[lilbrd]

Have 50 foot deep submersible pump. Extremely low water pressure - maximum
About 10 lbs. Low flow at taps - less than a pencil width.

Had extremely low temperatures last week. Line from well not buried very deep
But has a heat cable on it that pilot light says is working.

I am suspecting a leak in the line between well and tank. Is there any test I can do to confirm this. I turn pump on and off to get a pail of water when needed, but it is very inconvenient.

[jlisenbe]

When you turn the pump on, does it just keep running nonstop, or does it pump up to 10# and shut off?

If you pump up to 10# and turn the pump off, does it hold that pressure or does the pressure drop back to zero? If it does drop back to zero, then you have a leak somewhere. Could be in the buried line, or could be in the well itself. Can you get to the wellhead where the pipe comes up from the well? If so, then you could run plastic from there to the tank (cheap) just to get by until the ground thaws enough to bury pipe. I'm assuming the temps are now above freezing.

Where are you located?

[lilbrd]

Thanks for the comeback
I am located on the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario near Tobermory

Pump does not shut off at 10#
It does hold the low pressure when pump is shut off manually

Wellhead presently has about 6 feet of snow, but can be shovelled out.
Temperature was about -12 Celsius last night. About 1.30 pm today it was -8C,
Still darn cold out.

[jlisenbe]

Oh brother. Running a temp pipe above ground is not an option. Could advise you to move to Mississippi, but then in the summer you'd want to move back.

This is a little difficult. You are holding pressure when the pump cuts off. That typically means no leaks, but if you have a check valve between the tank and the line going to the pump, then you could have a leak and still hold pressure.

Wish I could give you some answers. It's tough with everything under six feet of snow and temps well under freezing. It does sound like you might have a leak, but it would have to be fairly significant to keep pressure from building past 10#. Sounds like the ground is frozen so burying a new pipe, which would be not too difficult, is not an option. Can't go above ground either.

If it's not too far from wellhead to house, you might try running plastic and insulating the heck out of it. Keep a little water running all the time so the pump will kick on every thirty minutes or so. That might keep the pipe from freezing and buy some time until the weather warms and you can fix it right.

Sorry. Wish I had a better answer. Someone else on this board might know more answers. We might want to call Al Gore and find out what the heck happened to global warming!

[lilbrd]

jlisenbe: Thanks again for your attempts to help. I have to agree with the "what are they doing about the global warming" thing. This winter has been brutal so far. Snowblowing and shoveling the driveway virually every day is getting a bit much. I keep kidding the wife that we should move to Tahiti where the temp this time of year is about 82F. I'm thinking I will have to wait for a thaw to work outside. I will probably buy a new pump, new plastic pipe and fittings and when I can, put a whole new rig in the well. My present pump has been down there since 1981 so it really doesn't owe me anything. When we used to live farther south and used this place as a vacation home, we drained the system each time we went south in the winter. That seemed to work OK. Only one year was it miserable -32 for the whole week between Christmas and New Years, but we made it through OK. I am going to make some well line changes to eliminate this problem in the future, but it all will have to wait till Spring. Thanks again for your help. Bill

[jlisenbe]

jlisenbe: Thanks again for your attempts to help. I have to agree with the "what are they doing about the global warming" thing. This winter has been brutal so far. Snowblowing and shoveling the driveway virually every day is getting a bit much. I keep kidding the wife that we should move to Tahiti where the temp this time of year is about 82F. I'm thinking I will have to wait for a thaw to work outside. I will probably buy a new pump, new plastic pipe and fittings and when I can, put a whole new rig in the well. My present pump has been down there since 1981 so it really doesn't owe me anything. When we used to live farther south and used this place as a vacation home, we drained the system each time we went south in the winter. That seemed to work OK. Only one year was it miserable -32 for the whole week between Christmas and New Years, but we made it through OK. I am going to make some well line changes to eliminate this problem in the future, but it all will have to wait till Spring. Thanks again for your help. Bill

Best wishes. Yeah, a pump 30+ years old could stand replacing. Please let us know how it works out.