Thanks to those who advised me on my little well problem. As of a few hours ago I am running off my brand new pump. I'm running off the old pressure tank till tomorrow or Monday. The old tank is still holding air pressure. I inteneded on installing my new tank Friday but I decided to install two 20 gallon pressure tanks instead of one. I still need a few pipe fittings that Lowes is out of. It looks like this "Total System Rebuild" will total about $900.
The hardest part of this job beside spending the money was carring all the stuff to and from the well. Pulling the pump was one of the easier parts. I pulled it all by myself while the wife drug the end of the pipe through the woods. It felt like it weighed less than 100lbs. The whole process took less than 2 minutes. The line was full of water. It was spilling out the end of the pipe as the wife drug it. There was no safety rope or spacers. The wire was taped to the pipe with electrical tape. The pump was hanging 90' deep on 1" 100psi flexable plastic pipe. There was a check valve screwed into the pump outlet. I guess the installers didn't have much faith in the check valve in the pump. The check valve seemed like not a bad idea and seemed to be in good working order so I reused it. Other than being just down right nasty there was no sign of wear on the wiring or the pipe.
The pump is a different story. I did indeed have another problem in addition to the bad pressure tank. The threaded outlet of the pump is solid plastic and cracked in two places.
Those cracks were leaks that probably kept me from getting more than 29psi to the house. It's a wonder the pump hasn't fell off the pipe. The pump could be good after all. But rendered useless due to the cracks. I'll know more after I dissect it.
Looking down my well casing I could see the water level. I ran a tape measure down the hole til I saw the tip of it touch the water. Believe it or not the water level was only 11 feet below the surface. Maybe that has something to do with why the pump was so easy to pull.
We made one last trip to Lowes to get the water pipe and another
20 gallon pressure tank. I upgraded the pipe to 160psi 1" plastic pipe. A 100' roll of it was only $40 and guaranteed for 25 years. (For what thats worth) About every 8 feet I have a plastic disk ty-wrapped in place that is supposed to keep the pipe from banging the casing. I have brand new pump cable ty-wrapped about every 18". I offset the pump electrical connections, taped up the motor wires, and anything that may come in contact with the wiringsuch as hose clamps. I have a 3/8" nylon braded rope rated at a working weight of 250lbs. It was too large for the 1/4" holes on the pump so I unbraded about a foot of it and tied half of it to the hole on one side of the pump and the other half to the other hole so I got
2 knots holding the pump if it should ever fall. We lowered the new pump into the hole and tied the rope off to galvanized pipe above the cap. I wired it, powerd it, and reset the pressure switch. Works perfectly. We celebrated with pizza and I have some Ice cold Heinekins waiting for me in the fridge.Cheers!
Devonshire