Well pump cycle

[Ramz28]

Hi everyone. Im new to owning a house with a well system. It seems straight foward but complicated.. hopefully all you gurus can help me. Ive lived here for 8 months with no water problems except for very high tds meter reading if that matters (550ish). Heres the story:

I took a hot shower,nothing long or fancy my typical shower. When i came out i heard my pump running. My wife went and took a shower and she said the water turned off 3 times. When i turned on the sink no water came out. I hear the pump turn on and off every 45secs or so. It stays running for 45s and then off. It foes that till it reaches 60psi. The pump is set to 40-60.

I have drained all the water from well tank and checked air pressure its 38psi. I turned pump back on went to 41psi and started to cycle on and off until it reached 60. No water was being used during the test. What should i be looking for ? Is this a common problem? Simple fix? Any other info you need plz let me know. Thanks..

 

[Craigpump]

Sounds like a plugged nipple under the pressure switch or a faulty pressure switch

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Ramz28]

Gray box is pressure switch? What would be the clogged nipple? Thanks

 

[Reach4]

Nipple to the pressure switch.

 

[Ramz28]

Thank you. I will remove it and clean/ replace it tomorrow night

 

[Reach4]

I did not follow your symptoms myself, but I hope you fix your pressure problem. Pressure switches are cheap if the problem is the switch.

Since you are a new well owner, I suggest a water test of your raw well water:
K-60 http://www.karlabs.com/watertestkit/ To measure softness yourself, the Hack 5B test is really good, but the lab test covers a lot more than softness. You will want to measure softness after your softener at times.

Maybe you already have some treatment equipment that came with the house.

I also suggest sanitizing your system at some point.

 

[Craigpump]

You're far better off with a local lab, bacteria must be set ASAP after sampling, within 24 hours and it should be kept chilled.
Sending it in by mail doesn't guaranty either.

 

[Valveman]

A clogged nipple to the pressure switch will keep the pump from coming on when it should. But it usually doesn't make the pump stop before the pressure reaches 60. I am afraid the overload in the motor is tripping. It resets itself in a minute or so and tries again. And it will keep doing this until the pressure reaches 60 so the pressure switch keeps it shut off.

 

[Ramz28]

Lol i was just about to post a question about that. I explained what was happening to a buddy of mine. His first question was if the pressure switch was clicking on and off when the pump was turninf on and off. I said no it clicks at 40 and at 60 but not in betweeen when the pump turned off. He said its my pump. Its overheating and tripping internal breaker. He said i need a new pump. How likely is that? Whats the difficulty in replacing the pump and setting the prime again?

 

[Ramz28]

Also i had the water tested before we purchased. It failed for total coliform. Seller shocked well and had it retested. It has passed. I have a filter after the well tank and after about a month the filter looks like a block of cement. I replace it every 3 weeks.

 

[Reach4]

Also i had the water tested before we purchased.

What was the level for iron, manganese, sulfate, hardness? Anything else remarkable?

You said your filter element looks like a block of cement after 3 weeks. So that would be gray, rather than red or black. How large is that element?

 

[Valveman]

Lol i was just about to post a question about that. I explained what was happening to a buddy of mine. His first question was if the pressure switch was clicking on and off when the pump was turninf on and off. I said no it clicks at 40 and at 60 but not in betweeen when the pump turned off. He said its my pump. Its overheating and tripping internal breaker. He said i need a new pump. How likely is that? Whats the difficulty in replacing the pump and setting the prime again?

You most likely need a new pump. That looks like a WX202 or 203 tank. That tank only holds about 5 or 7 gallons of water. That would be a so called "properly sized tank" for a 7 GPM pump. "Properly sized tank" means the pump will cycle on and off about every minute or so. That many cycles will use up the number of cycles that a pump is designed to last in an average of about 7 years. If your lines and/or the tank is clogged with debris, then the number of cycles will increase and the life of your pump will decrease.

