Well, Leak at Pitless Adapter

[RayB5957]

Sorry... bust night... finally here's a picture of the original leak/hole... will post pictures of repair and current leak soon

 

[RayB5957]

Interesting don't see my last post... will repost... Sorry about the delay in getting a picture up... very busy night... at any rate, this picture shows the original leak/hole, with toothpick inserted in hole for size reference... obviously water was shooting out of this hole at a high volume... and as I stated earlier, you can see my concern about trying to wrench the pipe from the pitless adapter.. I wouldn't be surprised to see it break off at the hole.. Therefore, I used waterweld epoxy.. future pictures will show repair and current leak from behind the gasket against the well casing.

 

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[Valveman]

Ahh! It is just the insert adapter to the poly pipe. Pain in the butt to get to, but a cheap fix.

 

[Craigpump]

Does your water have a low pH?

 

[Craigpump]

I'd use an adapter union to fix that....

 

[Reach4]

I think he has a female NPT thread in the pitless, and I suspect the barbed adapter has a female NPT thread. Then there would be a nipple between the two. The leak is at the nipple threads is my guess, although I can't explain the leak being sudden or fast. I was thinking the nipple could be removed, which might bugger up the nipple. The new brass nipple could be installed with both high density teflon tape and Rectorseal T+ or #5. The new nipple could be a tad longer. Tighten tight. Restore the poly to the barb. Oooh... that could be hard.

That adapter union does sound interesting. It would probably go in better than what I was picturing.

 

[Craigpump]

I've seen guys use galvanized & nylon male X insert adapters to increase their work load down the road. This may be galv, I can't tell from the pic. Brass threads will get eaten up by low pH as well.

Working on that requires a bigger hole, especially if you have to cut out and then chase the threads so an excavator needs to brought in.

Time is money and every job is different, so if the threads snap off it maybe just easier to pull and replace the pitless unit.

$1000.00 sounds like a fair price for someone to bring in a machine, supply the materials and labor.

 

[Valveman]

That doesn't look like failure from low PH to me. It looks just like a failure from electrolysis when you screw galv pipe into brass or stainless steel. A brass insert fitting would be best. But you can usually wrap those fittings with electric tape and they will last a long time.