Question about brass check valves...

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Huntersdad

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Hi. My parents and I live in two separate houses on the same property. The well water comes up from the submersible tank into their basement and then it comes over to my house. We have intermittent problems with the water. At my parents request, I've changed the well pump, quadrupled the size of the pressurized holding tank, and changed the pressure switch. My question is do the brass check valves like the one in my pic below go bad or can they get "gunked up" with hard water deposits? I see that this one has the air stem but our system uses a pressurized holding tank so this fitting is useless, right?
 
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Reach4

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submersible tank into their basement
If you meant that the water comes up from the submersible pump into their basement, then good.

In that case, it would be better to not have a checkvalve there at all. The only one you would have ideally would be at the pump. That way if there is a tiny leak in the drop pipe or if you have the old drain back valve still in the drop pipe, the pressure tank can keep the line pressurized -- just running the pump on occasion to compensate for the leak. If the pump runs often, you would get the leak fixed.

The next time that you replace the pressure switch, or maybe before, it would be better to switch to a brass nipple.

Regarding gunked up check valves, I don't have experience. I know the path to gauges and pressure switches can get gunked up. I wonder if there is a way to remove the check valve innards and just use that housing as a manifold for the pressure gauge and pressure switch.
 

Craigpump

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The spring can break in those check valves but it's pretty rare.

I'm more inclined to think that the steel nipple under the pressure switch is plugged up. Steel and brass don't get along well and we see this problem quite often.
 

Valveman

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I also would replace the nipple on the pressure switch with a 1/4 X 3 brass nipple. But if the tee to the other house is prior to this tank the check valve or at least the guts to the check valve should be removed.
 
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