13 year old Grundfos SQFlex 11 SQF-2 pump hanging at 200 ft

BillK

Over the past few weeks the output has been declining. Static level in well is the same. Power input is the same. Now the pump is having trouble running until water comes up the well and if it has to push up any elevation it kicks off. Cu 200 shows wattage going up, as pump starts, pump kicks off, then as long as I am pumping level or downhill the wattage comes back up and the pump operates. Something is failing, I've ordered a new pump and control unit and will pull the pump and replace the unit. We are very remote and a fair number of animals depend on that well so having some equipment on the shelf is prudent. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with what might be happening. Also from looking at the the service manual these pumps can be rehabbed?

geosierranevada

Are you running off of solar panels?  If you are, bypass the cu200 and put 110 volts straight to the pump and see if that makes a difference.
Let us know.

George.     Have a nice day

Dave Angelini

As george said, and if you are running off solar, are you in the smoke zone? You can lose over 50% of the solar in this haze. Have not seen more than 1kw today with 8kw out there. Really nasty down here, snowing ash from 50,000 feet.

BillK

I'm up about 20 miles from the Canadian border in north central WA and raise livestock. Need some water on a daily basis even when we spend a week in the clouds during Dec/Jan. Because of that I've got the pump set to run off panels, batteries, panels and batteries, and generator. Even running off the generator the pump is putting out much less water and is unable to pump up to a cistern that is about 100' higher than the well.

We've had a fire get within 1/2 mile a few weeks ago, but nothing compared to what you guys are getting down south. My wife's family is in the Napa/North Bay area and they've been slammed this year. Tough times.

Dave Angelini

They have a 2 year warranty and the factory down near Fresno does sell kits to installers. Most of the time they are damaged beyond economical repair. Not to mention you would not want to be pulling it out over and over with a rebuild. Do a failure analysis or have the well guy tell you why it failed. If you are sucking sediment,  or have a bad well, the same thing could happen shortly.

Lost 2 clients in the bay area last week where I am from, so tell your relatives tomorrow night to be safe when the high wind warning starts. Good Luck

BB.

13 years sounds like a long life for a daily use well pump (just guessing--Not my field).

As Dave says... See if you can figure out what caused the failure (if an installation or operational issue like pumping sand or lightning), and replace the pump/controller for another 10+ year operational life.

-Bill

BillK

Well is in granite and has a PVC liner. Pump is hanging about 60 off the bottom. Water is very clean but very hard as well. Our area of WA state went up in flames yesterday so everything may get complicated but as it is the pump and the CU 200 are "supposed" to arrive on Friday. Hoping I can coordinate that with the pump guy and get this taken care of. I will let you know what comes out. I have seen pumps come out of wells just a few miles from us that have been caked in lime. Fun times!!

BB.

Sounds good... I guess there is always looking at rebuilding the pump and testing the CU 200 controller--And keeping it for a spare/next time you need to debug.

Good luck--Fires have been terrible around here too (for us, just smoke, but others 60 miles away have lost everything).
-Bill

BillK

Well the mystery is solved and it's one of those good news/bad news situations. The good news is we've got water again. The bad news is that we've probably got 100' of silt at the bottom of the well. We had noticed over the years that periodically our water would suddenly be full of silt and we were told that's normal in a formation like the one our water comes from. When the pump guy started pulling our pump there was a just a moment of resistance before the pump started coming up. When we got it out, the bottom foot or so of the pump was clean like it had been buried in something.

So we hung the new pump, cut off about 5' of the PVC. Instead of a 300' well with the pump hanging at 200' we now have a 200' well with the pump hanging at 195'. When things slow down a bit with the fires we'll have them come out with a camera and verify whats' going on down there. If it is a 100' of silt then next fall we'll have saved up enough to have them come out and blow the silt out of the well, spendy but worth it. The well puts out great water and we're getting close to 10 gal/min which in a bedrock aquifer in our area is a respectable amount.

Pump guy says the flex is fried but I'll hang on to the controller as a back up. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc will be much appreciated.

Dave Angelini

Grundfos will want to deal with the pump guy who sold the pump. They will tend to ignore you as a private party for any repair help on the old pump. If you are stuck inside because of smoke, you can spend hours with Grundfos and not have to worry about what you did today

The warranty is 2 years and so I doubt grundfos will help the pump guy either. They are in the pump business right?

As Bill said, if it worked for over 10 years, you did not do too bad. Put the camera down there and get more data.

We are suppose to get your low pressure front down here tomorrow. Crossing fingers for some air to breath outside our cocoon. 

BB.

Yesterday, wins cleared the smoke in the central Bay Area.

It is very nice.

See that to the north and Oregon/Washington States, they are getting the brunt of smoke and new fires.

Bill