Just saw this forum after posting same question on Gary's water softener forum... So I will post it here also!

I have a well pump question on my house.

The system in this question is a 60ft, hand dug well shaft, using 3ft concrete culvert sections. We have a small well house. Feeds 2 houses (neighbor and myself). Currently has a 30 year old horizontal Gould 1.5hp 230v 2 pipe jet pump system that I put in in the 70's. In/out pipes are 1 1/2 galv pipe horizontal and run from pump a few feet out over the 3ft diameter well shaft and then adapts to 1 1/2 black poly pipe down to foot valve. We suspend the pipes currently with a rope tied off at a beam near roof of wellhouse. Our two house connection currently supports two over 50 couples (us included), but in the past supported a third house (no longer on system) and more kids that are now grown and out of the house. That is why we had the 1.5 hp pump.

Problems:

1. We are starting to get a small drip around the pump housing shaft when running. As this pump is getting so old, I figure we should just replace it instead of trying to fix seal.

2. All we have over the top of the shaft is a rotting wood cover. Probably time to fix that up also.

Question is:

1. Should we just replace the jet pump with a new one? Replacement Gould's looking to be around $500-600 at 1.5 hp range.

or

Replace existing configuration with submersible... maybe a 3/4 to 1 hp sized for around 16 gpm at 50ft??? I really do not like the existing 2 pipe and support system... And are submersibles more energy efficient than jet systems?

2. If we switch to submersible, any suggestions for torque arrest?

3. Any good ideas for a better cover of the 3ft well shaft? Current situation is a very poor environmental "seal" - not really one at all!


As your site looks like it has a lot of pumps, also recommend what I should get?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!!

Ray Peterson
425-239-3777 (cell)

pasayten