Anyone ever pull a deep well pump?

I've already had to replace the water heater and expansion because they developed leaks. And the house isn't even 10 years old.

These guys had a large drum on the back of the truck with a small electric motor to pull/coil the pipe. Two guys had it pulled and replaced in two hours.

 

Expansion tanks are one thing...no biggie there; I'm lucky to get 5 years out of one. Water heater? That should have gone farther than that.

An electric motor/pull would have been great, but his was out for repair so it just me, him and his truck which he could pull with only so far into my yard. The rest was me and him pulling 400 feet . Not complaining, at least he didnt knock off at 7Pm when the major thunderstorm came through and leave me without water. He just went into his truck and started prepping the fittings for the basement holding tank till it passed.

Also because I did the pump and tank at once, he gavce me a 5 year warranty including labor. Most give 3-4 years and no labor.

 

Yeah, for a 1hp 400' well, the pump and install was 2K. Although he uses a quality pump with a better warranty...but I'm sure that is what they all say. I did call around and no one was cheaper than the other. He is local in my own town so at least the money stayed here plus he was there the same afternoon of the failure=finished his scheduled job and cane over to me around 2:30

 

Mike if the pump is attached to black poly it's fairly straight forward - if attached to pvc sections you need a support structure.
If the foot valve in the pump is leaking by - it's a good thing when replacing as you'll have less water to pull up with the pump.
Guy that did mine was like Lowes on wheels had the anti rotation fitting, cable, rope(mine originally didn't have a rope) cable splices - no extra trips to the store.
Don't ask me how to get the below grade fitting loose - just watch some youtube videos - that's why i called a pro little did I know mine is at grade and easy to pull.
The well guy did say he ran into one that was slap full of roots one time and no way was anyone pulling it without a winch

Funny though I took a shower one afternoon after working a good sweat in the yard, ran to the store came home and the GF asked if I had a good shower - we have no water!!!
I panicked but called a pro helped out and didn't get bent over the table, learned for future

 

I already had it done -- my neighbor knew the guy from church. He was the only one that I could get to even call me back. Three other companies didn't bother returning my calls.

I could have done it myself and if everything had gone smoothly I would have saved 4-500. The labor to pull and replace the pump was $175 -- well worth it. But the pump was $1100 (goulds gs707 7422c) He charged me list price. So the total job was 1275.

My local plumbing supply houses will not discount off list for cash customers but I could have bought the same pump online for 700ish plus another 75? to have it overnighted, add in another 50 for waterproof splices and a pipe to reach the pitless adapter and gas to run and get supplies I would have been at $850 or so. So it was worth it to me to have it done and not worry about what could go wrong.

What could have saved me some money ($350ish) was to have a spare pump sitting on the shelf. Some installers would probably bitch about that, but what are they going to say when you pull out a spare pump after they quote you $175 plus parts to pull and replace? I'm going to make sure I have a spare sewer pump on hand for just in case -- that's probably the only other repair job I wouldn't take on around the house.

Plenty of horror stories of things that can go wrong. The guy who did the work told me of the job they just did -- Way back when it was common to tie a rope to the pump to help in pulling it up. But it's common for the rope to rot and be useless. On this one it rotted and wrapped itself around the pipe. The more they pulled the pipe the tighter the rope wrapped itself up and the pump wedged itself tight halfway up. They couldn't get the pump up with their equipment so they had a guy with a hydraulic winch come who managed to break the pipe. Next step was to try to get a hook on it without luck. Finally they had to get a well driller to come and run a drill down and push the pump to the bottom of the well. Worst part was the pump was working fine but was going on 30 years old and the new homeowner didn't want to have the pump go out in the middle of the winter when access was hard.

 

Yeah I read before where you had someone replace it. The Pitless adapter for those of you up in great north is what made me call a pro - I don't have one here though.
Just keep an old planter over the well head, the thermal ground heat keeps mine from freezing(our frost line is <1") but it disintegrated and I had a Styrofoam cooler from Omaha steaks that made a nice cover in a pinch this last couple days - plan on covering it with PT plywood for long term...yet a another thing on "The List"

 

if interested in having a backup on hand, how does one determine what well pump they will need when current one fails?

 

To properly size a pump you would need to know the static water level, water draw down and piping friction losses. In the real world most installers around here throw a 1/2 hp 5 gpm pump down and call it good. That is what I had in my well and the installer said that is by far the most common pump well drillers use, they probably buy then by the pallet.

In my house I retrofitted a manabloc plumbing distribution system. I plumbed 1" supply lines to the manabloc and then have individual 3/8" pex lines going to each faucet (hot and cold). There is no temp variations at the faucets/shower when someone flushes a toilet or starts the dishwashers. BUT there was a pressure drop... Which was not something the wife liked. So I went with a slightly bigger 7 gpm 3/4hp pump. Now the dishwashers and washing machine can be running and you don't notice any pressure (or temp) changes at any of the faucets.

ETA: You can take the well head cover off and their might be some info regarding the depth and pump written on the backside.