Dried up, moving on up, the bottom of the well

So Monday night a little after 9pm Cindy tells me the water in the sink just stopped.  She then checked the bathrooms and confirmed the lack of water pressure was house-wide.  My initial thought was for some reason the breakers for the well or water equipment had popped.  A quick check revealed no breakers were tripped but we had nothing but drips out of the faucet.

I headed outside to the water equipment and took a look,  Nothing looked abnormal other than the low pressure reading on the gauge.  The pressure switch which controls the activity pump was closed and in the “on” position yet no water was being pushed.  I walked out to the well head and could feel vibration in the pipe meaning something was going on but obviously it was screwed up.  I turned off all the breakers for the well to prevent the pump from running dry which would destroy it, if it wasn’t already destroyed.

I returned inside and told Cindy we were indeed going to be waterless for the evening.  I hopped in the car and grabbed two large two gallon containers of water to get us by until Tuesday.  Unfortunately the water died before Cindy and I took our showers meaning we both cleansed in a less than satisfying manner using a small container of warm water and a couple wash clothes.  I certainly did not feel up to normal clean standards afterward.

So I made arrangements to work from home Tuesday so I could handle the well repair as it was obviously a high priority.  I turned the  breakers back on hoping that if there was some sort of thermal switch that killed the pump that overnight it would have corrected itself.  That hope was ill advised, the water system was still dead.  Monday night I left a message for the company that drilled the well when the house was built but I got a hold of the company that replaced my water equipment a few years ago first thing in the morning.  They said they could get out to check out the problem later the same, day, sweet.

Of course I did some searching around the net for information regarding well pumps, mainly how to replace one and what it costs to have one replaced by someone else.  When I saw the potential cost of 1-2K for a replacement I shuddered a bit but when I saw a video of what was involved it seemed like one of those tasks that would be best handled by a professional.  When it comes to items that perform crucial functions in the household I would rather let someone that does it for a living do the work.

So the guy from the well company pulled up late morning and I explain the chain of events.  He confirmed that it seems like the pump is running but not pushing water.  I left him alone to continue the diagnosis while I did some more virtual work in the office.  When I checked back on him I saw a 40 or 50 foot pvc pipe laid out in the yard and him on the phone.  When I came out I could hear he sounded flustered.  I also noticed that there was no well pump to be seen, which would normally be attached to the end of the pipe. Hmmm…

The guy hangs up and says there is a problem.  In order to pull out the well pipe he first had to disconnect the power connections in the junction box at the well head.  Those wires lead down to the pump at the end.  Well after he disconnected the wire nut the wire disappeared as it got pulled down the pipe.  The wires were pulled down by the weight of the well pump which had managed to unscrew itself from the pipe fitting.  The end result was the pump and the wire were now sitting somewhere at the bottom of the roughly 125 foot well.  So evidently the pump was still functional, it had just separated from the pipe.

The guy was honest in his role in the pump falling.  He said he wasn’t fast enough in grabbing the wire but he did not expect it to drop either.  He said common practice is to secure the wires to the well pipe with lots of waterproof tape to prevent this exact scenario.  Evidently the well installers, like so many other contractors involved in the building of the house took a shortcut and did not bother to secure the wires at all, creating this trap door scenario. I was also surprised to hear that a well pump can unscrew itself.  Evidently the rotational torque the pump uses to push water can eventually cause this after hundreds of thousands of off and on cycles.  It was ironic that the well pump that was actually still functional was now sitting at the bottom of the well.

So the well guy gave me two options.  He said sometimes they can get lucky and actually manage to fish the well pump back out although the odds of doing so are not good at all.  The other option was to install a new well pump.  Well my first question was about option two, “Isn’t a problem to leave the old pump in the bottom of the well?”.  The guy said not at all, he said this scenario while not common, does happen.  Plus a well pump is submerged in water it’s entire existence anyway.  Whether this occurs at 50 feet depth or 125 feet does not make a difference.  Logically this made sense but I still didn’t love the idea of the old unit laying down there.

I asked him the 20 Million Dollar Question, what will a new one cost?  He said for everything it’s $800 but because of his boo boo they would do it all for $725.  Considering I had 1-2k preloaded in my head, this number sounded reasonable.  From looking online I knew a pump runs about $400 for the unit.  An extra 300 bucks for the parts/materials and labor to do it sounded reasonable to me so I told him to go do it.  He had to go grab some materials from another guy in order to do the install so he drove off to get them.

While he was gone Cindy and I got to work on coming up for some different living arrangements for the chicks.  The older chicks were just getting too big for the bin in our bathroom.  Despite Cindy cleaning it up several times a day it was pretty disgusting most of the time due to the baby chickens ferocious excrement schedule.  We decided that if we relinquished one of the parking spots in the garage and put the chicken tractor run in there it would be a good solution.

We laid down a plastic garbage bag and then covered it with the same wood chips we use for the adult chickens.  We also put in a tray with sand in it so the chicks could play/dig in it, something they enjoy.  When Cindy brought the chicks out they immediately started running, flapping and jumping around, trying out the newly expanded borders of their home.

My only concern was during 90 degree days the garage could get uncomfortably warm.  Even with the door open I saw temps as high as 92 degrees in there, albeit with nice air circulation.  I had Cindy grab a fan during the day just to make sure things don’t get too stuffy.  I told her if need be, we will keep the garage door closed and the utility room door open so cool air from the house can help cool the garage space as well. Yes, my electric bills since acquiring the chicks have increased dramatically.

So the well guy returned with the materials he needed for the well work.  He said it should take him less than an hour to finish up. He knocked on the door ahead of that time frame saying he was almost done except for testing it.  So we turned everything back on and water started to flow, awesome.  However about 2 minutes into the test there was a POP sound from the well area and we lost pressure, not awesome.  The guy said it seemed like something happened with the feed pipe and he would have to pull it out again.

I helped him in the process this time, hoping my assistance would help speed up things.  As we raised the pipe we saw the problem, the single joint in the feed pipe had separated. Thankfully the copious taping the installer did with the new pump and wires prevented a second pump from dropping down to the bottom of the well.

After we pulled the pipe out the guy cleaned and cemented the joint.  I had never heard of a properly primed and cemented PVC joint pulling apart but I guess this was just my lucky day.  After adhering the two pipes together again and letting it set for 10-15 minutes I helped him lower the monster pipe back into the well.  After redoing the electrical connections the water tests were successful this time, water was flowing inside the house and at a pressure slightly higher than it felt before.  I thanked the guy for the work and for being honest about his screw up before he left.  He appreciated me not going into a-hole mode about it.

After watching what was involved with the entire procedure I am pretty confident I could have swapped out the pump myself.  If the job faces me down the road I would take a swing at it.  It was great having water inside the house once again.  The showers Cindy and I took later felt especially refreshing.

In addition to moving the older chicks we also moved the younger chicks into the bigger bin, our hope being the slightly larger bin would help alleviate some of the problems with the 5 youngsters.  One of them has been having poop butt symptoms and another had a small scab on her chest.  Their constant pooping requires constant cleaning else it can put the chicks at risk for health issues.  Cindy has been doing the best she can to keep on top of it.

Tonight after work I am picking up the dogs for a several night stay over.  During the day today Ali is taking Nicki to the vet for some sort of scabby looking thing on her belly.  We are all hoping it isn’t diagnosed as anything serious.