Well and pressure tank

yeeyee

yeeyee

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I know we have a resident HVAC guy and a Propane and propane accessories guy. But do we have a well and pressure tank guy? I need a brain to pick.

My water pressure has been slowly dwindling. The TubeofYou has said its the pressure tank and the way to check it is by releasing air from the Schrader valve to see if water comes out. If water DOESNT come out then its good. As also instructed I refilled it with 38 psi which is 2 psi less than the turn on psi (40 psi). Which I've done. In the past week my water pressure has become worse. I notice when I actuate the 40/60 switch manually the psi on the gauge at the bottom of the pressure tank dumps to about <20psi and I hear gurgling sounds coming from my pipes. When I release it the psi on the gauge slowly goes back up to 38-40psi.

I bought something to assist me in cleaning out my water heater which will arrive on Sunday. But I also notice it's affecting the cold water too. so i dont believe its my water heaters.

My water filter to the house says it's 1 micron with carbon so its black, that I changed to Jan 1st 2024. Prior to that I had a filter that looked like a cylindrical roll of yarn.

The breakers are on and not tripping.

That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks in advance
 
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I had the same issue several years ago. No water out of the Schrader valve, but the gurgling sound was present. The bladder was leaking slowly.
Replaced the pressure tank and the problem was solved.

I also installed a 20-40 pressure switch to take some of the higher pressure load off of the system. It has worked fine for the last 9 years.
 
Is there a way to tell if my pressure switch is a 20/40 or a 40/60? I don't see it on any labels. Tubeyou said 40/60 is the most common so I only assumed mine is a 40/60
 
yeeyee said:
Is there a way to tell if my pressure switch is a 20/40 or a 40/60? I don't see it on any labels. Tubeyou said 40/60 is the most common so I only assumed mine is a 40/60
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Mine had the pressure rating on a sticker inside the cap.

You could turn on the bathtub and then watch the gage drop untill it kicks on, then rise untill it shuts off. Note the pressures at the "on" and "off"
 
Usually you just look at the guage to see what pressures that it turns on and off at. Typically they are 20/40, 30/50 and 40/60. I much prefer the 40/60 for the higher water pressure.

Is your well a submersible pump, or a jet pump? With either one, you could have a problem with either the check valve (submersible) or the foot valve (jet).

Do you have an inline shut off valve between your pressure tank and the line going to your house? If so, shut it off and see if your pressure remains steady for 15 min or so. If the pressure drops, you may have a bad check valve that is allowing the tank to bleed back down into the well.
 
I had the same problem as you are describing the end of last year. The bladder in the pressure tank went out. Of course I also had to replace my well pump too, which was a totally separate issue or so I thought. But the check valve had gone bad which might have caused the bladder to go bad.
 
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yeeyee said:
I have no idea, how do I tell?
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Submersible pumps only have the pressure tank and pressure switch above ground, with a single line pipe of the well casing and the electric wire goes down the well.

Jet pumps have a pump and motor assembly located off to the side of the well head, with either one or two lines running from the well head to the pump, and then a separate line from the pump to the manifold on the pressure tank. No electric wire running down the well casing - only the one or two water pipes.
 
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Scsmith42 said:
Submersible pumps only have the pressure tank and pressure switch above ground, with a single line pipe of the well casing and the electric wire goes down the well.

Jet pumps have a pump and motor assembly located off to the side of the well head, with either one or two lines running from the well head to the pump, and then a separate line from the pump to the manifold on the pressure tank. No electric wire running down the well casing - only the one or two water pipes.
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Okay thanks, I have to check when I get home from work. I'm pretty sure I might have a submersible.
 
yeeyee said:
Okay thanks, I have to check when I get home from work. I'm pretty sure I might have a submersible.
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If you have a jet pump at or near the wellhead, you should be able to hear it running when it kicks on.

You wont hear a submersible pump
 
Hashknife said:
If you have a jet pump at or near the wellhead, you should be able to hear it running when it kicks on.

You wont hear a submersible pump
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Okay then I have a submersible, I've never heard anything. 😅 UNLESS because it's inside a cylindrical concrete tomb and is packed with insulation
 
yeeyee said:
Okay thanks, I have to check when I get home from work. I'm pretty sure I might have a submersible.
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ok. Shut the valve off that should be between the well tank and the line to your house. See if the gauge drops down. If it doesn't, the problem is most likely your bladder, which means that you'll need a new pressure tank. I just replaced the one for my shop and it was less than 10 years old.

If the gauge drops, then the problem is most likely the check valve that is typically installed between your submersible pump and the down pipe. Sometimes you can alleviate the problem by adding a second check valve inline in-between the well head and the pressure tank. Some installations have the check valve located in the well house, but I always preferred to install mine at the top of the submersible pump.

Check valve looks like this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/STAR-Water-Systems-Brass-Check-Valve/1000667291
 
Scsmith42 said:
ok. Shut the valve off that should be between the well tank and the line to your house. See if the gauge drops down. If it doesn't, the problem is most likely your bladder, which means that you'll need a new pressure tank.
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THANK YOU.

Scsmith42 said:
Check valve looks like this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/STAR-Water-Systems-Brass-Check-Valve/1000667291
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Okay I've never seen that inside so I'll need to check outside. Do they ever bury those things?
 
yeeyee said:
I know we have a resident HVAC guy and a Propane and propane accessories guy. But do we have a well and pressure tank guy? I need a brain to pick.

