On Sunday I went to the house in Wisconsin to mow the lawn and do some maintenance, and discovered the water wasn't flowing. Today I returned to supervise the diagnostics and repairs.

I learned a bit about wells today.

In the discussions, I realized my ideas of wells are largely from movies and simple discussions in school, not actually dealing with a well. I guess I have an idea of a big hole, often topped with a cover (big enough that kids or animals can fall through), or with a circle of bricks around it and a bucket lowered on a winch or pulley. There are wells like that, sure, but this, and seemingly most home wells, is just a hole drilled into the ground, reinforced with a metal sleeve.

No matter the well, they tend to drop a submersible pump into the water below, which then forces the water back up through metal pipes. In our well, there are 21 pipes from top to bottom, each 21 feet long, so the well is 450 feet deep! I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but since we're on about the well knowledge, I'll finish this thought. The house sits atop the bluffs along the Mississippi river. It's very high. According to the Wisconsin DNR, the nearby Maiden Rock Bluffs are over 400 feet high, so this well likely digs down to the same water level as the river.

The well guys got to the house a couple minutes before me. They were scheduled to arrive at 8AM, so I left a little after 6AM to try to get there first. As I passed the last gas station on the route, Google estimated I'd be there about 10 minutes early, so I stopped and grabbed some drinks and snacks. I was fast, and when I got back in the car, it said I'd be just 5 minutes early, so still on time. Shortly after leaving the station, though, I got behind a pair of utility vehicles, each pulling a trailer of giant gear, one looking like a Ditch Witch, who I figured might be the well people. They didn't go quite as fast, so I groaned a little as I watched Google shift its estimates, and I ended up getting there at 8:10.

They were polite about it. They'd taken the few minutes to stretch their legs and wander around the house looking for signs of the well. The didn't find a well, but did find a pair of rattlesnakes. We've seen one at a time in the past, always thinking it was the same (they all look alike, right?), although I hadn't seen any this year. I pointed out that the well was actually by the street, a few hundred feet away. Since we were at the house we went inside to peek at what was happening. No water out of the faucet, and no indication of well stuff in the utility area, as I'd found on Sunday. They did notice a water meter, and asked if it was a shared well. I said it was, at least at one point, and they nodded saying that's probably why it was by the road instead of near the house.

I showed them to the well, and they dug right in. A quick check showed some bugs had made a home in the housing, but he just brushed them aside. They didn't seem to cause any damage. He did a quick power check and found the pump was running, or at least drawing electricity, but there wasn't any pressure shown on the gauge there, so it wasn't moving any water. He surmised that there are only three answers left; there's something wrong with the pipe, something wrong with the pump, or the well is dry. He mostly ruled out the dry well, because that doesn't really happen in the area, or they'd know about it from other neighbors or information, and the pump would stop trying to pump if there wasn't water. He was hesitant to turn everything off if it was a shared pump, though.

I walked over to the neighbor's house and told them the situation. They didn't know anything about the pump, but were fine with us trying to fix it. Curiously, they had water flowing, as they'd used it earlier. Just then the well guys caught up with us, and asked if they could check. They turned on a faucet, and water came out. Since they had water, the well guy (I never did get their names) said they probably aren't using our pump or well. He asked to peek in their utility room, and quickly confirmed they had their own well.

The wife would later remind me that while the well was shared when her dad bought the place, he bought them out and it wasn't shared any more.

I returned to the house to turn off the water main, and they set in to pulling the pump out to see what the trouble was. That took a while. They would pull a length of pipe 23 feet in the air, secure the pipe below, separate them, and lay the lifted pipe aside, repeating 20 more times. They didn't know how deep it was, and didn't know there were 21 lengths until they were done. I also didn't watch all of the action, but peeked in occasionally.

The third-to-last pipe was very rusty, so he explained that indicated it was submerged all the time. The pipe before that had a little oxidation, so it seemed it was sometimes submerged for extended periods. None of the pipes before that had much discoloration at all. The second-to-last pipe had a clear crack in it, as it seems to have rusted through. That, he surmised was the problem. I had checked in before they had disconnected that second-to-last pipe, so he still didn't know how many more there were, but didn't think there would be many more. I returned to the house to let them continue. The last pipe was also very rusted, but was still apparently solid. This all meant that the pump is generally sitting in 60-80 feet of water.

They came to the house and explained all of that (everything gets out of order, yeah?). They noted they were going to replace the three very rusty pipes, and install the slightly rusty pipes at the top, where they would both not be likely to continue to rust, and also be easier to replace if they did. They also noticed the pump was working just fine, but was pretty small for such a deep well. The pump seemed fine, and the problem was certainly the hole in the pipe, but it was only 1.5 horsepower and would only deliver about 4 gallons per minute. He suggested a 2HP pump was recommended, and the one they had would deliver 10GPM. I said "let's do it," and they went off to replace it all.

I went in and peeked at the Internet and found they weren't blowing smoke. According to the Google well results, a 2-3HP pump is recommended for 450-foot deep wells.  I mentioned all of this to the missus, but in the conversation gave it a shift up one size, reporting the 2HP pump we had wasn't one sufficient for the well, and that a 3HP was recommended. The pump guys later straightened me out, and I corrected my messaging to the missus.

They installed the pump a little faster than they removed it, I suppose because going down is easier. I checked in just after they installed the last and were working on putting the cap back on. They had water flowing through the yard hydrant there. They were making sure there wasn't any air or dirt in the line before we turned it back on at the house. They fussed a little at the gauge, as it wasn't showing any pressure. It turned out there's an air valve there that was leaking and not allowing the gauge to read any pressure. It's not unlike the valve on a car tire, and the little knob on the inside was leaking. He was going to replace it with a cap instead, as they apparently do on new installations, securing an air compressor to the line after removing the cap, instead of using the valve.

I returned to the house to let them finish. They followed a few minutes later, and we trekked to the utility room. I turned the water main back on, and water started pouring out of the faucet in the washtub there, after we turned the knob. It sputtered a bit, to be expected, but settled quickly. It was nice, clear water, coming out at a good speed. They deemed their job done, noting they'd already cleaned everything up at the pump. I was prepared to pay, but they said a bill would be sent, and they rode off into the sunshine of midday.

I went around to the rest of the water spots in the house, running water through each of the sinks in each bathroom and the kitchen, and the washtub near the washing machine (not the same as the one in the basement utility area). Everything sputtered a bit and settled quickly. I flushed all of the toilets a couple of times, too.

All is well again, pun intended.