Another well/pressure question

[good2beus]

I've seen some questions about wells here lately - I guess now it's my turn! We have been in this house since last August. We have hard water - iron and minerals, and we have a filter between the holding tank (that fills from the well) and the water softener. (Softener was new in September) Lately, pressure has been down a little at every faucet (first noticed it when we began using an outside faucet for the garden: coincidence or not...) Water is steady, in that I can run 4 or 5 loads of laundry, we take showers, water the garden and there's always "enough" it's just that the pressure is not what it was. This morning I noticed that the "holding tank" seems empty. I can "rock it" easily on it's platform - but the well pump seems to be running (constantly??) and we have water. Like it's bypassing the holding tank? When Steve gets home from yet another 14 hour day at work, he will take a look at it, maybe lots of sediment in the tank?? "Mineral clog" somewhere? Meanwhile, I'm at work all day too, and we shut the electric to the pump off because it does not seem to stop on it's own. (Submersible pump) Don't know much about the well. House built in 1960. Any ideas? One other thing - the last time we changed the filter i think it had gone a little too long and it was quite dirty. HELP!!

[cfabe]

How did you know the pump was running constantly if you have a submersible pump?

The pressure tank changes between nearly empty and nearly full as your pump cycles. If you happened to stop using water just before the pump would turn on, the tank would feel light and easy to rock. I've noticed this on mine. This is normal.

I think the pressure loss you experience is the filter starting to clog up and not a pump/tank problem.

[good2beus]

When I put my hand around the line coming in from the well I could feel the vibration of the water moving in it. When we turned off the breaker is the only time it stopped. I believe it is a sediment/buildup/maintenance issue also, but just wanted your opinions.

[agmantoo]

I do things systematically. First I would verify the pump and associated plumbing is OK. I would have a known good pressure gauge installed. Then I would isolate the well and associated plumbing from the rest of the house. This would be accomplished by shutoff valves. At this point I would start the well pump and I would watch the points in the pressure switch. The pressure switch points should now be closed and the pump should be running. Observe the pressure gauge. The pressure should be rising. Depending on the settings of the pressure switch you have when the pressure builds to 40, 50 or 60 PSI the points in the pressure switch should open. At this time the tank should have water in it and the pressure gauge pressure should hold steady and not drop. If the pressure drops there is a problem. If the pump continues to run and the pressure ceases to rise to 40 PSI or above there is a problem. If all is OK, open a faucet and open the shutoff valve and observe the pressure gauge and the pressure switch points. When the pressure switch points snap shut determine from the pressure switch the pressure. Remember this pressure number. Shut the power off to the pump and let the system drain completely. Get a tire pressure gauge and remove the cover from the schrader valve on the top of the bladder tank. Read the pressure with the tire valve. This setting must be at least 2 PSI below the pressure that the pressure switch points closed(the pressure reading I told you to remember). Using the schrader valve either let air out or add air to meet this spec. The well should now be verified OK or you should have identified a problem exits. If you have a problem come back here if you cannot locate the cause and I will assist.

[good2beus]

Thank you, cfabe and agmantoo!! You folks are the best! When Steve gets home he can read these replies and get started. I won't pretend to understand all of what you said, but I can appreciate your approach, agmantoo - makes sense to me. We will come back and report how it is going and what we find. Thanks again!

[good2beus]

Thank you for all of your great advice. We think we have it diagnosed, there is a control box as well as the pressure switch and all things lead to the control box being bad, we were consulting with a friend who is a plumber as we were working on it. As of right now the pump will not start, and our plumber friend will be here in the morning.

Steve

[agmantoo]

There are 2 main components in the control box, a capacitor and a relay. Either could be bad but I would suspect the capacitor. Look at the capacitor for it to be leaking or bulging at the end with the wires attached. The control box can be repaired and you do not have to change the entire box out.

[good2beus]

The capacitor is what we tried first thing this morning. Still no luck. So we went to the well and were going to pull the pump, but found it to be the original, from almost 50 years ago, and was all metal pipe, not plastic. So we called in the pump service. They were here for 2 hours, job done, new pump, ($$$, oh well) plastic pipe, new wiring - good to go. I mentioned in the first post - our water is full of minerals, and the inside of the pipes were full of charcoal-looking pieces from over the years of build-up, and he confirmed what we thought we knew - pump was running constantly - never shutting off, just to bring up the water it did. (He said we should now see a little savings on our electric bill!) Good news - excellent well - water at 60 feet, drilled to about 165, pump at 145. A neighbor walked over to tell us when they drilled this well they couldn't measure the flow, there was so much water. So there it is - excellent service from the pump company - still wish it wasn't the pump because of the cost, but hopefully won't have to worry about that again!! Thanks guys for all your help. We appreciate it.

[Mr. Ed]

Hi good2beus,
This site http://www.greenroadfarm.com/wells.html has a lot of information about well troublshooting.
Good luck,
Mr. Ed