DIYbanter - View Single Post - Well pump issue

Tony[_19_]

wrote:
Hello

I want to post an experience that I just had with having no water and
gather some opinions from others on what they think about it.

I live in a 7 year old home. The well was dug 430 feet deep. The
pump was about 400 feet deep. I had some folks come out and look at
my 'no water' issue, and they started to troubleshoot by checking the
control panel (which showed it wasn't the culprit) and then they told
me that the next step was that we need to pull the pump out of the
ground....so they started....

At about 280 feet, they approached me and said that there was a break
in the wire, and that they could either fix the break in the wire AND
replace the pressure tank, and control panel for $2800 total. OR they
could do the whole thing (go down the extra 120 feet, pull the pump
out, replace the pump, wire, control panel and water reservoir all for
$4900 total.

I didn't get a good answer as to how all these things can start with a
short in a wire. But one explanation is that the casing is @ 200
feet, and beyond 200 feet theres a chance that the pipe moves scrapes
the limestone, then causes a crack in the wire, which then the water
when it hits the break in the wire shorts the pump out.

Some of my concerns - how did the bladder break (how can there be any
correlation with the wire breaking in the well hole)? I didn't get
any good answers on that - just said it was a bad pressure tank and
that they don't like that model (even though they were the folks who
sold it to me).

Why did the control panel need to be replaced? They said that the
capacitor was leaking some white stuff, and because of that it will
probably need to be replaced. Yet, asking them to replace the
capacitor (alone) and not the $187 control panel - they said they
don't do that.

Does anyone else see some concerns here? Oh, I did keep all the
'broken' parts. Maybe someone can help me understand just how broke
the parts are. I plan on filling up the pressure tank with water and
seeing if it does hold air in it. I do remember that when I was
checking the pressure gauge (when I did NOT have water) that it read
50 PSI. How would that show 50 PSI if the bladder in the pressure
tank was broken?

Frustrated, and much much poorer.

Damn, you posted too late. Probably could have saved you a couple
thousand dollars. Don't call then again!