boring story about our well
Jan. 13th, 2006 01:24 pmLast night, I was down in the basement looking for something. I heard the pump running, and didn't think anything of it, until I realized it wasn't shutting off, and there were none of the usual sounds coming from the pressure tank. The pressure guage was about 42 pounds. Not good. I turned the pump off. When I turned it back on, it wouldn't run. Even worse.
I called the number on the sticker on the box. A guy came out around 9:30 to check things out. He replaced the electrical box for the pump. The strange thing is that when he started it back up, the pump made no noise. There used to always be a hum. I assumed it was the pump motor transmitting vibrations through the pipes to the basement. But when I said it used to make noise, the plumber said it must have been the capacitor in the box. He also said that the pump had been running before he replaced the box. So when I first flipped the breaker back on and didn't hear anything, it really was running. So I don't know what was up. I'm glad it was making the noise, though, because I wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong. The water pressure seemed a little low this week, but not bad enough that I felt the need to check anything. The big problem was that the pump had probably been running constantly for days. Not good for our electric bill.
Anyway, the guy decided we probably had a leak in a pipe out in the well - read "expensive". So he came back today to pull it all out. He discovered that the pump was original to the house. It was about 60 feet down (20 feet below the water table), and there was a leaky pipe. He replaced the pump with an upgrade (3/4 hp), and lowered it another 20 feet (the hole is 190 feet deep). He said he used all non-corrosive materials (pvc and brass).
He also chlorinated the well. This means that we can't drink the water until we flush the system, and we should do that tomorrow afternoon.
He said it would run us about $1800, but I don't think that included the $130 for his visit last night. And it was just a couple of weeks ago that we had the furnace fixed. And I think the water softener needs some help. *sigh*
I called the number on the sticker on the box. A guy came out around 9:30 to check things out. He replaced the electrical box for the pump. The strange thing is that when he started it back up, the pump made no noise. There used to always be a hum. I assumed it was the pump motor transmitting vibrations through the pipes to the basement. But when I said it used to make noise, the plumber said it must have been the capacitor in the box. He also said that the pump had been running before he replaced the box. So when I first flipped the breaker back on and didn't hear anything, it really was running. So I don't know what was up. I'm glad it was making the noise, though, because I wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong. The water pressure seemed a little low this week, but not bad enough that I felt the need to check anything. The big problem was that the pump had probably been running constantly for days. Not good for our electric bill.
Anyway, the guy decided we probably had a leak in a pipe out in the well - read "expensive". So he came back today to pull it all out. He discovered that the pump was original to the house. It was about 60 feet down (20 feet below the water table), and there was a leaky pipe. He replaced the pump with an upgrade (3/4 hp), and lowered it another 20 feet (the hole is 190 feet deep). He said he used all non-corrosive materials (pvc and brass).
He also chlorinated the well. This means that we can't drink the water until we flush the system, and we should do that tomorrow afternoon.
He said it would run us about $1800, but I don't think that included the $130 for his visit last night. And it was just a couple of weeks ago that we had the furnace fixed. And I think the water softener needs some help. *sigh*