Well retrieval tools & method FAQs:

Frequently-asked questions & answers about dropping stuff into a well: how to pull out a well pipe, pump, tools, or other stuff someone has dropped into a well bore.

This article series describes methods & tools bought or home-made that can be used to fish materials out of a water well if you've dropped the pipe, well pump, or tools down into the well casing.

Well Pipe Fishing Tools, Grabber FAQs

These questions & answers about how to pull out anything you've dropped down a well were posted originally

at WELL RETRIEVAL TOOLS - topic home. - you will definitely want to see the retrieval tools described there.

Question: what if I can't afford to hire someone to pull out stuff dropped into the well

(Sept 5, 2015) avid flyer said:
What if the home owner does not have the money? they need it to live and the well service person charges $200.00 just to show up?

Reply:

Ask the well company if they can offer financial relief for the needy, or ask for assistance from localmaidmsocieties, or shop for another well service company.

Waiting and leaving junk in the well involves risk that ranges from very low ( a single fallen rock sitting at the bottom of the well bore) to significant (loose debris items that can damage the pump or foot valve).

Question: removing a pipe with a packed ring at the bottom of the well

(Oct 16, 2015) Terry said:
Process for removing a pipe with a packed ring at the bottom.

Reply:

The well retrieval tool set includes pipe grabbers. It may take some care not to snag the pipe on an angle when pulling it up the casing, or it may be necessary to remove the existing well pipe(s) and pump to clear passage for fallen items.

Question: leave a dropped submersible pump in a well ?

(Dec 21, 2015) Akomeno Oteri said:
Good day. Pls is it advisable to leave a dropped submersible pump in a well and go ahead to install another pump?

(Mar 28, 2016) James Macintosh said:
Just had the last 22' of galvanized pipe plus the submersible pump break loose and fall approximately 275' into a 6" well.

This will be nearly impossible to retrieve. Can the pump and remaining pipe be left in the well and the new pump and plastic pipe be installed at a lesser distance?

Reply:

Akomeno

You can leave the old pump in the well but at a cost of having perhaps to leave the new pump a bit higher in the column of water - the static head - in the well. If that means the draw-down water volume is significantly lowered that's a concern. Figure you're giving up less than 36" of accessible water column.

A longer term issue might be rust and corrosion or even toxic oil that could poison the water if the pump deteriorates and leaks into the well - not so likely as modern submersible well pumps are designed to be submerged.

In sum I'd prefer to remove the old pump but if there's plenty of water in the water column, that is if there is a high static head in the well, you can probably leave it at the bottom.

See WELL DYNAMIC HEAD & STATIC HEAD DEFINITION

James:

Yes, though the import of that change depends not just on well depth but also on the static head of water - its height in the well. I'd not give up on retrieving a dropped pipe if there are well professionals in your area.

(Jan 10, 2016) Akomeno Oteri said:
Thank You for your answer to my question on Dropped pump in a borehole. My mid is at rest and I appreciate.

Question: camera to inspect a well for fallen debris?

(Jan 21, 2016) Anonymous said:
Do you know if they make a small camera that you can insert into the well to see if there is any debris in the well?

I recently just pulled the well pump and had a small fracture of the pvc pipe. I would like to know if they make they make a camera that can look down into the well to check for debris, or is there any other way of checking this well?

The well pump was 50 ft down, so i don't know how deep it actually is.

Reply: yes

There are well cameras used by some companies to inspect the well bore for damage, such as the GeoVISION TM Borehole Well Camera System and there are other DHV (downhole video) camera systems widely sold or perhaps rented for that purpose.

Look for "Downhole Video" camera systems or "well bore inspection systems" or "well bore camera" to see more examples.

(Jan 25, 2016) Anonymous said:
just bought a 100 endoscope that is USB for $80... I have to fish a black pipe out that's 60' down.

Question: the history of Everett's well

(Jan 30, 2016) Everett said:

I had a well drilled on my property approx. 19 years ago and a 1-1/2hp Gould pump was installed at the same time, there was no model number or gpm listed on the well log. The well was drilled at 280 feet and the pump was set at 273 ft.

The well log states there is no perforation to the pipe. It also states the drill went through sand and clay, sand and clay and sand and clay.

Do you know how the well could be getting water when there is no perforation and it is set in clay? I wondered if it could be coming in from the bottom of the well some how, but I'm not sure.

At the time I had this well drilled and pump installed, shortly after I had went through a super hard divorce, through this transition of hard times of my life, the well had set idle for approximately 9 years and was never used in those years.

Then I brought power in and powered up the well, it seemed to work fairly good as far as I can remember, but the well had no pressure tank or anything at that time.

I had a faucet plumbed out of the ground that I turned the pump on to fill jugs and watering cans as I wasn't living on the property at the time, I just had plants I had to keep watered, and I would only turn the pump on when I needed it and then turned it off.

