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Saturday, December 3, 2011

The old water pump




This is what happens to a water pump after about 15 years of service. The middle section is the water intake, almost completely blocked by corrosion. No wonder the volume of water was so reduced.

The corroded end is the water outlet. It was made of cast iron. The new pumps use a synthetic composite -probably a good idea. It’s a wonder the thing pumped at all.

A couple of friends came over to help me out. It made all the difference in the world. We drained the well by siphoning it. It’s a shallow well, only about 5 feet deep -basically a catch basin for natural springs. One of my friends climbed into the well. We passed him tools to disconnect the plumbing. Then we hauled out the old pump. I wired up the new pump and passed it down the well to get connected.

Once my buddy climbed out of the well, I washed the sides of the well down with bleach to sterilize everything. Just as we put the cover back on the well, it started snowing. Good timing.
In a day or so, the sediment should be settled down and flushed through the system. The bleach smell will take a bit longer to go away.

I really did not want to do this job, especially at this time of year. However, judging from the condition of the pump, I’m lucky it lasted this long

-Sixbears

6 comments:

  1. Hooray! Congratulations! Good work!

    That does explain a lot, too.

    You know you have some awesome friends, right?

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  2. Indeed I do have awesome friends.

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  3. Sadly, I have city water....

    Then again, I also have an artesian well which puts out about 5 gal. a minute on its own. Never have had it tested, but it does have a slight sulfur smell. Figured , if needed I can make it drinkable.
    Just use it for irrigation currently, have never shut it off, keeps right on producing year in and out.

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  4. Spud: Might want to get that well tested, just in case. It might make a good backup if you really needed it.

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  5. It's good that your friends could come over and help out!

    How did you get one of them to volunteer to go in the well? Sounds like a bit of Tom Sawyer to me, but in a good way!

    Glad you got it done before the snowfall, buddy!

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  6. Hermit: my friends a just good that way. There's no way to sugar coat the job. It's just nasty. In fact, the water was filling up as we tried to work. Went over my friend's boot top. He was very happy to climb out of there.

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