Most of it is water
Run the defaults: 200 ft of one inch poly, 0.16 lb a foot empty, with a 32 lb pump, 0.12 lb a foot of cable and a light safety rope. The pipe, cable and rope together come to 0.30 lb a foot. The water inside the pipe is 0.34 lb a foot. More than half of every hanging foot is the column of water, and it only exists because a check valve at the pump keeps the pipe full on the way up.
That single fact rearranges the job. The whole string laid out in air with the pipe full weighs 160 lb; drained it is 92 lb. All 8.16 gallons of it are riding up the hole with everything else.
Buoyancy gives back everything it lends
With static water at 60 ft, 140 of the 200 ft start out submerged. The pipe wall displaces its outside volume down there, so buoyancy is taking 83 lb off, and the pump body another 15. The load at the wellhead when nothing has moved yet is 62 lb.
Pull 140 ft and the pump reaches the water line. The string is now only 60 ft long, but none of it is buoyed any more and the load is 70 lb — the heaviest point of the entire job, at the moment when there is least pipe left in the hole. Everything after that gets lighter, ending at 32 lb of bare pump.
Whether the load climbs the whole way up or dips first comes down to a single comparison, which is why the page runs it rather than stating it. A hanging foot of the default string weighs 0.64 lb and displaces 0.593 lb of water, so while the string is still submerged the load eases very slightly — 62 lb at the start, 58 lb halfway — and then jumps 15 lb when the pump body leaves the water. Make the pipe heavier, or the bore larger relative to the wall, and the dip deepens until the start becomes the heaviest moment instead. Across a sweep of settings, static levels, pipe weights and bores, the peak never falls below the starting load, but it sits at the pump-clears-the-water moment in only about a fifth of them. The shape of the pull is not a rule; it is a property of the pipe.
When the water stops being the story
The water share is a property of the pipe rather than a rule. One inch poly at 0.16 lb a foot carries 0.34 lb a foot of water, so with the cable and rope the dry side is 0.30 and the water wins comfortably. Put the same bore in steel, which is an order of magnitude heavier per foot, and the water is a small minority of the load. The boundary is easy to state and easy to test: the water is more than half of a hanging foot exactly when the pipe, the cable and the rope together weigh less per foot than the water inside the pipe. The page computes that split from whatever weight per foot you enter rather than assuming a material, because the answer flips between two pipes that look alike in a catalogue.
What the arithmetic cannot see
It assumes a clean vertical string that comes up freely. It ignores buoyancy on the cable and rope, which is small and errs on the heavy side; it treats the pump as fully in or fully out of the water rather than halfway; and it takes the water level as fixed, when in reality pulling a pump disturbs it. It knows nothing about friction against the casing, a torque arrestor catching a joint, mineral scale, or a pump that has been sitting in the same hole for eighteen years.
Every one of those makes the real load higher and less predictable than the number here, which is the honest reason this page prints weights and stops. It gives no procedure for pulling anything. The string is heavy, it hangs over an open hole in a drinking water source, the conductors in it are live until somebody makes them otherwise, and the geometry of the whole situation means that anything dropped goes to the bottom and stays there.
Questions people ask
How much does a well pump weigh to pull?
Far more than the pump. On the defaults — 200 ft of one inch poly with a 32 lb pump and cable — the load at the wellhead starts at 62 lb and peaks at 70 lb, and the whole string laid out full of water is 160 lb. The pump itself is a fifth of that. The pipe and the water in it are the job.
Why does the weight go up as I pull?
Because buoyancy is holding up everything below the water line, and each foot that comes out of the hole stops being held up. With static water at 60 ft on a 200 ft setting, 140 ft is buoyed at the start, taking about 98 lb off the load. By the time the pump reaches the surface none of that help is left, which on these numbers puts the heaviest moment 140 ft into the pull. On a heavier pipe the dip in the middle is deeper and the first lift is the worst of it instead, so the page locates the peak rather than telling you where to expect it.
Does the drop pipe stay full of water?
If there is a check valve at the pump, yes, and on light poly that water is more than half the load. Switch the form to the draining option and the same string weighs 92 lb in air instead of 160. Whether your pipe holds water is a matter of what is fitted, and it is worth knowing before anyone takes hold of it.
Is steel or poly heavier to pull?
Steel, by a long way, and the difference is in the pipe rather than the water. One inch poly runs around 0.16 lb a foot and the water inside it 0.34; the same bore in steel is an order of magnitude heavier per foot while carrying exactly the same water. The page computes the split for whatever weight per foot you enter rather than assuming a material.
Can I pull my own pump?
This page will not answer that and gives no procedure, deliberately. What it gives you is the weight, which is one input into the decision. The others are an open hole in your drinking water supply, live conductors, a string that goes to the bottom if it is dropped, and the fact that a pump which has been in the ground for years does not always come up when asked. Steel drop pipe is an order of magnitude heavier per foot than poly and changes the answer entirely.