Replacing a 1970s Jet Pump with a Modern Submersible Well Pump 

I'm the homeowner, this is my well! The well was dug in 1972 or 1973 and it had a normal small pumphouse around it. My dad built this larger building around it in the early 90's. The original jet pump was replaced by the one that is being removed in this video sometime in the 90's as well. Maybe at the same time the bigger building was built. The one being removed is a Water Ace from Lowes. However, the PVC pipe in the well was still dated 1970 (saw it printed on one of the pieces they pulled out). I am not sure if someone pulled all the PVC out at that time to replace the ejector on the bottom, or if they just left the one from the original 1972 pump. These guys did a great job, and I'm fortunate that I live close enough by that I could get him and his crew. I started watching these videos a year or so back, thinking I was going to have to at least replace my pressure tank which had failed. Then I realized they were close by, so I was able to get them to come and replace the entire pump. The pump had developed a bad bearing around Christmas so it was on it's way out. I'm hoping to get them to come back later this year to replace the black plastic pipe and electric back to the house. They did an awesome job. He's very professional. Came out and did the job on a day when a lot of people wouldn't have bothered. It's working great and we have good, consistent water pressure now. The finished system is a work of art compared to what I had before. I just go out and stare at it sometimes.

Glad you're using a clear filter so he can tell when it's getting dirty

Bonus points for petting the cat. And that "D-U-N" done! LOL - I'm stealing that!

This channel has taught me a lot. Appreciate your hard work.

Fun Facts. I'm in the pool and spa business, but I'm a plumber by trade and we used to do a lot of deep well jet pumps back in the day. The first "Jacuzzi Jets" were actually deep well jets. Jacuzzi originally made well and winery equipment. In the 50s while building his own pool Jacuzzi installed deep well jets sideways in the pool wall, with the venturi suction open to the atmosphere. When water was pumped through the jet it sucked air in creating more "Power". All spa jets still operate on the same basic principle. Forcing pressurized water through a small orifice and then drawing air in through venturi action. Mazzai injectors for chemicals and ozone work the same way.

I think that's the type of system my neighbor has, which she has problems with periodically. It won't turn off at times, but pumps water.

am i the only one left that likes running a jet pump and a non bladder tank? i like having a system i can keep an eye on. i also just rebuild the pump for less then $100.

Thanks for yet Another Great vidclip, ....Lovely cat too .... :-) :-) :-) ..... Only comment :- That piece of 'Roll Pex' from the Filter Outlet to the 'House Feed Line', I would love to see that 'Anchored' 1/2 way there to take the Weight .... With all that water in it there is a LOT of strain on the Filter Housing and Connection. One can see the Bend in that Pipe already ... It Will Fracture eventually ..... :-) :-) :-) Best to You and Yours, Keep well and Stay safe .... Cheers from ChCh, NZ

Phillip you do a wonderful job of teaching. I truly enjoy watching your videos. Keep them coming. You definitely know your business. 😊

I was listening to your video at 1:38 while I was cutting my pizza when I heard you say "that's heavy" and all I could think about was back to the future 😆

Just replaced one of those today. What y'all well drillers do is not just work but also an art that is quickly being lost thank you for making your channel it's very helpful

And 40 years from now your system will look....still awesome!

Really love this video. You make it seem like it is aan easy job,however this is a pretty difficut job. You are such a great instructor and you are truly a Professional in your trade. Another job that is well done!!!

Looks good, nice job

I really like the way you explain everything that you're doing,or going to do while not filming. Thanks for the knowledge.

We need you in North Carolina to show these other plumbers what to do

First fun facts. Now a pro tip. Buy yourself some large carabiners. Clip them through the box ends of your wrenches. Clip that to the handle on your tool bag. No more lost wrenches or digging around in the bag for wrenches. I keep 1/4 through 7/16 on one smaller carabiner and 1/2 through 3/4 on another larger size.

Wow! This is the system I replaced! I learned everything from you! 🤣😎 You would have enjoyed my one man method for pulling 42 feet of double PVC pipe... I didn't have a pipe dawg! 🤓

In New England, we're used to seeing poly pipe in wells instead of PVC. A well house like this is another reason to use poly pipe. So much easier to pull and reinstall.

Should have the water filter just after the pump and before the balder tank. Keeps the crud from destroying the bladder.

