sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Now electricians are supposed to service water wells.

Ever wonder where sparkies get the vast knowledge to do everything except what they are supposed to be doing?

Well, among the many trade publications I get every month is one called EC&M which is one of the trade magazines for the electrical industry.

Thumbing through the magazine a reader can expect, among the usual sparkie fare and ads, articles on telecom- like how CAT5 is always better, networking, data wiring and fiber installation and terminating. But I guess this is a slow month (or maybe the sparkies already are experts at all that stuff) because now they can add water wells to their list of "no problem, I know all about that" things on the side of their trucks.

This month they tell all you need to know about well servicing.

The article started out benign enough, the theory on how well controllers work. Useful information I suppose, though I would expect if for some reason an electrician was there about a no water situation, (who would a normal person call if they had no water?) their responsibility would end with checking the breaker in the electrical panel and seeing that voltage was being delivered to the controller. Anything beyond that, the professional thing to do would be to refer the customer to who ever installed and services the well. I was dumbfounded to see that this article went on to troubleshooting the wiring from the house to the well (including bringing in a backhoe) and then talked about pulling the pump from the well, which should only take about an hour with a helper by the way, and checking it for damage.

For the record I don’t think I have ever seen a plumbing magazine have much to say about anything other than, guess what? Plumbing. I get HVAC magazines that talk about that trade, contracting magazines that talk about building and construction and a pest control magazine that talks about killing bugs. Why do electricians think they know it all and can do it all?

Now you know.

-Hal

I get that trade mag also.. I think they just want to put some copy between the covers on many occasions and issues.

Well, I can't say that I'm surprised. I switched over to the electronic version of that magazine for that very reason. At least the highlight articles are somewhat entertaining. Articles on how to repair well pump systems would have easily been bypased by me.

I don't have a single problem with troubleshooting of controls by sparkies. That is my specialty and I enjoy such challenges. I have to disagree with their having suggested that a sparky even entertain the possibility of pulling a pump. Can you imagine the liability if sparkie Joe dropped it and lost everything?

I've witnessed a pro pulling mine out from over 200' down. This is NOT a job for the inexperienced by any stretch of the imagination. Just the dead weight of the water in the downpipe is unbelievable. Talk about bad advice!

I will give the sparkies one thing: Electric water heaters. Plumbers aren't very good with those and tend to encourage customers to simply replace them when something goes wrong. It's one of those things where if a "pro" doesn't understand it, then it needs to be replaced.

Hey, there's wires connected to it; therefore...

I work on water heaters all the time, although I am getting out of it. Too much of a PITA having to go back after the tank has emptied to change the lower element. I might still diagnose, but that's it.

For pumps, I stop at proving power's there. After that I have to agree with it being the plumber's job & responsibility.

my well pump is 485 ft down, it's a 1 hp pump and it craps out about every 6 years (very hard water) I call a plumber, but I rent an "Up z daisy" power lift to pull it up. It's a pain and it takes up all or more of my property to lay out the pipe and wire, not to mention the friends I have to call in to help. But the plumber removes and re-installs the pump. I could prolly do it myself, but I prefer to have someone with some experience in the trade do it.

Sparkie may just be responding to the customer. "There's no rope, so it must operate on 'lectricity, call the 'lectric guy."
But, I wouldn't attempt to pull a pump after watching install and 'education' on a "This Old House" several years ago! Altho the height above sea level is probably less than 100 feet, semi- potable water is probably 250 feet down, with my luck! And here I am considering doing the well thing to become less dependent on others. My luck? I'll have the water tested and find out I'm eligible for 'superfund' contamination site designation! John C.