Submersible well pump went out, thoughts?

[mikester]

The water pressure dropped sometime last week so I finally looked into it today and the pressure tank is fine, pressure switch is fine but it would only get to 30psi and the pump was running constant so I went further up the line and found a piece of teflon in the flow restrictor, thought it was from the check valve, nope... I do have a sand problem (or did for a few years after I moved in) so the pump apparently can't make pressure anymore and lost a part of it... I bought the house in '14 and the well was put in the year before that so it isn't that old, the well is around 100' deep if memory serves. I lowered the pressure switch setpoint so it turns off at 30psi and on at 20 so it's at least not running constantly anymore...

So, I know I gotta get a new pump, current is a 3/4hp 4" 3 wire unit since it has a control box and I checked and it has 3 wires plus ground... Home Depot has a pump for $479, Lowes has one for $469, Amazon has them for $200 on up... Which way would you go?

If it was installed in '13 is it likely iron pipe or plastic? The roof panel on the pump house is easy to get off so I'm not worried about that. I didn't think of pulling the cap off the tube when I had the check valve off...

These are very good questions. I think your best answer is to call the well pump repair guy.

I personally would not cheap out on a mystery amazon $200 chinesium pump. Running water is important to me. Dollar store quality tools don't save you any money because you end up paying for it twice.

 

[Valveman]

Lot of reading to catch up. A lot of pumps mentioned here are no longer available. Red Jacket, Jacuzzi, and others are no longer available. Most of the brand name pumps have been shortened and cheapened up so much that there is not much difference between them and the cheap pumps available. I saw VFD's/three phase pumps mentioned, but these also need at least a small pressure tank. VFD's are also an expensive and short lived way to get constant pressure. Most of the problems listed here like sand, wire chaffing, check valve failures, and pump failures are caused by cycling the pump on and off too much. A Cycle Stop Valve can be the answer to many of these problems, which will make even cheap pumps last much longer.