not pulling water rom pump

It seems that your pump is situated above or just below the water level in the well.

To understand you first must understand the dynamics of the well itself.

as soon as the pump is started water available in the sump around the pump is pump first causing the level in the sump to drop.

With the level dropping the water contained in the aquifer around the well will flow sideways to fill the void. This flow is however not fast.

The water table around the well will stabilize in a curve. The draw down and curve will depend on many factors. One of the factors is the volume pumped. Or to put it differently each well/pump setup will have a different maximum sustainable capacity.

To solve your problem you will have to determine this maximum sustainable capacity.

Method:

Start the pump with a closed valve.

Open the valve slowly noting the number of turns.

If the pump is below water (and not leaking or with a blocked suction) the water will keep coming to the point where the well capacity is exceeded.

The best would then be to close the valve and start over again.

This time around the valve must be opened to below the previous failure point.

and left for a while to see if it is sustainable.

the slight opening and waiting must be repeated until a exact failure point is detected.

Recommend a operating volume somewhere below the maximum.

note: Most pump have a cardboard or plastic disk installed at the suction and delivery side to prevent something coming in when shipped. was this removed?

Makes sense.

I added two elbows before the pump moving the pump up three inches and 2 feet further away. Should I out it back where it was?

I will try the adding a valve. Thanks

I removed the plastic disk on the suction side and could not find one on the delivery side.

The pump seems to be above the ground.

The 2 elbows should be in order as long as it do not form a high spot before the pump. Note: the reducer before the pump must be ex-centric, that is level at the top.

In your case it may be that the NPSH required for the new pump may be bigger than the NPSH available. Check with the supplier. and check your suction height.

What is the delivery head?

Centrifugal pumps sometimes looses their prime in the absence of a delivery head. The valve trick should solve this.

"The 2 elbows should be in order as long as it do not form a high spot before the pump. Note: the reducer before the pump must be ex-centric, that is level at the top."

I might have created a high spot. when compared to the original location i added 18" of pipe an eblow up and an elbow over (should have used a street elbow), then 12" of pipe, then a threaded street elbow and a bushing from 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 bushing to get in the pump. The line coming out of the ground is 1-1/4.

Delivery head. I have a total of 28" of 1" pvc then my filter and the and it goes right to garden hose threads.

What is a centrifugal pump?

"Here is the problem. the pump turns on discharges all of the water that I primed it with and then nothing else. please help"

I suggest that you check first if there is a leak in your suction pipe. Even a very small leak will allow air instead of water to get into the pipe. It is assumed that you already have installed a foot valve at the bottom of your suction line, otherwise the pump will have to be primed every time you use it.

In some cases, the volume of priming water contained in the pump chamber is not enough to raise the water up the suction pipe, and it goes empty before the water can come up into the pump. To avoid this, prime the pump with a pressure hose and remove only until the water can really discharge from your pipe.

Foot valve------ check ---- there is water at the top of the pipe coming out of the ground.

leak in supply line is not very possible. but i am getting rid of the elbows that i added and putting the pump back in the same location as before. thus solving any high spots that I created.

The new pump has a bigger holding spot that the original on. so I don't see that being the problem.

Check the foot valve for correct operation. Also some of your new piping may have a leak in the connections. It is not unheard of to have a small air leak in trheaded connections if you did not use a good brand of pipe dope or enough teflon tape to seal the threads.

It really sounds as if you are leaking air into the suction pipe from some source or into the pump. Check the charging port for a good seal also.

Ric

Things that spring to mind are:-

1. Pump is not submerged

2. Valve at foot to hold the prime is not needed if the pump is submersed because the water will find its level, so as long as the pump is below surface, no priming problems! foot valves can help stop water hammer but also make life difficult if you have to remove the pump due to the weight of water!

3. The connection of the pipe to the pump! has to be good, ie no leaks because when the pressure from the pumped head is applied, a small leak turns into a powerful jet!