This you might consider somewhat like cycling, but it wasn't rapid as there was time left when the pump was turned off and on. Not sure when the time spans were, but after a couple years, the pump became stalled or over a short period of time and surging power through the motor, it started to work again. This time it worked fine all the way up until a year ago.

Towards the last 4-5 years of operation of the well, it seemed to be doing what I would call aquanating or the water was mixing with microscopic bubbles and it would look cloudy when you put it in a bucket.

After sitting for some time, it would clear up and the bubbles would dissipate. This usually happened in the very hot and drier season, but before that it would always have low build up for the recovery of pressure for shut off on pressure switch.

I never really was concerned about it because I have 2 large bladder pressure tanks and I figured it just took a long time to build them back up to kick off as that's what their supposed to do to make less turn on and offs with the motor.

But this last year, watering in the hot season, trying to keep the lawn from drying out and the plants from dying, it just quit pumping.

I noticed out of the hose I was losing pressure, so I went to check the pressure gauge and it was already past the point where it was supposed to kick on. I did your normal diagnostics and checked everything, I even went the extra 9 miles and bought another control box; which made no difference.

I put a stethoscope on the well casing, and it sounds like the motor is running smoothly, I know its not stalled because when it did stall, it was drawing a lot of power and it would blow the circuit breaker.

This acts as if the motor is actually running like normal, it doesn't pop the reset in the control box or any breakers so I don't believe the motor is stalled, I believe its just motoring and not pumping water.

I know this could be a number of problems like the built in check valve for the well pump could be bad, I could have something wrong with the discharge piping out of the well; its PVC, or maybe the pump is just wore out.

The one problem I kinda thought to myself is that when the well was put in, there were very few people living in my area, since then there has been literally hundreds of homes and developments that have been put in a little ways up the road.

I was wondering if each one of them had a well drilled, and each one drilled their well deeper than mine, could it be lowering my aqua level, lowering the water from my well?

Or in the worse case scenario, the well has just become a dry hole. Common sense tells me that with the age of the pump, its time is up and its time to replace it! Some pumps last a long time, some go real quick and others go bad years down the road, I'm sure you know the scenarios.

I feel mine is worn out, the motor is just turning freely but not turning the impellers or pumping water, I don't know. I know no matter what, the pump is going to have to be pulled

. I was also curious where I could buy a tool or the tool that reaches down inside the well casing and hooks the elbow that goes through the casing to ground? This elbow is not reachable by hand, and it is solely supporting the pipe, the pump, etc. Is there something that goes into the internal part of the pipe to pull it up from there?

I need some kind of tool that will grab the pipe and pull it up so you can cut off each section. Not like the metal pipe that you can unscrew each section and hook a cable into an eye coupler, there is nothing to hook to with a PVC pipe. You pull it up, cut off a section, pull it up and cut off another section and so on.

I also noticed on Google they have a machine that sits on top of the well casing, it has 3 small air tires; I believe one of the tires has power, and they come into a Y and it holds the pipe between the tires and draws the pipe out of the well. I haven't been able to find this machine or tool anywhere for sale or for rent. I have no idea where to find it.

I have checked around my area and there isn't anyone with anything to pull up the well pipe and pumps.

Any information you can give me for pulling up the pipe and pump would be deeply appreciated! There is one more thing I would like to ask, my pump is set 13 feet above the bottom of the drilling of the well. I was curious when I set the new pump, I would like to set it as close to the bottom as possible.

Would it be safe to say I could set it 5 feet or closer to the bottom of the well?? Thanks a lot for your time and thanks for reading this, I greatly appreciate it! Sorry this got so long, its hard to try to explain something like this in only a few sentences!!

Reply:

I'm a bit overwhelmed but I think the bottom line question is about how to pull out a well pipe and pump. Typically the well service company uses a tripod to support equipment including a winch or more often the well drilling rig on the back of a truck is used to winch up the well pipe and pump from the well bottom.

Additional hardware, including a tripod and clamps, can be used to clamp the well pipe at intervals to permit separation into lengths (needed with steel well piping), repairs, replacement of sections or valves, and to avoid dropping the whole shebang back down into the well bore.

Question: shallow well blocked by a piece of metal

(May 17, 2016) Anne said:
We have a ten foot deep wall for irrigation that suddenly stopped pumping water. There is a blockage at about four feet.

We recently got a scope and looked down the 1 1/2" galvanized pipe and saw a piece of metal lodged in the pipe. We have no idea what it is or how to get it out. Unfortunately my father built a wall around the pump and well with a bedroom above it.

There does not seem to be a casing around the central shaft.

