2500-gallon storage tank is filling as intended. For the first 800 gallons or so, I set the water heater switch to the on position; after that, I'll revert to the programmed late-night, off-peak top-offs as called for by the float switch. I now have one night's filling under my belt, and it reached the 2000-gallon mark.
BTW, I installed a spin-down filter between the well pump and the storage tank intake, and it has already accumulated a noticeable amount of black grit that would have found its way to the bottom of the storage tank and possibly the kitchen faucet filter!
After getting the storage tank water level well above the intake pipe to the jet pump, I fired it up and followed the Pside-Kick instructions to dial in the running pressure, with a 2-3 gallon-per-minute flow, at 50 psi. It took only a slight tweak because it was pretty close as delivered. Then I shut off the faucet and watched the pressure climb to 60 psi, whereupon the pressure switch shut the pump off. I turned the faucet back on and watched the pressure fall to 40 psi, at which point the pump came back on and moved the pressure back up to 50 psi and held it until I shut the faucet off.
There were a few drip-leaks at the pipe-thread joints, and I opted to shut off the pump, drain the lines, and then disassemble, clean threads, install more Teflon tape (a couple of turns more than I used the first time), and then reassembled. I took care not to over-torque, but my arthritic hands aren't strong enough to apply the usual adage for Schedule 40 PVC assembly (hand-tight plus a half turn). I cheated and used a 12" pipe wrench and a lot of caution. Once the system was re-pressurized, the leaks were gone. From the CSV, the water line goes through a 20-inch whole-house filter and then through the old pressure tank. I changed none of the plumbing at the old pressure tank, even leaving in place the old pressure switch. Per Terry's advice last year, I figured I'd just leave the old tank in place and continue to use it until it fails. At that point, I'll see how it goes with just the CSV.
Until this afternoon, we noticed no difference (or a slight pressure improvement) in the flow in our various faucets, showers, and toilets. Then, my wife noticed a marked reduction in the pressure and water volume delivered at one of the outside faucets. She left that faucet on, using it with a hose to top off our garden pond, while she went in to use the bathroom. To our consternation, she discovered that there was no pressure (as in, dry) at any of the faucets in either of the bathrooms. I turned off the outside faucet, and pressure resumed normally in the bathrooms. This particular outside faucet is at the other end of the house from the bathrooms. I checked a different outside faucet, and got the same pressure loss. We have never observed this problem before, although we have seen a reduction in indoor pressure when we have an outside faucet on. I have no plumbing diagrams for this 22-year-old house. It's built on a slab, and some of the plumbing is in the attics, which I have been reluctant to enter today because it's 100 degrees outside. I'm wondering whether the higher operating pressure of the new system might have blown out a joint somewhere. The old system ran on a 30-50 psi pressure switch, and the new one runs on a 40-60 psi switch. I have inspected all around the house, including the ceilings, and can find no obvious evidence of a leak. The jet pump is not coming on except when we run a faucet. Does anyone have any ideas?
We are expecting a houseful of company tomorrow, so I'm thinking about jumpering the old pressure switch and switching the valves back to the original configuration until I figure out what's going on. However, if the problem is in the house, the newly-observed problems would likely persist. It seems that, as long as we don't run an outside faucet, everything inside the house is fine.