4. The amount of water available! are you trying to take too much too quick?

5. can you add a few meters more tube?

You can check the level by using a ball of string with a tin can and stone!

Lower the can until you feel a change in the line pressure, mark the line, measure the line, make sure your pump is below by a few meters but not touching the bottom of the well! the motor has a floating thrust bearing at its base which if in contact with the sludge, will cut the life of the motor pretty quickly!

If it is single phase or 3phase:-

3phase motor, try changing 2 of the phases (the correct wiring will give a good blow of air when the pump is submerged! wrong wired will give a bit of air sometimes!

single phase motor, the capacitor needs to be on the correct two lines, If not you may get some water for a short while but then it may stop! Very inconsistent pumping!( only if it is a 3wire system with capacitor seperate)

All this is only relevant if you have a tube going down the well, then the pump, then the motor at the bottom!

These systems are great most of the time but are prone to water hammer which can be powerful enough to pull the pipe out of the pump union.

If it is a pump just above the surface with a pipe going into the water, it sounds like you are drawing too much! can you put more pipe in the water? For a garden hose system I would opt for the submersible pump with no foot valve,( don't turn it off and then on again, wait a few minutes for the water to drop or you will get hammer and maybe break the motor spindle) no need to prime it and if the well is deep enough, no need to drain either as the water temp will be above freezing! (generally speaking, I think its 4ºC every 10m but don't quote me on that) I have in the last 5 years pulled up a large quantity of wells all with these few problems, I have also climbed down a few rather deep wells to change motors! Here in Spain, the water table has dropped dramatically in the last few years! So good luck and lots of ptfe!

Gone on enough now, time for a beer!

1. the pump is and has always been above ground.

2. a foot valve is needed because the pump is above ground. I don't a water hammer problem. If I could get ther to flow then I ight then have a problem.

3. will check the fittings for leak.

4. there is water there. teh water table has increased over the past few years due to the fact that there are very few working pumps left. lazy homeowners will not spend the time to take care because they have city water.

5.Where do I add tube before the pump or after the pump..

as far as checking the water level. sorry cthat is not going to be done by me. It is not like there is a large hole in the ground and I just can drop a submersable pump in and I get water. It is an underground aquifer.

Pump is a simple single phase 110 v deep well pump it has an 1-1/2 fpt inlet and outlet.

Is your access to the water via a small bored hole about 8inch dia to the aquifer zone, which, I presume is where you stick your pipe, If you can make this pipe go deeper and put a foot valve at the bottom (arrow on valve pointing up) This will help to keep the pump primed! a good foot valve is needed because if this leaks, you will loose the prime, if there is any leak in the system before the pump (well side) then you will loose the prime, the other side is of much less importance! The smaller the down pipe, the less pressure on the valve, easier start up for the motor. first thing to do is recheck all the joints and use plenty of ptfe! if this fails, stick a short length of pipe onto the pump and try it in a bucket of water, You say it´s a new pump! is it single phase 3 wire ie Phase/neutral/capacitor phase If so it is important to have the phase and cap phase right way round.

with the pipe in the well, can you fill it with water via another method? if so, what happens to the water when it is full! If the level goes down, you have your leak! If it stays the same, connect your pump and see what happens!(remember to prime it first) good luck

If you have done all the checks on the piping system and found them in order, here is one more check that all of us may have overlooked. You have to check or find out if the rotation of the pump impellers or vanes are in the correct direction. The normal direction is clockwise if you look at it from the motor side. To do this, you can open or remove the motor fan cover, jag or switch on the motor momentarily and you can observe how it rotates.

Try a submersible well pump.

Thanks to all I am getting water from the aquifer through the pump and ion to the yard. Its about time too. I rebuild the feed line four times and the exit twice.

I think the problem was that i created an air gap in the suppy side because i had created a high spot before the pump.

Now I have to get my yard back into shape

THANKS