Frustrating Tenants.
So I get a call from one of the distant communities (45 minutes each way) that their well pump keeps tripping the breaker. They turn it back on and they have water again.
The other piece to this puzzle is that he also lost prime a couple of times.
So in my head i'm like ok if it's losing prime we've got a problem with the foot valve. If it's tripping the breaker, either the breaker is bad or the pump (OLD AF) has a motor that's drawing more amps than it should.
I've looked in their pump house before and it's the tiniest little jet pump i've ever seen it's covered with rust and it has a deep well conversion on the front of it that looks like it will fall off if I touch it.
After a short discussion the landlord told me to just put a new pump in because he didn't have much faith in that one, and to check out the foot valve while I was there. He wasn't concerned with the well at all because there has always been plenty of water there.
Sure enough the foot valve had no screen on it and it had sucked some crud up inside of it, so it was likely losing it's prime periodically when the crap in the valve moved around. The foot was in about 4 feet of water when I checked it.
Next day I get a call saying "We ran out of water last night, give me a call back."
I have no idea what he means by that because his terminology of everything is $#^^ed beyond all recognition.
So I call him and ask if the breaker tripped again. He said no the breaker was never tripping. What? That's what you said the first time, which is part of the discussion with the landlord and why we decided to just replace the pump.
Anyway I called him today (2 days later) and everything was fine the previous night.
So all of that and now here we are in the middle of November and haven't seen a drop of rain. Turns out the well is just recovering much slower than normal and when they use tons of water they outdraw it.
Pump jobs at rentals are a friggin nightmare.
/rant
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The other piece to this puzzle is that he also lost prime a couple of times.
So in my head i'm like ok if it's losing prime we've got a problem with the foot valve. If it's tripping the breaker, either the breaker is bad or the pump (OLD AF) has a motor that's drawing more amps than it should.
I've looked in their pump house before and it's the tiniest little jet pump i've ever seen it's covered with rust and it has a deep well conversion on the front of it that looks like it will fall off if I touch it.
After a short discussion the landlord told me to just put a new pump in because he didn't have much faith in that one, and to check out the foot valve while I was there. He wasn't concerned with the well at all because there has always been plenty of water there.
Sure enough the foot valve had no screen on it and it had sucked some crud up inside of it, so it was likely losing it's prime periodically when the crap in the valve moved around. The foot was in about 4 feet of water when I checked it.
Next day I get a call saying "We ran out of water last night, give me a call back."
I have no idea what he means by that because his terminology of everything is $#^^ed beyond all recognition.
So I call him and ask if the breaker tripped again. He said no the breaker was never tripping. What? That's what you said the first time, which is part of the discussion with the landlord and why we decided to just replace the pump.
Anyway I called him today (2 days later) and everything was fine the previous night.
So all of that and now here we are in the middle of November and haven't seen a drop of rain. Turns out the well is just recovering much slower than normal and when they use tons of water they outdraw it.
Pump jobs at rentals are a friggin nightmare.
/rant
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