I replaced the well pump at families house about 5 months ago. Its 80 feet deep and i easily hand pulled it out and swapped the pump. I had done mine as well about ten years ago. Well we had record drought the last bunch of months and a lot of wells have been drying out and causing issues. Well I get a call of no water so I head over thinking pump probably burned up and easy fix and planned on putting it deeper if possible as I hoped there may be room and of coarse rain is starting like it does this time of year and should refill the wells eventually. Well it won't budge. Its locked in there. Maybe a collapsed pipe or maybe it melted to side of 4" pvc sleeve . I'm going to get 90 feet of 1' metal pipe and try and bang it down to try and loosen but if not a new well is around 15k and not on the list. Even worse is the recovery wire it came with was not attached to pump anymore for some reason and came right out so its just the pvc pipe and electrical wires connected. There is a large tree i can hook a come a long to above it but I feel like the pvc will just break but it will be a last ditch effort. Anyone ever experience this?
Stuck well pump
Edited Date/Time
5/8/2025 10:32am
Vital member Bobby Barrucuda might be able to help you.
$15,000 for a new well sounds cheap.20 years ago my neighbor had one dug that was around 100 feet and i think he paid $20,000. On a hunting message board i belong to here in Wa a member there paid over $56,000 for a 700 foot well in 2021.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Best of Luck and I hope it goes well (pun not intended)
I LOL’d…
No experience with well pumps, could it have gotten dry in there and maybe there’s dirt around it ? Is there another water source so you could pour water down the top and possibly wash anything around it that might be causing it to hang up ?
This week I had a guy drop a jackhammer bit down a vertical pipe and it went down about 10 feet, They got it by taking a string with three or four nuts tied onto it a few inches apart, dropped it in there until they had slack and started pulling up and down and tugging, and eventually hooked on it and they were able to drag the thing up. That’s all I got good luck.
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No pull cable? That sounds like a big problem. But if that pipe somehow collapsed around it, I don't think it would matter anyway.
If the pump went to the bottom and it's not rock, it may have turned sideways a bit too. Again, not good.
It blows me away that they want 15K to go 70'. We went 750' for 20K, but that was over 10 years ago.
Maybe some hooks like on a bungee cord tied onto a rope ? I don’t know man but good luck
I paypal' ed him $10. Twice when he answered my ? With a solution that saved me thousands each time .
I have used a sewer camera to look down my well before (it was new) so it had never been in a septic system. I purchased it on amazon for about 250.00 dollars and it worked pretty well. It might help you determine what steps to take in trying to get it out.
WELL I called a few more companies and they all said it probably created an hour glass melt on the pipe as some mentioned and quotes averaged about 650 to hook it to a crane and pull it but all also said probably won't work as its been a common issue with the drought here. The fact that you have to pull it by the pvc that will break at the same force I can just try a come along hooked to the tree above it and get the same results i would guess. I mentioned trying to pound it back down to try loosening but they said no don't. One company said they could expand the pipe and remove it or break it off and let it fall back in but it would need a rare 3" pump to possibly fit through the melt and chances are the pipe could be distorted anyway but i think I might do that and put it above melt for now if necessary because it was fine for decades before this drought and its about to start raining every day as it does in summer. Looking at a new well drilled if not.
Faaawk… Are the new ones different ? Like in less prone to doing that in the future ? Larger diameter or stronger pipe ? Better retrieval line or system ? Will a new one be an improvement ? Or the same thing just new ? Sorry dude that sucks
Wisconsin/ Illinois 6" dia and Metal casing is the code...
Florida is the land of PVC....
When they get stuck it can be a huge PIA. Good luck with that.
I have two wells and recently replaced everything down hole to new stuff.
Ah yes...good ol' water issues. You never realize how important water is until you don't have it. Last summer I was without water for a month. We had to excavate and replace 500' of water line to the well. Quite a run...we had no schematics of where anything was as it had grown in the last 60 years. Twas a stressfull time. Hope you are able to resolve you're issue.
Did you just have to dog it out by “sight”?
Do you suppose the water line that runs from my well house to my triple wide goes right under that big ass sycamore? If you look a little to the left under that custom garden table/fish cleaning station you will see a blue handle that is a well water faucet. I didn't install the line nor plant these trees. It was this way when I bought the place 10 years ago.
Things you ponder while laying in bed at 2am.
Yes sir
Why is your pump getting that hot? It should detect low water and shut itself off automatically before heating up. IF it was on a pump saver. I highly recommend these. After fixing put th3 dang thing on a pump saver.
I think it would be odd to branch off your mainline that short for a yard hydrant. I would assume that the hydrant tees directly vertical off the main to your house. BUT plumbing is all about never being surprised how someone did something.
Pit Row
I ended up having to have a well company try to get the pump out with their crane but took 2 weeks for them to come after they rescheduled last minute. It wouldn't budge so they broke off piping at pump and tried to pound it down by dropping a large heavy pipe down on it a bunch of times but still wouldn't move. So a new well is scheduled. We hooked up a water tank and an electric pump to have water until then. Another giant bill out of no where. Life is brutal lately.
Will this new well use pvc or metal casing? Assume metal casing.
I think they only use Pvc in Florida unfortunately. Not sure why.
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