How to get a pump out of a well if it is stuck - the most common causes of breakdowns and their elimination

A pump stuck in a well is the cause of a fair headache for many homeowners. Incorrect actions in such a situation can lead not only to equipment damage, but also to complete loss of the well. Having clarified the question of how to get the pump out of the well, you can save both energy, time, and money.

Why can equipment get stuck at all?

The reasons why it is not possible to pull the pump out of the well freely can be different. The most common among them are:

cable slack
siltation of a well;
mechanical damage to the pipe walls;
Foreign objects falling into the pipe.

And since the gap between the walls of the pipe and the equipment can be only a couple of centimeters, it’s simply impossible to see what happened there without special equipment. Therefore, it will be necessary to find out the causes of the problem by the symptoms.

To get a pump out of the well, great effort and dexterity are needed - you have to be patient

The videos will help you assess the difficulties associated with well repair:

Remedies for Jams

Possible situation # 1:

Symptoms The pump is stuck during the lifting process and does not move upward despite considerable effort.
Diagnosis: Most likely, this is the most common and most easily fixed problem: the cable sagged around the pump casing.
What to do? Gently lower the pump down, select the slack in the cable and raise the pump again. At the same time, make sure that the cable, cable and hose do not sag.

Cable sagging can be avoided very simply. It must be attached to the hose with special clamps. Each time you lift the pump, you will have to remove them and then install new ones, but these are trifles, in comparison with the efforts to pull out the jammed pump.

Possible situation # 2:

Symptoms It is impossible to get a pump from the well onto the sand, which for several years has served faithfully without any problems.
Diagnosis: The well is silty, the pump is blocked by sediments, which can reach several meters.
What to do? The structure must be "rocked", carefully acting with a cable. It must be pulled up, then released until it is possible to tear the pump from the sludge. Water will enter the lumen and the sediment will gradually erode. After that, the pump can be carefully removed.

This problem most often occurs if the well has not been cleaned for three to five years. Annual cleaning will minimize the risk of siltation of the well.

Special equipment is sometimes used to pull the pump out of the well.

Possible situation # 3:

Symptoms The pump cannot be taken out of the well onto limestone that has not been serviced for a long time.
Diagnosis: The situation is similar to the previous case. Wells are not subject to ordinary siltation on limestone, therefore it can be concluded that the so-called “reverse siltation” has occurred.Its reason is the excessively deepening of the pump, as a result of which the water around it stagnates. As a result, the calcium and iron salts contained in the water combine with oxygen and turn into sediment, which accumulates on the pipes and the end of the pump.
What to do? Attempts to flush the well to get rid of the plug will not succeed, because the sediment is very dense. As in the previous case, you will have to slowly and carefully swing the pump. It is recommended that you turn on the equipment so that the water erodes the sediment faster. In the future, special attention should be paid not only to regular maintenance of the well, but also to the proper placement of equipment in it.

Possible situation No. 4:

Symptom: The pump is stuck in the middle of the borehole, you may hear a shock.
Diagnosis: The progress of the pump is prevented by damage to the pipe caused by the splitting of the joint, a dent, a flattened edge, etc.
What to do? In this case, carefully rotate the pump. Perhaps the equipment will slip past a dangerous place, but there is no guarantee of a successful solution to the problem.

Possible situation №5:

Symptom: The pump suddenly got stuck in the middle of the well.
Diagnosis: Some object (bolt, pebble, etc.) was dropped into the well, which fell into the gap between the pump and the wall and jammed the equipment.
What to do? The most reasonable in this case is to call a team of specialists, since the probability of coping with a problem on your own is negligible.

"Popular recipes" for a stuck pump

In an attempt to save on the services of the brigade and independently solve the problem of how to get the pump out of the well, the owners of summer cottages are very inventive. Often this is expressed in energetic, but completely wrong actions, such as:

Excessive forces that break the cable or hose. All operations involving the removal of a stuck pump must be carried out very carefully. Even when installing equipment, you should purchase a high-quality steel cable that can withstand increased loads.
Use of “cats” and hooks and other similar devices to pull out the pump with a dangling cable. If they break off and remain in the well, the task of removing the stuck pump will be complicated several times.
Attempts to move the stuck pump with a crowbar tied to a rope or cable. Experts consider scrap falling into the well the most reliable "killer" of the well. Restoring its normal operation in this case is almost impossible.

And yet, several "power" techniques invented by craftsmen can be effective. For example, you can select a cable and lock it in a taut state. Periodically, the cable is tapped, if after that slack appears, the cable is selected, pulled, tapped again, etc. The procedure can take several days.

Additional devices must be securely fixed with a cable so that they do not fall into the well

Another method is to push the pump down with a load. To do this, take a piece of steel pipe of suitable diameter about a meter long. A metal “ear” is welded to the top of the pipe, on which a separate cable is fixed. After this, the cable, cable and pump hose must be run inside this pipe.

The design is lowered down so that under its weight the pump is shifted. When this happens, carefully remove all components from the well at the same time: both the pump and the pipe piece. It is worth considering that the weight of the device can reach fifty kilograms.

If the pump is stuck tightly, and it was not possible to move it by any means, it remains only to contact specialists. Using special equipment, for example, an underwater video camera, they will be able to accurately diagnose the problem and offer the best solution. However, it should be remembered that such services are very expensive.In addition, not every well with a stuck pump can be saved. Proper design and construction of the well, the use of quality materials and regular maintenance will help prevent many problems.