Replacing My Well Pump and Pressure Tank

While hanging around the house practicing social distancing the time had come to replace my well pump and pressure tank. Pump companies provide an essential service and were operating. So, last Friday, Monticello Pump Service came out to do the job (while staying 6 feet from me). Like 1.7 million other Virginians I rely on a well for my water supply and the responsibility for routine testing, care and maintenance of that system is mine. I had  planned to replace the mechanical components of the well when it reached 17 years old because the design parameters for an immersion pump is about 25,000 hours that gives you about 14-17 years of residential operation depending on how your household operates.

However, last summer I decided that this year I would replace my well mechanical equipment. In the last couple of years I had experienced minor little problems... I sheared a bolt on my well cap in 2018 when I opened the well to chlorine treat it. I chlorinate my well on even number years to prevent  bio-fouling of the well by the iron bacteria. Several months after that I had to take apart the pressure switch and clean the contacts.

Then last summer the water supply burped, and I had a short lived episode of brown tinged water. When checked the pump was pulling a steady 7.5 amps without so much as a flutter. The pressure gauge was not working, but the pressure switch was working fine and the pressure tank was still also working fine delivering water throughout the house. The pressure gauge does not control the pressure switch it is just an indicator (like the gas gauge in your car). The water cleared quickly, the well tested negative for coliform bacteria and the system seemed to be fine- but still I decided that was my warning and I should plan to replace the well’s mechanical equipment in the spring of 2020 when I would be chlorine treating the well anyway and be without water for a day or more anyway.

Friday was the day. Jason of Monticello Pump Service in Manassas came out to replace the well pump, the wiring, the pressure tank, pressure switch and gauge and the well cap. I went with a Schaffer 3200 series ¾ horsepower 15 gallon a minute pump (pictured below). Schaffer is the renamed pump from Franklin. Jason started with the pressure tank. It took about an hour and a half to replace the pressure tank and control center and test its performance. Then it was onto the well. My well is not that deep and Jason and his associate were able to pull it by hand over a wheel hooked to the well casing.

Shaffer 3200 series 3/4 hp 15 gpm pump.

New pressure tank and controller

connecting the torque arrestor

dropping the pump into the well

testing the pump

The pump came up and was showing its age. They replaced the pump, the wires (including a ground) the brass insert adapter, the check valve, added wire guards and a torque arrestor. Instead of wire guards the wire had just been taped to the 200 series poly pipe. In two and a half hours the new pump was in the well with a couple of cups of high-test calcium hypochlorite. The wiring converted to a two wire from a three. The pump tested, and new well cap in place. After that all I had to do was wait for 24 hours for the well to settle and the chlorine to disinfect the well.

the old pump

After about 21 hours Saturday afternoon the hose was turned on and left to run for the next 12 hours. I cannot run my well dry-it recharges faster than I can pump. So, I need to keep diluting the chlorine solution by pumping the well to rid my well of it. After about 12 hours the chlorine tested below 2 ppm on the pool test strips and looked clear. It was time open the valve to the hot water heater and let begin using the water again. It would still be a couple of days before all trace of the chlorine was flushed from the system, but we were good with filtered water for coffee until then.