Posting this here for future reference.
I have a deep well jet pump and I have two inline filters going to the house. It was time to replace the filters so I turned the power to the pump off and then I was without water when I turned it back on. I reprimed it thinking that must’ve been it somehow. It would lose prime and I could reprime it and it would last for a couple of hours. Pulled the pump, pipes, jet, and foot valve up and replaced the foot valve. Stuck it back in, primed it, and then noticed that water was now coming out of a crack in one of the pipes. Pulled everything back up and replaced the pipes. Put everything back in and could never get it primed again. Pulled everything in and out several times and poured gallons of gallons of water in trying to get it to prime. Realized that it did take a prime with the new foot valve but old and cracked pipes, so it must be the pipes! WRONG! After I bought more piping, we had the idea to cap off the tank and the house line with a homemade schrader valve and pressurizeit with air. Using soapy water, we foind it to be the foot valve again! Replaced the foot valve, stick it back in the well, and no prime. Pump air into it, and air bubbles come up in the water. Three foot valves, two of which are new, failing?! Realized it’s only failing when we put it down on to the well, so what’s happening? Then we get a new idea! We pull everything back out, pressurize it with air, stick it back down in the well, release the pressure, and put air pressure back in. It held pressure! We were finally able to get the well primed and everything back hooked up. It was wonderful being able to use the water in my own home again.
So what was happening?
What we figured is at least the old pipe did go bad and form a crack. The old foot valve may have been bad also. BUT the old piping was more straight and the new piping had been rolled and not relaxed. So when we were putting the new pipe and everything back in the well, the foot valve was hitting and catching on the casing enough to jar the spring and knock it out of alignment, keeping it from sealing. When we pressurized the system with air, it was forcing the valve shut and the jarring on it wasn’t enough to break the seal we had already formed. Something we would’ve never even thought about.
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