aneighbor
New Member
Hello: I have a simple well system and on new years day I noticed my pump was not shutting off. The set points are 40/60 and the system does not want to reach the cut off pressure point of 60 psi.My pressure tank reading is set and was holding at 38psi. It is a 50 foot deep submersible pump in a steel casing with a single check valve threaded right onto the top of the pump.My first course of action was to close the main house shut off valve located directly after the pressure tank, this changed nothing (the pump kept trying to increase pressure but it could not achieve 60psi). I then turned off the well pump 220v wall switch. When I turned off the switch the pressure began to fall pretty rapidly. Maybe 45 seconds and the system pressure was zero and I heard water release back into the incoming well line through my foundation wall. I turned the well pump back on and she jumped immediately up to 40 plus and climbed to about 50 psi but no higher for several minutes, (this was w/ the house valve still closed). I turned the pump back off and again a repeat of watching the system pressure drop to zero within 45 seconds or so.
I went outside and checked the well casing as the system tried to fill again and checked for a pit-less adapter leak,(there was not a leak). I then pulled my pump and line out of the ground. I removed the 1-1/4 check valve and bench tested it 5-6 times by pouring water into it, (it held each time), I then went ahead and re-installed the check valve and replaced the 50 feet of 1 inch poly line.I Put her back in the ground and turned the system on again, I got the same results. I then lowered my tank air pressure to 28 psi and reset the pressure switch to 30/50 and retried the fill process, again and repeatedly the system could not achieve 50 psi to shut off the pump after several minutes. I then lowered the tank pressure to 22 psi and reset the pressure switch to cut out at 24/44. The system now will operate correctly (reaches new lower set point and kicks on and off accordingly) and does not leak down on the pressure gauge.
My question: The system leaked pressure rapidly before and after I serviced the check valve and replaced the incoming supply line from the pump to the pit-less connector. The only time it stopped leaking down is when I accommodated the pumps inability to reach the 60psi set point by reducing the pressure tank psi and by resetting the pressure switch settings down to 24/44. My thoughts are that the check is in fact defective when it is trying to hold system pressure at the higher 60psi setting? This doesn't make sense to me why the check would prohibit the system from reaching 60 psi during the fill cycle. I could understand that the check valve if defective may not hold pressure once the system is shut off (reached 60psi set point) but I don't understand why it would then appear to hold at 44psi? Oh and we have plenty of water and have used water as normal since I have lowered the pressure settings and pressure tank as required.We just have lower line pressure of course since I took the cutoff from 60 to 44psi.Your expertise is most appreciated.
I went outside and checked the well casing as the system tried to fill again and checked for a pit-less adapter leak,(there was not a leak). I then pulled my pump and line out of the ground. I removed the 1-1/4 check valve and bench tested it 5-6 times by pouring water into it, (it held each time), I then went ahead and re-installed the check valve and replaced the 50 feet of 1 inch poly line.I Put her back in the ground and turned the system on again, I got the same results. I then lowered my tank air pressure to 28 psi and reset the pressure switch to 30/50 and retried the fill process, again and repeatedly the system could not achieve 50 psi to shut off the pump after several minutes. I then lowered the tank pressure to 22 psi and reset the pressure switch to cut out at 24/44. The system now will operate correctly (reaches new lower set point and kicks on and off accordingly) and does not leak down on the pressure gauge.
My question: The system leaked pressure rapidly before and after I serviced the check valve and replaced the incoming supply line from the pump to the pit-less connector. The only time it stopped leaking down is when I accommodated the pumps inability to reach the 60psi set point by reducing the pressure tank psi and by resetting the pressure switch settings down to 24/44. My thoughts are that the check is in fact defective when it is trying to hold system pressure at the higher 60psi setting? This doesn't make sense to me why the check would prohibit the system from reaching 60 psi during the fill cycle. I could understand that the check valve if defective may not hold pressure once the system is shut off (reached 60psi set point) but I don't understand why it would then appear to hold at 44psi? Oh and we have plenty of water and have used water as normal since I have lowered the pressure settings and pressure tank as required.We just have lower line pressure of course since I took the cutoff from 60 to 44psi.Your expertise is most appreciated.