My water pressure has been slowly dwindling. The TubeofYou has said its the pressure tank and the way to check it is by releasing air from the Schrader valve to see if water comes out. If water DOESNT come out then its good. As also instructed I refilled it with 38 psi which is 2 psi less than the turn on psi (40 psi). Which I've done. In the past week my water pressure has become worse. I notice when I actuate the 40/60 switch manually the psi on the gauge at the bottom of the pressure tank dumps to about <20psi and I hear gurgling sounds coming from my pipes. When I release it the psi on the gauge slowly goes back up to 38-40psi.

I bought something to assist me in cleaning out my water heater which will arrive on Sunday. But I also notice it's affecting the cold water too. so i dont believe its my water heaters.

My water filter to the house says it's 1 micron with carbon so its black, that I changed to Jan 1st 2024. Prior to that I had a filter that looked like a cylindrical roll of yarn.

The breakers are on and not tripping.

That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...


My coworker just replaced his 30/50 and still had the pump cutting on like once a minute with really high pressure

He cleaned out the pipe that the pressure gauge was on and it was occluded with sediment, rust etc. It was causing a faulty reading so it was sending the wrong signals to the pump
 
11B CIB said:
My coworker just replaced his 30/50 and still had the pump cutting on like once a minute with really high pressure

He cleaned out the pipe that the pressure gauge was on and it was occluded with sediment, rust etc. It was causing a faulty reading so it was sending the wrong signals to the pump
Click to expand...
I will be cleaning things out Sunday Thank you for this
 
yeeyee said:
THANK YOU.


Okay I've never seen that inside so I'll need to check outside. Do they ever bury those things?
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Rarely. It should either be installed between the submersible pump and the down pipe, or in the pipe between the well head and the pressure tank. Usually it's at the top of the submersible pump, which means that you have to pull the well pipe in order to replace it.

A bad bladder will not cause the system to lose pressure if the tank and pump is isolated. That will only come from a leak somewhere.
 
Scsmith42 said:
Rarely. It should either be installed between the submersible pump and the down pipe, or in the pipe between the well head and the pressure tank. Usually it's at the top of the submersible pump, which means that you have to pull the well pipe in order to replace it.

A bad bladder will not cause the system to lose pressure if the tank and pump is isolated. That will only come from a leak somewhere.
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Thank you and thank you all, now I know I have a lot of homework to do this weekend.
 
Okay I just found out my switch is a 30/50. I lowered the PSI to 28psi in the tank. I flipped the breaker off then back on to "reset" anything. I don't see or hear the 30/50 switch triggering. Should I run some water?
 
yeeyee said:
Okay I just found out my switch is a 30/50. I lowered the PSI to 28psi in the tank. I flipped the breaker off then back on to "reset" anything. I don't see or hear the 30/50 switch triggering. Should I run some water?
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Yes neither gauges or pressure switches are exact. What @Scsmith42 said is correct. I would suspect check at top of pump. If you have a spigot on top of well, have someone cut off breaker and immediately open spigot if you hear water going down the well pipe it is check valve. Sometimes just checking tank pressure is not enough. With all pressure off the system, shake tank slightly - if it feels like there is still water in the tank the bladder has broken-no matter what the pressure check might say.
 
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I milked a bad bladder for a few years due to just being cheap and lazy, purging the water out of the bladder and resetting was more work than it was worth. The pressure tank finally gave up the ghost by rusting through, causing a pinhole leak in the tank itself. That was a new one on me, although I'm sure it's probably not that uncommon.
 
These 2 person troubleshooting tips are a little difficult at the moment. I live alone and the dog is useless. Haha. Not sure if any of the neighbors who are all old and atleast 200 yards away would want to help.

Update. The tank is at 28psi. The water is on. The 30/50 switch stays in the tripped position. The gauge is staying at 32ish psi. When I turn the water on I get good pressure for about a few minutes when I get back to the pressure tank the gauge is at 0psi but the Faucet in the laundry room is still running just above a trickle.

I am going to try and remove the concrete lid of my well to explore now.
 
So submersible -do you know depth? Maybe on metal tag on or near casing. You also could have a hole in the metal adapter on top of pump - I have seen that before.
 
I can't tell for sure but looks like you have an old 3 wire submersible -do you have a gray control box anywhere -maybe near the pump tank? If it's been in service that long I would bet you are looking at pump replacement if you have to take it out for leak repair.
 
Armed4defense said:
I can't tell for sure but looks like you have an old 3 wire submersible -do you have a gray control box anywhere -maybe near the pump tank? If it's been in service that long I would bet you are looking at pump replacement if you have to take it out for leak repair.
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There is a rusted out metal box that was laying at the bottom. There is a gray wire coming out of a black conduit coming out of the ground going to it then the other side has a yellow and black wire coming out.

Next to the black conduit has a group of red black and yellow wires. The yellow wire is the one going to the rusted out box. The red and black are open. I grabbed my meter to check of they are live
 
Then there is a gray wire coming from outside the tank that is wire nutted (haha nutted) into the yellow, red, and black wire going into the casing at the top to the pump
 
Maybe control box has been taken out of system and pump was replaced with 2 wire pump and original pump wire was used.
 
Really believe it is either bad check valve or hole in metal adapter at top of pump - without knowing depth I would hesitate pulling pump by hand without help.
 
There are such - 120Volt submersibles -what do you get at line terminals on switch?
 
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