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Well pump spewing leak --can i plug?

 
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Our water system is frozen up for over almost two months now, hauling water from a flowing friend. So we decided to siphon water from the creek, while talking about how to make a RAM pump. Anyway, we finally get the hose flowing into the well. We needed a 200ft long hose to get higher than the bottom of our shallow well. Got it flowing down by the creek, then plugged with a wine cork and carried it up to the well, climbed down into where we could, reached down as far as possible, uncorked and water flowed like wine.

But this morning turned on the pump and found it spewing out of a rust spot shown in pic. Will post a close up tomorrow but this isn;t at the joining point it looks from the pic. It's out a bit where the sealing seam is. Thanks, if anyone knows if a pressured tank like this can take an after weld or som'n like JD weld or? TY
 
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I don't see the photo.
 
pollinator
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Trying to guess as to exactly what you might be talking about here but a tad confused...

Are you trying to fill your well from a spring?  If so I am curious as to why?  I would also mention that you will almost certainly put bacteria "into" your well that you really don't want there, you might consider treating the well once you get everything straightened out.  Or are you "siphoning off" the well and it resulted in a rust stain?

I assume that you got your well pump "unfrozen" and are now able to pump with it?  Which resulted in a rust stain "somewhere"?  

I have dealt with well issues, I had to pull my well pipe and pump 4 years ago and replace the pump when the old pump "appeared" to have gone out.  In fact my well pump was alright the well had just silted up and there was clay around the intake of the pump.  Now I have that pump sitting in the shop all cleaned out tested and ready to put back in if the new pump goes out.  I bought a cheap 110 volt pump from Amazon for $150 and that is currently what is in there pumping our water.  I also picked up a used 1 horse pump since that is working as well, so I now have two backups.

If a well hasn't pumped water in a while and you have metal pipes you will almost certainly get a bit of rust for a while, just run it and it will clear up.  Sometimes clay can come out kind of rust red as well, if that is the case you may be having the same issue I had with clay silting up in the bottom of the well. To fix that I left off the top 8 foot pipe when I reassembled and put the new pump back down which raised me up 8 feet from where the pump sat before.  This got me up out of the silt and I have had no issues with that since.

If you explain in a bit more detail what your issues are it would be helpful to know "what" to tell you for advice.

 
Nick Dimitri
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Hi, the creek is actually spring fed, but yes i still agree about the bacteria. There's just a rush to get water flowing here. Meanwhile i'm doing all the water hauling, oh well. We set up a siphon from up the creek downstream to the well that is up from creek as it passes by. Our water table has gone down is the problem. But the point here is to fix the seal on the well pump, or what should/could be done. Will try to post the pics again:
DSC_0814.JPG
[Thumbnail for DSC_0814.JPG]
 
John F Dean
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It looks like it is beyond epoxy.  You might as well see what a weld will cost, and see if it is worth the price of an experiment.  I am thinking that when you remove the part you may see greater problems.  I have to wonder what caused that hole in the first place. That leaves you with replacing the part or replacing the pump.  
 
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if pressure tank is rusted through I would assume the bladder inside it is not in such good shape too.  might be time to replace it and repair your stuff properly. a properly functioning pressure tank makes a huge difference in how well your well provides you with consistent flow of water and longevity of the pump. its just one of those things that needs to be replaced every 5 years or so depending on what's in your water and other variables. the ones made of spun fiberglass had replaceable bladders, don't know if they still make em like that or not., now a day most everything is throw away and not repairable.
I've replaced at least a dozen of those pressure tanks and every time after getting system set back to how it should be its very nice to have consistent water pressure.

here's info on how pressure tank work

https://www.flexconind.com/homeowner/how-a-tank-works.html
 
John F Dean
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Excuse me. I meant tank not pump
 
Roy Edward Long
pollinator
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If that tank is rusted "through" in one spot then there are other spots that are nearly rusted though.  Trying weld on that would likely open up more rust fractures, even if it does not, it is only a matter of time before more pop up.  

Best bet is to go ahead and replace the pressure tank.  

If you were hell bent to try and weld it or something, one trick I have used in the past in such places is to run in some weldable metal screws (not zinc plated, stainless steel or hardened ) into the crack, that allows you to have a little more material to work with and lets you get a little ways away from the rusted crack for welding.  On that tank 3 screws with a good sized thick head set side to side into the crack would allow one toweld all three screw heads together and then weld to the tank 1/8 th or so away from the crack.

In the case of a single pin hole I would say drill it out to a 1/4 in hole and tap and thread it and put a bolt with a rubber grommet in, but with that crack there is no way.
 
Nick Dimitri
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Thanks all.  Now I know there's a baby & a bathwater, that the tank is separate from the pump.  Will attempt switching out. Thanks for the gain.  Step by step, eh. OgreNick
 
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