CAT!!! out there being the boss

What’s fun is to pull an old jet pump that has galvanized pipe down in the well. They can be very heavy especially in a well house like that where you would have to do it by hand and cut it up like they did the pvc in this well to get it out. You would be picking up the weight of the 2 galvanized pipes and them full of water, one pipe would be 1 1/4 inch and the other would be 1 inch. I’m 71 years old and it’s probably been 40 or 45 years since me, my brother and my dad did one of those on galvanized. When we put a jet pump back in we used black coil pipe down in the well if the customer would agree to it. I can also remember pulling submersibles hung on galvanized pipe. If it was over 100 foot and hung on galvanized we used one of the old cable tool Bucyrus Erie machines to pull it and reinstall it if the customer insisted on galvanized pipe. We didn’t have a crane or pump truck with a derrick on it like some other companies had.

If it was mine, I would of laid a sand bed to protect the waterline from jagged rock settling, installed an oversized elec pvc raceway and finished off with direct burial caution tape

Awesome work bro

Sure would be nice if there was a submersible pump that would work in a 2" well. Thanks for your videos, very informative!

I bought my place about two years ago with the plan of rebuilding. The well looks almost exactly the same. 1970 it was installed!! lol.

We put a stainless steel cable with a witch and a flap in the roof for our pvc pipe with the pump on the end. 1/2 horse think it’s 75ft down

It's pretty "well" insulated. I lol'd.

Cool video 👍👍

Septic tanks refinery unit, rentals of unit cleaner water , pressure cutting,tools spinners in line, crew truck size or smaller carwasher hoses. Spool motor coils 50 m lengths, john.

You should use flex conduit fittings on both ends of the flex conduit.

That actually looks like a foot valve check valve flow matic that was at bottom 💯👍✌️

I´d have liked a little explain about why it´s called "jet pump" and why there were two lines in the well. To me that looked like an ordinary centrifugal pump.

Thanks for another interesting vid! Do you put a metal tag (with well data) on a well when you just replace the pump?

Call before you dig, plans for depths of Frost in ground, but ground tactics,new grounding rod.

Way to think about the next guy. Very cool.

Better foundation for pump stand.

lol 😂 reminds me of my first house when I bought it. Hand driven point well . ( in the flipping 125 year old shore basement) 5 foot at a time to replace the foot valve what a pain in the booty!!🙄 put all new back in 5 foot at a time. Long before plastic pipe😂😂 when I sold it. She was still pumping.. the caseing was 3 foot sections who ever drove that well dang sure earned it hand pounding the point screen down….. nice job on converting the well❤

Cats make the best inspectors.😂

Great job as always !

Up to the filter the installation looks good, the pipe leaving the filter looks unsupported and sagging which could lead to it breaking. It should've been routed cleaner, no angled runs. the flexible electrical conduit should've had a fitting on both ends instead of being siliconed into the well.

I take well water over City water any day every time I leave the house I have my well water in my cooler and I drink a lot of it❤

Wow 115v systems are so foriegn to me.... I never had anything but a 240v myers pump growing up... had to feed a barn house and a trailer home needed the capacity from a 68 ft deep water well with sulphur water.... yummy

Great video! I never knew anything about a Jet Pump system until I saw an older video of yours and you explained how the system works. I have a well that is 78 feet deep with the jet pump setup. It was old when I moved in in 1998 but it still works great. I am planning on swapping it out to a submersible pump eventually and was wondering what size pump you installed here. Love your videos, thanks.

Nice video. Enjoyed it.

how come you did not put the conduit over the entire wire going into the well to protect and extend the shelf-life of the wire ?

Frosty deep line no freeze..

Lot of wells for jet pumps have small diameter casings. I think mine is 2&1/2". I found a 2" submersible online. Any experience doing this? Thank you. I don't want to have to drill a new well if possible.

For all the effort they put into insulating the place, you'd think they could throw down a bag or two of cement.

nice job

Wondering why you leave the pump so high at 85 ft and not closer to to the 105 ft depth. Seems like that extra water could be helpful in a dry year.

You ought to try that with steel pipe, 270+ deep.

Fly by nite jr service,fix it job unlisted,good fix.

I know wells did a great 😊

Hydro vacuum pipe wire brushes too scrapers in older well,new perforation, pnt.

I Do Agree That System Looks Really Good But I Would Bet The Shirt Off My Back It Will Not Run as Long as The one ya Took Out..lol.