Can you tell us what the metal might be and how to remove it. I asked someone if we could use a long drlill to try to drill through it but we have no clue how big the metal object is or how it ven got in the pipe because it is a sealed system. Thanks.

Reply:

Anne:

Whatever is in the well at this point was probably part of the system since a large chunk of metal wouldn't normally have a way to enter on its own: check for missing pieces of well cap, pitless adapter, pipe fittings, a pump motor itself, a snifter valve, or even a well sleeve liner previously installed to repair a damaged casing.

Contact well drillers in your area to see if they can come by with an assortment of pipe grabbers that might pull out the missing part; a scope can then inspect the condition of the casing.

I don't think the situation you describe is amenable to drilling-through (a step that is taken in some cases in the oil fields).

Question: dropping fishing line, weights, well depth sounding string into the well: ok to leave it there?

(May 20, 2016) steve said:
i was using the "fishing line with a bobber" method to check the ater depth of my well. While checking to see if the line was slacked yet i noticed there was even more tension on the line then probably should be. imagine my suprise to find the line had snagged. I had two small rounded lead weights, and a small bobber on the end of the line, I tried to use small items to prevent this.

I worked the line for a few minutes trying to free it.

My efforts were rewarded by the snap of the line...So i now have 100+ ft of fishing line, two small lead weights, and a small bobber kicking around in my well.

To my question, do i really need to worry about this thing?

Like is it worth my time and efforts to pull the pump and try to retrieve this thing, or just wait and see if the line tangles up in my pump? I ran the pump for about an hour earlier (I figured if it was going to fail it may as well do it while i was emotionally prepared to pull and replace it) and it didnt seem to have any issues. Anyone have any thoughts?

Mayt 25, 2016 Bill said:

Had good luck retrieving a substantial section of water-filled plastic pipe with foot valve from a 117-foot drilled well.

Bought the largest 3-barbed fish-hooks I could find. Rigged a weight on a thin 120-foot rope and jigged for the pipe (as my Newfoundland ancestors jigged for cod back in the day).

Had hoped to go right to the bottom of the well and catch the foot valve-- but that's not what happened. On the second attempt, up came the pipe-- with a hook snagged on a small stainless steel pipe clamp right at the top. The whole operation took about ten minutes, but it involved a lot of luck-- and maybe some genetic jigging skill.

Reply:

Ugh, Bill, I hate when that happens. I speculate that what you snagged were remains of someone's previous attempt to sound the depth of the bottom of the well. Feel better, they, too, lost their weight and hook before you came along.

I don't much like the idea of leaving debris in a well, though it may have no effect until fishing line fouls a foot valve or bits enter a pump through a well screen.

When retrieving stuff dropped into a well it's important to use a line strong enough that you don't easily break it while fishing up fallen items.

Steve: my comments and opinion above to Bill pertain to your well fishing too. But also we'd prefer not to leave lead items in the well. I'm not sure how much two small lead weights might contribute to detectable lead in your water supply: that would depend on water chemistry, its corrosivity, the formation of a lead oxide coating on the weights themselves, and how much water movement occurs in the well.

My guess is that it'd be better to retrieve the lost weights, hook, bobber, fishing line and other debris from the well.

Leaving them until they clog the pump or foot valve might result in loss of water supply at an inconvenient time (say during Thanksgiving when you have many guests but suddenly there is no water to drink nor to flush a toilet), and pulling the pump is perhaps more costly than another attempt to fish out the fallen stuff in the well.

Other Well Pump Installation Manuals & Pump & Pipe Retrieval Resources

• Access Water Energy, PO Box 2061, Moorabbin, VIC 3189, Australia, Tel: 1300 797 758, email: sales@accesswater.com.au Moorabbin Office: Kingston Trade Centre, 100 Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin, VIC 3189
  
