Never Fails

[Colonialgirl]

Late Sunday, turn on a faucet and get "gurgle-gurgle" and NO water flow !!
UT-OH that means the water pump system is NOT working; A quick trip out to the well and muck about a few minutes with no results; Quick, quick jump in the car and run up to Home Depot (closer than Lowes) and buy a NEW capacitor and a NEW pump pressure relay ( not sure which MIGHT be bad). Run home again (thank goodness NO policemen about) and then spend about 2 hours down on my knees and laying flat on the ground un-installing the old pressure relay and installing the new one. Install the new capacitor, insert the power connector and PRESTO !!! pump pump pump up to 50 PSI; put tools away, come in house, wipe away sweat and drink a refreshing (non-alcohol) liquid.
Sure glad I remembered what went bad about 10 years ago with that system;
Total repair parts $116.00
Total time about 2+ hours; it's Sunday, so NO bad words were used !!

 

[sfhogman]

I should say!
Good for you, Pamela!

Jeff

 

[Mike J]

Good Job!

 

[Mobuck]

Good job.

 

[mike7mm08]

Bad words would of taken at least a half hour off the job.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I've never been on a well, so I would have been lost as to what the problem could have been. Good for you.

 

[coach]

Last time my pump quit I think it cost me about $2500. Not a pressure switch though, they had to replace my pump about 260’ down.
It’s nice to be able to take care of things that come up. Sunday or not a few choice words would have come out of my mouth.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Total time about 2+ hours;
it's Sunday, so NO bad words were used !!

:shock: . :shock: . :shock: REALLY?! :shock: . :shock: . :shock:

Well, good that it did what you need, and you knew what to fix. 8)

 

[powder smoke]

Last time my pump quit I think it cost me about $2500. Not a pressure switch though, they had to replace my pump about 260’ down.
It’s nice to be able to take care of things that come up. Sunday or not a few choice words would have come out of my mouth.

Wow they raked you over the coals! I've done a few My dads was 275 ft + or - took a few hours! the worse part was after the pump was pulled up we seen the problem. It was the coupler between the line and the pump. They put a galvanized rather than brass saved a whole 2 dollars. That galvanized coupled was 2/3rds rotted thru was a very
good thing we could have lost the pump could broke off and hit bottom we were very lucky 275ft. down! The pitless was in good shape no need to mess with that.
Pulling the line and pump up is not rocket sciences its just work. ps

 

[Kevin]

Good work on the pump, Pam!

And just one trip to Home Depot???? It would have taken me at least three.

 

[contender]

Good job Pam.
No cussing???? Really,, not a word??? Come on!
Everything did like it was supposed to & no problems? Are we really supposed to believe that?

All such jobs always require at least 3-4 trips to the store, lots of cussing, modification of how some idiot put things together wrong originally. Cheap original parts, (such as galvanized vs. brass,) and other maladies that make things always harder than they should be.

Oh, I get it,, you supervised the original installation & product parts the first time it was installed. And the original well guys knew you'd kick their butts if they did it wrong!

 

[Robb Barnes]

Our water was doing that the other day an I found the 1/4" nipple up to the pressure switch was plugged with sediment and iron deposits. Swapped it out and a new switch while at it and bingo, good for another 25 years!

 

[Montelores]

Nice job, Pam. Very satisfying outcome - one and done!

Probably all made so much easier by your familiarity with your system.

And good memory...

Monty

 

[reuben_j_cogburn]

I unfortunately get to work on wells and pumps way to often.. These were pretty shallow compared to yours! Loosing that pump would have been game over for me!!. And yes... I still prefer getting my water from the creek.. it may rise.. it may fall.. it may freeze over.... but by golly it had always delivered...

 

[Colonel Daddy]

We were on a well pump when I was a kid. The worst that usually happened was the pump would lose its prime. We kept an old dog bowl hubcap under the overflow of the pump that the dogs drank from and when the pump lost it's prime would use the same water to reprime the pump.....usually my job! Did have to occasionally go deeper with the well, finally to about 175 ft. Daddy shouted shouted praises to the Lord when "city water" lines were laid down the road on which we lived. Water wasn't as good or as cold, but no more pump problems!

 

[Colonialgirl]

Well, I had learned a couple of times before; The first time it quit some years ago, my spouse Ashley and I were out poking around on it when a pick up pulled into the yard; a Neighbor from down the road that DID well repairs saw us out by the well and stopped to check on what was wrong. He diagnosed it as a bad capacitor had a used spare that was good and installed it FREE ( It was a GREAT neighborhood in those days) I learned about the pressure switch another time, found a used one nearby (roll eyes roll eyes, look innocent) that I installed that fixed it. This time I didn't have time to diagnose was afraid Home Depot would close, so bought both items, then decided to go "NEW" all the way and installed the switch (which was the cause of MOST of the frustration and time on the ground) and capacitor both and hopefully it's good for another ten years.

 

[wwb]

Last time my pump quit I think it cost me about $2500. .....

Yup - you got taken to the cleaners. Just had a new pump installed about a month ago..... 225 foot well, $1,550 and done. Included a new pressure switch, as the contacts on the old one were fairly pitted.

 

[Tensaw]

We were on a well pump when I was a kid. The worst that usually happened was the pump would lose its prime. We kept an old dog bowl hubcap under the overflow of the pump that the dogs drank from and when the pump lost it's prime would use the same water to reprime the pump.....usually my job! Did have to occasionally go deeper with the well, finally to about 175 ft. Daddy shouted shouted praises to the Lord when "city water" lines were laid down the road on which we lived. Water wasn't as good or as cold, but no more pump problems!

I had a little laugh and did reminisce. When as a kid I remember the times our well pump lost it's prime. I had to assist dad to get it primed again. And yes he was so trilled to see the city water lines going in although he wasn't trilled about paying the plumber to tie in. Our well was very sallow. We lived near Mobile bay and a river so our well was only 22 feet. After years of use Dad and some neighbors had to pull the pipe up to change the "points" and put it back down to 24 feet. We also had a septic tank and there are some stories about it. And not good ones.

 

[Johnnu2]

GOOD JOB GIRL......
The only way not to get hosed on these kind of repairs is DIY.... It seems that the standard $100 repair always turns out to 'require' a new pump (and the price of those will always vary by about depending on how big your house is and what's in the driveway)....
IMHO of course,
J.

 

[Mus408]

Not a well...but I turn on the oven Sunday morning to bake the bacon and it looked like Star Wars in there with sparks and a flame out left side of
the bottom heating element. Checked online for replacement and it was 68 bucks including shipping.
I called local appliance shop Monday morning and got one for 61 bucks and fixed that.
Then Monday afternoon had my bagger mower out to suck up more magnolia leaves...they are falling this time of year... and when it cranked
the thing was running wide open. No throttles on these things now days so removed the cover and jiggled the governor rod.
Must have been some trash around it.

Always something to maintain!

 

[gramps]

I have had well water since 1978. I won’t have anything else! This last well was dug where our “water witch” said to drill, my ex wife( geology/hydrology classes) supervised the digging with an impact drill. Ours is 100 ft. I laid the pipe to the house so I put it 3 foot underground! Yup it does get below zero here occasionally. My problems have been with the pressure tanks. The bags inside burst, but I use them any way till they leak. I have put in 3 tanks now! Good Job CG, what a gal!
gramps