I find it interesting that with the poly pipe you don't run a pulling rope

Only thing I would have done differently is put in a bypass below the filter for cleaning and also flushing the iron. Other than that very cool video. Thought it was interesting that no pressure tank was involved just a big jet pump in the older days.

1, had no idea white PVC plumbing tube was a thing in 1970 I had always thought that stuff didnt catch on til way later. 2, I hope helper-cat was on the payroll for that job and not just a unpaid weekend intern lol

Not sure I would have mounted the filter directly above the bladder tank just saying my own personal preference I suppose

So what benefit does it have to switch over to a submersible pump just curious on that swallow of a well

Do you now the only job in this world you can be wrong all the time and not be fired?????? Weatherperson is the answer.LOL

Was looking forward to updating my pump situation following this method. Bummed out to find I have a two stage deep well, but it has one pipe going down with the casing becoming the other pipe. ,(smaller bore pipe). Does anyone know if replacing the motor requires pulling the drop pipe and replacing the ejector/venturi or can I just replace the motor. ?

Why don’t you change the breaker to 220 and have a two wire 220 system? Far more efficient.! Also the next guy that changes the tank won’t put the same information on the new tank. That’s why for marking land the old timers used stone walls rather than trees.

What Brand of inline filter do you use? Enjoy your videos! Thanks for sharing.

Haven't located your video on how jet pumps work. The place where I grew up had a two inch driven well and some "mystery" device on the top. There were two pipes exiting that to the pump. I assume the device was the jet and wonder how far it could lift water. I know that there was no foot valve so it would seem that every time the pump went on, it had to lift water from where ever it stood in the well pipe. Obviously, I don't understand what was happening so I hope you can enlighten me. Thanks. dave

Had a jet pump just like it

hello!! Thank you for teaching! I have to do exactly this to my farm house. I do have a question so that I can do this on my own. Granted the pump is working but I fear it uses crazy amounts of electricity since I have no ac no electric heat and my power bill is higher than my neighbor who runs ac. My pump reads 20-40 pressure switch. I don’t know gpm or static water level. I’ll check those when ready to tackle the project. My question is how can I determine if I should buy a stronger pump? I’m building a market garden and don’t have a pond yet to draw water from so I’m stuck with this well for now and want to make sure it keeps up. Thanks for your help.

I would have mounted the water pipe with two straps, the electric should have been straped to the pipe. Labled the wall switch, and raked or swept out the room.

Question on filters - if one has a spin down and whole house filter ( 4x10” @ 5-10 micron), how often should a refrigerator filter be changed? Also should well be sanitized (pool chlorine) if well is never opened up and water is clear and does not smell or taste bad? Thoughts?

The well looks really good, but is there a way to test the water for drinking purposes?

Can you please explain how you knew what depth to put your pump at?

guess the owner knew to not run any water in the house as the valve to the filter was not shut so water took the easiest route and took the hose outlet.

The best thing I ever did was swap out the jet pump for a submersible.

Will a 100ft well serve a dairy farmer? Don't think so. Not sure it will serve a home with modern water using appliances either ;)

Could you recommend a submersible pump for me. My well is 25’ deep. I would love to have 50 psi

Do those jet pumps have to be primed? How do you prime them?

They didn't have PVC pipe in 1970. It was a new thing used sparingly at the very end of the 70s, but it would take more years before it was super common and they started printing anything on the pipe. That pipe is mid 80s at most.

No torque arrestor?

No torque arrestor on the pump? Just wondering.

Do you not put ropes on pumps any more.?

Could you please clarify what pump did you use for a well in this videol? Thank you in advance.

FYI 230V Pump would use half as much Amp draw....If 230v available, always choose it over 120v...

Hi, what is a jet pump ? What is the benefit between a jet pump and a submersible?

is it just pool shock or something else ? ( to clean the water)

What kind of filter is that?

Torq arrestor ?

Is that a 3 or 4 inch well casing?

Would it help to install the sediment filter before the pressure tank assembly to protect the tank and bladder?

How often should you add chlorine

Just my 2 cents...screw the sub pump. They are expensive and they will fail, down the hole, and possibly get stuck. When the jet pump fails, you can comfortably fix that sitting in a chair.

Hmmm why is the PEX 3/4 so much smaller than the black roll?

Wonder if he ever tested the pump prior to putting it done into the well?

Jet pump is easier to service. Why go to a submersible pump?

I hate submersible pumps

We need you in North Carolina to show these other plumbers what to do