[shustring_3]

We have a drilled well, 148 ft. above ground pump and reserve. Husband cut on water to shower, after reserve empty, water stopped all through the house. Nothing, no air no water. Pump is working trying to bring water up. Thought foot valve, but its not losing prime. 15 minutes later, water starts running again. Then it goes out for a bit, then it starts again. What's going on?

[hkstroud]

The water level at the bottom of the well has dropped. Sounds like you will need to lower the well piping. Hopefully you are not already at the bottom of the well.

[speedball1]

I agree with Harold. (Good catch widget maker)
It sounds like your pump is drawing water down below the foot valve and the water stops flowing. Then the well. Replenishes and the water table rises and you get water again until it pumps down. As Harold stated if you have no you can drop the well pipe. If you do not have the room. To lower the foot valve. Then you must drill the well deeper. Let us know how you make out. Good luck, Tom

[ma0641]

X3

[shustring_3]

That is exactly what the husband thought. When we dropped twine down it with a weight several yrs ago and went down approx. 100 ft we had 63 foot of water that started about 30 or so down. Husband dropped a weight yesterday and picked up water about 30 some feet down also. But we are not sure how far down the pipes go. It was just drilled in 1999. Since then, a school has drilled a well on the other side of our fence to water their soccer field about 3 yrs ago. Not sure if they hit our vain or not.
So this being the case, what is our solution here ? We add to the piping to go deeper right ? I thought that maybe the foot valve clogged.

[speedball1]

We add to the piping to go deeper right ? I thought that maybe the foot valve clogged.

going deeper may just be the solution. There is no doubt in my mind that the school has lowered your water table. If the foot valve were clogged. It would not open and close as you have described. Before I did anything I would call in a pump technician to check the situation out. Good luck, Tom

[shustring_3]

Hubby is a journeyman, pump checked and its working. We had a lot of rain today, going to pull the pipes up tomorrow and see what is going on. Thx All!

I have another question for my own satisfaction, how is my husband going to know how much more pipe is going to need to be added in the well ?

[hkstroud]

My question first. You at first said you had a 148 foot well. You now say that you dropped a weight 100 foot and found water at approximately 30 foot.
Was that just an error? Is the 100 and 30 foot measurements accurate. They make a lot more sense. What type of pump do you have. You said a surface pump. There are two types of surface pumps.
A centrifugal pump that works by pulling water up, and a jet pump. A jet pump works by pushing. It pushes water down the well in the big pipe, past an orifice which adds to the water, and back up the small pipe. You can push water a lot further than you can pull it.
There are two types of jet pumps, a shallow well jet pumps and a deep well jet pump. How many pipes go down the well?
A centrifugal pump might pull water 30 foot but I doubt it. Thirty (30) foot is also border line for a shallow well jet pump.

Watering a soccer field would not drop the water table in you area significantly, certainly not 60 feet.

You could drop the well pipe about 10 foot and see what happens. The problem could be that the water table has dropped slightly or it could be that you have a centrifugal pump and due to wear it has lost some of its suction power.
If you have a shallow well jet pump you are certainly border line.

So drop the well pipe 10 feet and see what happens. If that doesn't work replace with a submersible pump at about 80 or 90 foot. You may not like having to do that, but it's a heck of a lot better than having to sink a new well.
If you end up dropping a submersible pump, use flexible well piping. Makes pulling pump a lot easier, if you have to sometime in the future.