The automatic overload in the motor is designed to keep resetting itself so you won't know there is a problem until the pump is destroyed. If you had a manual reset overload, you would have known there was a problem a long time ago and could have done something to eliminate the cycling before it destroyed your pump. Once you notice the overload tripping there is not much you can do but replace the pump/motor.

 

[Ramz28]

What was the level for iron, manganese, sulfate, hardness? Anything else remarkable?

You said your filter element looks like a block of cement after 3 weeks. So that would be gray, rather than red or black. How large is that element?

Ok the filter is gray when i take it out and very solid. I jut checked the test that the home inspector sent out. It soesnt mention anything except coliform and ecoli. Ecoli came back neg and coliform +. Then the well was treated. It always comes out grey. No smell or anything. I havent drank the water or cooked with it. My dogs drink it with no ill effects..
It looks like your standard home depot white canister inline filter. Maybe a 1ft tall. What bothered me about the water is, in nyc my tap water measured 30ppm on a tds meter. Here measured 800ppm then aftrr a few filter changes and running water for hrs, its not 550ish. I was looking for a softner but a few of my neighbors say the water is fine and they use it for 40yrs they lived there..


Thanks for the help. I will pull the floor bored up and check what pump it is and buy a replacement. Maybe next yr i will change the tank to a larger tank and pump. Unless i can buy a bigger pump now? TIA

 

[Valveman]

Maybe next yr i will change the tank to a larger tank and pump. Unless i can buy a bigger pump now? TIA

A larger tank will just reduce the cycling somewhat. A larger pump will increase the cycling. Using a CSV will eliminate cycling and you can use as large a pump as you want.

 

[Reach4]

Ok the filter is gray when i take it out and very solid. I jut checked the test that the home inspector sent out. It soesnt mention anything except coliform and ecoli. Ecoli came back neg and coliform +. Then the well was treated. It always comes out grey. No smell or anything. I havent drank the water or cooked with it. My dogs drink it with no ill effects..

I would do a more complete T-60 water test as suggested above. If you get a backwashing filter to handle any other thing(s) in your water, you get particulate filtering down to some size as a bonus.

But for the sediment thing, your water to your outside spigots probably bypasses that filter. In addition to water testing, I suggest you fill a big glass or jar with water from the outside spigot. See how long it takes for the material you are filtering to settle out.

If you are going to continue with cartridge filters, I suggest a bigger filter. The 4.5x20 inch Pentek Big Blue housings will filter a lot more before clogging. Plus there is a wide variety of cartridges available. Sometimes you will want two housings -- the first with a courser filter and the second with a finer filter. The Pentek DGD-5005-20 filter element is a 50...5 micron filter with courser filter material on the outer part of the cartridge and finer inside.

 

[Ramz28]

Ok after many hrs of diggin and removing floor boards i still cant find my pump... looked in the well and saw this....

Under my stairs in the utility room is this...

I followed the pipes in the utility room they go in the dirt.. i can hear the pump when its on but i cant find it. Then in the well i see 2 pipes that look like they are the same. There is a water spigot and some wires down there but its a concrete floor. What am i doing wrong here?? Thanks

 

[Ramz28]

 

[Reach4]

I think the hole circled in blue is a "dry well" that aims to keep this pit drained. The high water level would say it may not be doing that job. Red arrow seems to mark the power down to a submersible well. The well seal pointed to by the green arrow may leak into the casing when water rises in the pit. The intention is that the seal not leak. There is a vent pipe that rises higher than the presumed water level. A sump pump in the pit might keep the top of the casing above water. I don't know how high you could limit that water to. The proper fix would be to extend the casing high enough, but I don't know what high enough would be. Outdoors they get extended a foot or more above ground.

I now see that spigot extending above the well seal.

 

[Ramz28]

This seems like its going to become a big expensive job. I have no idea what im doing. I thought id see the pump and unscrew it and screw the new 1 in.........

 

[Craigpump]

Call

Shaun Boyd, H2O Services in Carmel NY or Joe Nemeth, Old Faithful Pump Carmel NY

Both are outstanding pump techs