Bit of an emergency with pitless adapter

[amandalynnwrigh]

Background:
-in last 3 weeks, pressure switch has gone from cycling every hour without any water use to 5-10 minutes
-after much investigation, finally found very soggy spot next to well
-after turning off power to pumpm started digging and found extremly saturated soil all around well casing
-called around for opinions of the problem and consistantly came back with bad pitless adapter
-no one can come out and fix it for at least 4 days
-everyone I consulted was very concerned about me using well for 4-6 days with it cycling so often, but have no other source of domestic water.I

Questions:
1. Would it be very bad for the pump if I were to keep using it for the next 4-6 days? (I understand the hole would fill back up with water, but we have no other source of domestic water - if bad we could find somewhere to stay)

2. On a scale of 1-10, how hard would it be to fix the pitless adapter myself, and how would this be done? The well is probably more than 100' deep, the pitless adapter is about 4' down, 3/4" pvc pipe into the house.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[joed]

First- You should be able to see where the leak is. Water will be coming out.
second- Use the water. Turn the pump on only when you are going to use water. It will be a bit tedious but you will have water.

Is this a sumbersible pump? or a jet pump?

[waterdoc]

Most likely, the break is not the actual pitless adapter but the pipe adapter that screws into it. This should be a relatively easy fix. It will make your job a lot easier if you make sure to dig a big enough hole to work in to begin with. Once dug out, the leak should be clearly visable and what materials you need will be evident.
Waterdoc

[amandalynnwrigh]

Thanks for the response. It is a submersible pump. Based on other wells in the surounding area, the well was estimated to be about 180' deep by well guy who came out at first occurance of problem about 3 weeks ago.

I've turned on the water when needed and turned the pump off when I knew I wouldn't be using it for a long time. Nice to know I probably won't kill my pump right away because of this.

After opening well casing cap, I messured from the top of the well casing (casing sticks up about 8" from ground) to where I could see a pipe going out the side (the pitless adapter?). It's about 4'. I keet digging around the outside of the casing, but it's slow going. Even with the water turned off, I hit water every few inches. I see it start to bubble up about a foot away from the well casing. I stop digging, let water drain for awhile, then dig some more. Looks like this puppy has been leaking a long time :)

I've scheduled a pump guy to come out next week. I should have it dug out by then. If I dig it out and it looks like I can fix it, I'll fix it myself and cancel the pump guy. If not, I'll keep the appointment.