  Australian supplier of: Greywater systems, Solar power to grid packages, Edwards solar systems, Vulcan compact solar systems, water & solar system pumps & controls, and a wide rage of above ground & under ground water storage tanks: concrete, steel, plastic, modular, and bladder storage tanks.
• [13] AGE water well equipment, including AGE Riserless Pump Systems, AGE Developments, 38 Harris Road Malaga WA 6090 Australia, Tel: (08) 9209 2844, Website: agedevelopments.com.au
• [3] Betta-Flo JET PUMP INSTALLATION MANUAL [PDF], [PDF] National Pump Co., LLC., includes helpful well pump troubleshooting tips as well as basic jet pump installation details. Web search 07/24/2010, original source: http://www.nationalpumpcompany.com/Documents/OIM/Betta%20Flo%20IOM%20Jet%20Pump.pdf
• [2] DEEP WELL JET PUMPS PDF, [PDF] Government of Alberta, Agriculture and Rural Development, toll free in Alberta at 310-FARM web search 07/24/2010, original source: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex639
• Hole Products, www.holeproducts.com. Hole Products Minnesota, 205 16th St. NE Suite A Little Falls, MN 56345 Tel: 320.616.0701 or Hole Products International: 001- 888-465-1569
• [12] Logan Oil Tools, Inc., 11006 Lucerne Street, Houston, Texas 77016-1920, Tel: 281.219.6613 | Fax 281.219.6638 Email: sales@loganoiltools.com, Website: http://www.loganoiltools.com
• [11] "Overshot Definition", Oil Gas Glossary.com. Oil & Gas Field Technical Terms Glossary, Web Search 04/21/2012, original source: http://oilgasglossary.com/overshot.html
• "Small Diameter Wells", Natural Resources Management & Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Corporate Document Repository - Self-Help Wells - see http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5567E/x5567e05.htm
  This article has a nice section on well pipe or dropped tool fishing tools (WELL RETRIEVAL TOOLS) at its end. If a tool is dropped into a well or if a section of well piping becomes disconnected and drops into a well, special devices can be lowered into the well to attempt to grasp or hook the lost object (or pipe) to pull it back out of the well. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5567E/x5567e05.htm#4.11%20problem%20solving
• [5] Smart Tank, Installation Instructions [ copy on file as /water/Smart_Tank_Flexcon.pdf ] - , Flexcon Industries, 300 Pond St., Randolph MA 02368, www.flexconind.com, Tel: 800-527-0030 - web search 07/24/2010, original source: http://www.flexconind.com/pdf/st_install.pdf
• Typical Shallow Well One Line Jet Pump Installation [ copy on file as /water/Jet_Pump_Grove_Elect_Jet_Pumps.pdf ] - , Grove Electric, G&G Electric & Plumbing, 1900 NE 78th St., Suite 101, Vancouver WA 98665 www.grovelectric.com - web search -7/15/2010 original source: http://www.groverelectric.com/howto/38_Typical%20Jet%20Pump%20Installation.pdf
• Typical Deep Well Two Line Jet Pump Installation [ copy on file as /water/Jet_Pump_Grove_Elect.pdf ] - , Grove Electric, G&G Electric & Plumbing, 1900 NE 78th St., Suite 101, Vancouver WA 98665 www.grovelectric.com - web search -7/15/2010 original source: http://www.groverelectric.com/howto/38_Typical%20Jet%20Pump%20Installation.pdf
• [4] Water Fact Sheet #3, Using Low-Yielding Wells [ copy on file as /water/Low_Yield_Wells_Penn_State.pdf ] - , Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Cooperative Extension, School of Forest Resources, web search 07/24/2010, original source: http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/XH0002.pdf
• [8] Water Ace Jet Pump Installation Manual, [PDF] instructions from Water Ace Pump Co., web search 08/28/2010, original source: http://www.waterace.com/pdf/R510%20R520%20and%20R100%20Jet%20Pumps%20Manual.pdf
  Consumer hotline: 800-942-3343 - instructions for the installation and maintenance of
  
  Water Ace shallow well pump Model R510 1/2 HP
  Water Ace deep well pump Model R100 convertible 1HP and
  Water Ace deep well jet pump Model R250 convertible 1/2 hp.
  
  Quoting from the company's website:
  
  The Water Ace Pump Company is a dynamic, rapidly growing retail pump manufacturer, backed by a tradition of over 125 years of excellence. We offer a complete line of sump, sewage, lawn sprinkler, swimming pool, submersible well and jet pumps as well as pressure tanks and accessories.
• [9] Water Ace Jet Pump Installation Manual, [PDF] from Water Ace Pump Co., web search 08/28/2010, original source: http://www.waterace.com/pdf/RTS5%20RTS7%20RTS10%20RC5%20and%20RC10%20Jet%20Pumps%20Manual.pdf
  Consumer hotline: 800-942-3343 - instructions for the installation and maintenance of Water Ace pump models:
  
  Water Ace Shallow Well 1-line Jet Pump Models RTS5 (1/2HP), Model RTS7 (3/4 HP) and RTS10 (1HP)
  
  Water Ace Deep Well 2-line Jet Pump Models RC5 (1/2 HP) and RC10 (1HP)
• [10] Water Ace Submersible Well Pump Installation Manual, [PDF] from Water Ace Pump Co., web search 08/28/2010, original source: http://www.waterace.com/pdf/23833A019%20Well%20Pumps%20Eng.pdf
  
  Spanish and French language submersible well pump installation manuals are available from the company.
  Consumer hotline: 800-942-3343 - instructions for the installation and maintenance of Water Ace pump models:

...

Continue reading at WELL RETRIEVAL TOOLS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see WELL PIPE GRABBER FAQs-2 - more-recent questions and answers about how to pull out things dropped into a water well or well bore

Or see these

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