down the pump if your well runs out of water for a while.

One of the reasons that I had asked about the model was to make sure that you did not have a "3-wire" pump that requires a control box with a start capacitor. You don't, so that is not a worry.

Regarding "4 inch" pumps, they can be as small as 3.7 inches diameter, and they can be a little larger. Crud on the side of a 4-inch casing, assuming you even have casing where it matters, can make pulling or inserting the pump a problem. Many people will recommend a 3-inch pump for such conditions. Grundfos SQ and SQE are ones that I know of. Cleaning the bore would be another possibility. I have a 4-inch pump in a 4-inch casing. The well worker suggested that a new 3 inch pump might be appropriate for me. I elected to have the4-inch pump put back down. It went back down OK. I am a bit skeptical of the pumps that might go well over 10,000 RPM. That is faster than a lot of hard drives.
 

RayWorth

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Looking at http://www.lowes.com/pd_313836-57366-UT200_0__?productId=3087297 that is a 0.5 HP pump that 'Pumps water from 150 Ft. deep ". So it may be that the water level is too low at times for the pump to pump water up. It is the water level that determines how hard it is to push water up, and it is the place where the pump is mounted that determines if the pump will try to suck air. It is likely you just don't have enough pump.

HP is only one measure of a pump. With enough stages, a 1/2 pump could provide maybe 3 or 4 GPM from 300 ft down in theory. But few would install a 0.5HP pump to pump water from even 150 ft down. If you decided to choose a different pump, people would be offer you some good suggestions. Knowing how deep the water might go would be useful. It might also be wise to add a device to shut down the pump if your well runs out of water for a while.

One of the reasons that I had asked about the model was to make sure that you did not have a "3-wire" pump that requires a control box with a start capacitor. You don't, so that is not a worry.

Regarding "4 inch" pumps, they can be as small as 3.7 inches diameter, and they can be a little larger. Crud on the side of a 4-inch casing, assuming you even have casing where it matters, can make pulling or inserting the pump a problem. Many people will recommend a 3-inch pump for such conditions. Grundfos SQ and SQE are ones that I know of. Cleaning the bore would be another possibility. I have a 4-inch pump in a 4-inch casing. The well worker suggested that a new 3 inch pump might be appropriate for me. I elected to have the4-inch pump put back down. It went back down OK. I am a bit skeptical of the pumps that might go well over 10,000 RPM. That is faster than a lot of hard drives.
I'm looking at the papers that came with it and there are really 14 model numbers on it and 3 different pump sizes so I'm thinking that I have universal instructions for this series of pumps, so assuming that I have one of the other model numbers, UT3207 and a 1HP, what could the problem be f the pump is strong enough? It is an artesian well also if that makes a difference.
 

Reach4

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Ahhh... had not considered that. An artesian well has water under pressure and will bring water above ground if you don't block it off. That 1/2 HP pump could pump that. 100 ft of 4 inch casing holds 65 gallons.

When you use water from the casing, it recovers at some rate. If that recovery is slow enough and you use enough water, you could suck the water down after a while to where the pump intake is or below where the pump could pump from.

There are people who clean wells. It might be good to check with whoever drilled the well. Maybe there are record available at the county.

Somebody may have some more diagnostic questions for you or may be able to give a better assessment based on what you have posted already.
 
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