help, please: no water

[bookfarmer]

I just did a minor plumbing repair, putting cut-off valves on the waterlines to a bathroom sink. I had shut off the main water before doing that, of course, and drained the lines. Now when I turned the main back on I don't get any water. The lines are still open to allow air to be expelled.

What did I do wrong? And how do I correct it?

Thanks.

[Gailann Schrader]

not to be too simplistic, but are you SURE you have the shut-offs turned back on? They are in line with the pipe flow?

Did your pump start running again?

Is the pressure switch ok?

Can you HEAR the pump?

Is there a second breaker for just the pump?

[bookfarmer]

not to be too simplistic, but are you SURE you have the shut-offs turned back on? They are in line with the pipe flow?

Yes. Same valve off, then on

Did your pump start running again?

No, which made me suspicious that something else was going on.

Is the pressure switch ok?

Don't know the answer to that.

Can you HEAR the pump?

No. The pump doesn't kick on.

Is there a second breaker for just the pump?

We checked all breakers, including for the well pump. All seemed fine.

UPDATE: We called the plumber and he went through what you asked. He then suggested calling a well repair outfit. Did that and he said sludge sometimes accumulates toward the bottom of the line system and stops everything up when the main line is shut off. He'll be out within the hour.

Oh, man! And all I wanted to do was save a little money by doing a pretty straight-forward upgrade. This is a manufactured home and we keep finding out things that make us realized they aren't the best deal going.

Will update when we have the problem solved. Thanks for your thinking.

[logbuilder]

From your note, I can't tell if you are on a well or city water. But....

If you are on a well, I can imagine one possible explaination.

If the main water cutoff you mention is between the well head and the pressure tank and that is what you turned off, when you released pressure on the house lines and drained them, if you didn't cut power to your pump, your pressure switch would have turned on the pump. The water cutoff valve would have prevented any pressure getting to the pressure switch so the well pump would stay on constantly. Depending on time, that could cause the pump to fail.

Hope this isn't the case.

[agmantoo]

Either you have no power to the pump itself or the prime has been lost. With more/better information a better answer could have been given.

[Danaus29]

Have you checked the pump switch? Not the breaker but the switch. Ours will automatically kick off when you drain the lines.

[Victoria-VA]

Can you hear the motor pumping water?

Maybe you lost prime in the pump depending on what type of pump you have.


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[watcher]

I'm guessing you have a safety on your pressure switch. Some pressure switches have an automatic cut off system in them to prevent the pump from running if there's no water being pumped. I had never heard of such a thing until I replaced the switch on my jet pump. I bought one because I didn't want to burn it up if someone (me) accidently shut off the water to it. Usually there's a little lever on one side of the pressure switch case. You pull or twist it and it forces the contacts together until the pump 'catches prime'.

If nothing else and you feel you have what it takes to keep from electrocuting yourself you can open the pressure switch case and use a well insulated item to push the contacts together manually. In some cases you can disconnect the power, push the contacts together then reapply the power but it depends on the switch.

[boonieman]

The gate could have come off inside the main isolation valve and perhaps not opening up internally even though the valve feels like it's operating normally. If you have a water hydrant outside before the line goes into the house, you can temporarily run a hose from the hydrant to a hose faucet on the house and get water until you make repairs. This will bypass the main isolation valve. *IF* it's a problem with the main cutoff valve.

[bookfarmer]

And the prize goes to Watcher! That turned out to be the main problem, plus the switch was quite corroded. Although not immediately affecting the problem, the well man (Mike) discovered that the pressure tank had developed a leak or break inside which had caused the pump to cycle too often trying to maintain pressure. It also contributed to the corrosion of the switch.

So a couple of hours and quite a few $$ later, we have water, a new switch, a new pressure tank, and while we were at it, changed filters. Whew!

As my husband said, "It's kind of like the one-hoss shay--one thing falls apart, then another, then another." I guess we were lucky that this happened on a mild day in June rather than during a weekend blizzard in January.

Thanks, everyone, for your thinking and suggestions. HT comes through again!!