Alphonse
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Good morning. I've been reading the posts here and everyone seems very helpful. I'm also one of those that lived with city water until 6 years ago when I bought this house. As you can imagine, I'm still learning about wells and septic tanks. While I THINK I know the problem with my Shallow well pump I need to make sure. Here's the deal: I have a Flotec 1/2 HP Shallow Well Pump, an "82 gallon equivalent" pre-charged Flotec Tank. I've got it pre-charged to 28, with a 30/50 setting. Both the tank and pump were installed 3 years ago. I noticed over the last few days that the pump is cycling every 3 or 4 minutes with no water being drawn. I checked to see if the bladder is blown, but no air is coming out of the valve. I drained the tank, re-set to 28 (it was down to about 22), and re-set to 30/50 (I was previously at 40/60--much better--but I thought I'd try a lower setting) I checked all connections and no air is leaking out (My tank has a "flange" at the bottom--have you heard of it leaking here?) It's turning on/off at the correct pressures, but once it turns off it slowly starts losing pressure until it hits the cut-in and cycles back on (about 3 or 4 minutes). Just before it hits the cut-in I can hear water moving somewhere in the pipes around the pump. I know that this will kill my pump and then I've got bigger problems. In addition, I believe it loses some of the prime everytime it turns on, which also is not good.
I turned off the water supply to the house and it still loses pressure. Therefore, I'm assuming it's the foot valve in the well. The well was dug about 45 years ago and quite frankly I don't know if the foot valve has ever been replaced.
I'm not sure if my pump has a check valve (Flotec 4112-08) but I'm not sure it would matter. If the foot valve is bad wouldn't it still loose all the water in the pipe and then suck air once the pump came back on? I also don't see any check valve in the line, just a connection at the foundation. However, maybe I just don't know what it would look like. I assumed it would be obvious. I called the manufacturer last night and she suggested looking at the pump impeller to see if it has something in it. Would this make sense that I would loose pressure?
Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm leaving work today at noon (eastern time) to see if there is anything else I can do before calling someone out. (I have 2 teenage kids, one in college, the insurance to go along with it and don't really want to spend the money!)
Thanks for listening.
I turned off the water supply to the house and it still loses pressure. Therefore, I'm assuming it's the foot valve in the well. The well was dug about 45 years ago and quite frankly I don't know if the foot valve has ever been replaced.
I'm not sure if my pump has a check valve (Flotec 4112-08) but I'm not sure it would matter. If the foot valve is bad wouldn't it still loose all the water in the pipe and then suck air once the pump came back on? I also don't see any check valve in the line, just a connection at the foundation. However, maybe I just don't know what it would look like. I assumed it would be obvious. I called the manufacturer last night and she suggested looking at the pump impeller to see if it has something in it. Would this make sense that I would loose pressure?
Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm leaving work today at noon (eastern time) to see if there is anything else I can do before calling someone out. (I have 2 teenage kids, one in college, the insurance to go along with it and don't really want to spend the money!)
Thanks for listening.