Hello all,

My first post, so I will offer a brief introduction. I just bought a house that was built in 1951. It's an old house, with a partial basement and an old jet well pump. My name is Bob.

Here is a picture of the system (from afar).




Here is a close up of the pump.



Ok, here is the story.

Bought the house without any inspections for a cash price. The house was lived in up until 1.5 years ago. Updated electricity (100 amp modern service) and an old well. The well cap is buried and I don't know where it is. You can see where it goes out of the wall of the stone basement. The pump (an old Wagner, not sure of the HP)runs and is hooked up to 110v. Haven't had success getting the prime plug removed... tried to prime it by taking the water outlet hose off the top and pouring water down it. The water seemed to leak out, but I suppose it could have leaked out the bottom of the hose, since it was off earlier... I don't think it did... it seemed like it was leaking out the pump in the rear somewhere... but I don't know that for sure.

Called about 8 well drillers/repair folk and had 2 call me back. (I know they are busy... but it's frustrating).

Had one guy tell me I should bring the well up to code by bringing the well cap above ground and installing a submersible pump(long term that's a good goal, but it's probably above my cost threshold right now).

The other fellow said he could install a new jet pump for about 400 - 500 (including the pump).

I have about 400 - 500 to spend right now. I will be updating the softener system and adding a reverse osmosis system for drinking purposes (and testing the water too)... but I need water there in order to do the other work that I need to do.

My original plan was to buy one of the 250 - 300 deep well jet pump's at Home Depot or Lowes, cut the connector pipes with a sawzall, pull the old pump out and apply a little heat to the pipes and remove the remaining stubs of cut pipe... then using PVC and joining it up to the old galvanized pipe.

I KNOW that the everyone seems to hate the jet pumps because they are inefficient. I accept that as a given. But if you were in the same situation that I was, what would you suggest? Is it hopeless? Am I doomed to spend the big bucks? What would you do?

Thanks in advance. I look forward to everyone's advice.