No water! Help, please!

[Phantomfyre]

Everything was fine until just a few minutes ago. I took a shower about an hour ago - no problems. I just turned on the faucet to get a drink, and... nothing. So I checked the breaker box, all looks fine. But the pressure tank gauge reads 0. There is a valve the I *suspect* is the main water line into the house, but not sure because the previous owners drywalled the utility room and I can't see where anything comes from/goes to. This line says, for some reason, "DO NOT SHUT." So I shut it to see what would happen, and the pressure reading on the gauge went up rapidly. So I opened the valve again and it dropped back to 0. Has our well pump failed? What should I look for? Help? Please?

[moopups]

Sounds like a major leak after the valve, if the tank fills without hesitation there is nothing wrong with the well, something is wrong somewhere on down the line.

[agmantoo]

shut the valve again and let the pressure come back up on the gauge. Slowly open the valve while watching the gauge. ONLY OPEN the valve enough to where the gauge will hold at 20 PSI. You should have water! Is this a jet pump or a submersible? Return here ASAP.

[Phantomfyre]

Sorry for the delay getting back here. I shut off that "DO NOT SHUT" valve again, and nothing happened this time, so maybe the first time there was just some back pressure in the lines somewhere. No pressure now. The capacitor/power box for the well pump would come on, hum, and then shut off, like it was trying to fire the pump. I shut off the breaker to the well pump for a little bit to let the system cool down and hoping it would re-fire, but that didn't work. Same deal - capacitor/power box would hum in the basement and quit, then try again a minute or so later, with nothing happening on the pressure gauge. We pulled the panel off that capacitor/power box to check the capacitor, and it looked fine. So unless I'm still missing something, I think the pump is shot. I *believe* it is a submersible pump and not a jet pump. That's what it says inside the capacitor/power box. A neighbor said I should worry about freezing lines because it's cold out there tonight (around 0) but if the lines are in the house and we have heat, I don't think that will be a concern, will it? We shut off the water heater (set it to "pilot") so that won't run...

Thank you for your help!!!

[agmantoo]

Sorry for not getting back after your last post. I waited from the original but then had company.
Since you have a control box with the cap and the relay you have a submersible pump. What you are observing at the box is normal, however the relay or capacitor could be defective. There are numerous causes for the symptoms you are experiencing. You need to determine that you have 230 volts at the pressure switch. You need to look at the points in the pressures switch to verify they are good, one set could be fried! The pump could have motor problems and not be pumping, the down pipe in the well could have a hole worn in it and the water could be dumping back into the well. The wiring feeding the motor on the pump could be worn through. The pipe coming to the house could have a hole in it. You could have an outside faucet open/burst and the well has dropped below where the pump can pick up water. You need to start eliminating causes. Reset the breaker/check the fuses feeding the pump, check the voltage if you can. Check the pressure switch contact points, see that both sets of points are closed. Look for water leaking outside. If none of this gets the pump running you will have to get someone with experience to trouble shoot the system. Where are your pressure switch and storage tank located? The bottom of the pressure switch could be frozen and the points are open in the pressure switch, you can tell if the points are open by visual observation. PS....I reread you post and since the control box is being activated the pressure switch is working but you still need to verify that you have 230 volts.

[Phantomfyre]

Agmantoo, thank you so much for your getting back to me. I did reset the breakers, and tried shutting them off for about a half hour and flipping them back on, but that didn't make any difference. Don't hear any water running anywhere with the breaker on - the only sound is the capacitor box hum when it kicks on to try to fire the well pump. But then it overrides and shuts off for a minute, then tries again. No spewing spigots anywhere. The house was built in 1990, so the well isn't that old and I would hope the pipes and casing are still okay, but you never know... Everything is in the warm basement, so the pressure switch isn't frozen. I pulled the cap off the pressure switch just now and had a look at the contacts and they *look* good. While I was down there, I had another good look at the capacitor, and I do see what looks like maybe a little corrosion seeping out of one side, so maybe that IS the problem. Oh, I hope that's it!!!

Turns out a neighbor's brother has a well & pump service, and he just called back. He's going to swing by in the morning on the way to another job and have a quick look at the pressure switch and capacitor to see if it's something simple.

In the process of troubleshooting here tonight, I think I have also uncovered another problem, which might have lead to this... I think our pressure tank might have lost its charge. I kept thinking I was hearing the pressure switch click, but I would go down in the basement and wait, and could NEVER catch it, so thought maybe it was something else. But in the past few hours, I've learned several things about our water system, and think that might have been a contributing factor. If I understand correctly, that's something I can fix myself with our air compressor. The tank says the factory setting is 30 psi, and the pressure switch says "On - 30 psi, Off - 50 psi," so I should just be able to add air to the tank to 30 psi and be okay, right? I didn't know pressure tanks need to be charged annually.

Now I just need to figure out how to change a whole-house filter, and I think I'll have our goofy water system mostly figured out! Figured out, but not straightened out - can you believe when they set this up (previous owners), they didn't have a line out BEFORE the water softener? So the outside spigots are all softened water. And I'll be darned if I can figure out where the water line to the barn is. I need to tear the drywall out of the untility room so I can get a good look at the lines. But that's a project for another day!

[agmantoo]

Your tank is a bladder tank and if the air is missing the bladder is ruptured and that would cause the pump to cycle frequently. The frequent cycling is hard on the submersible pump/motor. You will need to replace the tank. Buy the largest tank your budget will permit. The proper setting for the air tank is 2 psi below the cut in pressure of the pressure switch. IE.. if the pressure switch trips in at 30 PSI then you need to have the air set to 28 PSI with NO water in the tank. The best bladder tanks are Flecon products sold under the names Champion, Challenger, H2Pro, WellRite, WellXtrol. The WellMate fiberglass tanks are nice in that they do not rust but the bladders in those do not hold up.

[Phantomfyre]

The well man just left, and it turns out it WAS just a bad capacitor. Whew! He checked the pressure tank, too, and it was a little low on air, but not ruptured. He adjusted the pressure switch and pressure in the tank so we have a little better water pressure in the house, which will be wonderful - heaven forbid you'd run two sources of water in this house at a time before this - both would slow to a trickle.

But I'm going to write down that info about pressure tanks for the future.

This wasn't the most fun experience I've had, but it certainly was educational.

Thanks again for your help!!!

[GrannyG]

So glad the water is back on...I know the feeling when you go to water the critters and there is no water ! Now you can have a Happy New Year !