Well problem

[Wychryder]

I have a question about my well. I know it's 500 feet deep and 173 feet of static water level. Top perf casing 400 bot perf casing 460. It was drilled in 2005-2007. My son and I went to a plumbing store and the guy sold me grey plastic pipe and check valves. Also a pitless adapter. The pump was by Star. (6 gallons per minute? Limited by Colorado). I don't remember. Anyway we put the pump down by hand and did everything the guy told us to. It worked for several years.

Then it stopped working. A friend said he knew hot to pull it up. He grabbed the rope and pulled it out of the adapter and dropped it.I am unsure that the rope didn't break, but we used a piece of black pipe to put it in the pitless. He then rented a small excavator and put a hook on a rod and started to pull it up again and dropped it further. Then he told me what happened. I wasn't happy then and still not now. It has been 10 or 12 years now. I have a tank that I fill with water in Laramie so I have some water (it's 350 gallons)

As I live on a very limited income, I've never had the money to pay anyone to pull it up. I can't see it. I thought I might be able to rent a camera to look down and figure out how it looks and what to do. Not sure how easy it would be to rent something like that around here.
Anyway, I really don't have any idea as what to do. I did ask a well guy here 4 or 5 years ago what he would charge. He said he didn't know.
He told me to put a few saw-horses up so he could lay the pipe on when he pulled it up. I haven't heard from him since that conversation. Where I live is closer to Laramie,Wy. I have talked to someone here in well drilling but he said he can't work across the state line.
At this point I need to get it pulled and fixed and it will be up to me.
Does anyone know of a pdf or something that can give me a step by step way to do it, tools I could get, and anything else I would need? I realize this thing will weigh close to 2000 lbs with that much water in it. I think that we put it down 400 plus feet. So with water in the pipe because of the check valves, wire, rope, and pump.

 

[Valveman]

Grey plastic pipe or anything with a solvent or glue connection should not be used down a well. It will be hard to fish out, which is why you are not getting much back from the professionals. 1 1/4" plastic pipe full of water only weighs 1.11# per foot. You didn't say how much grey pipe you bought, but even 400; will only weigh 500-700 pounds or so. Still going to be heavy but not a literal ton. Rope and/or wire broken off and having fallen down the well can act as a wedge between the pump and casing, preventing the pump from being pulled any further. It is best to fish out the rope and wire before pulling on the pipe. But preferably the pipe, wire and rope all come out at the same time. Even just letting some slack in the rope or wire when pulling the pump can cause the pump to get stuck, which maybe what happened to the first attempt to pull the pump. If someone doesn't know to pull hard on the wire and rope before pulling up on the pipe, the pump can get stuck. When the pump gets stuck the pipe breaks, and lets the pump fall out of the wedge condition.

Sorry for your problem. But I would start with a camera. See what is sticking up. If you can get a grab on the wire and rope, pull it first or at least until it is tight before pulling up on the pipe. Pump guys will have a tall hoist truck with a couple of cables to pull with. One to pull on the wire and rope, while the other is pulling on the pipe.

If you can get this out, just never use glue pipe, safety rope or cable down the well again.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Wychryder]

Thanks for the heads-up on gluing anything.
We didn't glue the pipe, the guy at the plumbing shop sold me screw on check valves and some screw on connectors. We just took a 20 foot section of this pipe and put the 3 or 4 inch metal connector on it. I think some were brass and the others were stainless. We then lowered this down until we could screw on another connector and another section of pipe on it and continued the process, taping wire onto it and the rope every few feet to hold them close to the pipe. I'm not sure how many feet it was between taping the rope and wire. I think every 6 feet but I'm unsure. (I think we put 20-24), 20 foot sections on with the pump on the bottom. So 400-480 feet? I think my wife calculated the weight of water, pipe, wire, fittings, rope as a whole and told me 1700 pounds. This was 10 years ago so I may be wrong. I did get the file from Colorado today telling me more about the size, depth, etc.
Any suggestions on a camera? The local equipment rental place employee looked at me closely when I asked. He either doesn't understand or doesn't get that type of question often.

 

[Wychryder]

I just saved up enough money to buy a 100' down-hole camera. I hope to have it charged up and look to see what I can and maybe figure out what to do. I talked to a guy in Laramie, Wyoming who said he charges $150 an hour to fish it out. I have to go to the library to charge the device as someone decided they liked my solar panels better than I did and took several out of the array so it doesn't work anymore