Well Water Hammer

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Don Dailey

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I am getting severe water hammer when pump starts. There is a small leak where the pipe comes out the well. Also, with all outlets shut off, I can hear water trickling in the well. Can suggest a solution?
 

LLigetfa

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I am guessing that there is also a topside checkvalve. Fix the leak and remove the topside checkvalve.
 

Don Dailey

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I am guessing that there is also a topside checkvalve. Fix the leak and remove the topside checkvalve.
Thanks. No topside checkvalve. I'm working the leak at the union coming out of the well. Would the trickling sound I hear in the well indicate a leak down the well?
 

Reach4

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The trickling in the well could be another leak, but it could be an aquifer providing water to a mostly-uncased well above the water level. Knowing your pressure tank draw-down and how quickly the pressure drops, you could estimate a leakage rate. Then compare that to what the topside leak produces.

You have not described your well. Submersible pump set 180 ft deep with a 5 inch casing for the top 20 feet and no casing for the rest of the 200 feet depth? Your area does not freeze? Drilled in 1957 with the pump replaced in 1994?
 

Don Dailey

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The trickling in the well could be another leak, but it could be an aquifer providing water to a mostly-uncased well above the water level. Knowing your pressure tank draw-down and how quickly the pressure drops, you could estimate a leakage rate. Then compare that to what the topside leak produces.

You have not described your well. Submersible pump set 180 ft deep with a 5 inch casing for the top 20 feet and no casing for the rest of the 200 feet depth? Your area does not freeze? Drilled in 1957 with the pump replaced in 1994?
The well is about 40 ft deep with submersible pump at about 35 ft (very rough estimates). Drilled in 2004. Original pump. Casing depth unknown. Light to moderate freezing for short periods. Will check out tank pressures.
 

LLigetfa

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You still have not provided enough info for a proper diagnosis. For there to be water hammer, there usually is an inrush of water column slamming into a closed end. This usually is a topside checkvalve but it could be badly designed plumbing, a bladder tank that is waterlogged or has too much precharge, etc.

If the pipe from the pump to the tank is full of water and pressurized, there should not be an inrush to cause the water hammer.
 

LLigetfa

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The only other cause for water hammer would be a strong sudden flow reversal, but for that, you would need to have a significant rate of flow going back to the well. That would not be described as a "small leak" and a "trickle". It would also cause the pump to cycle frequently when the tank quickly drains back to the well which has not been described.
 

Don Dailey

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You still have not provided enough info for a proper diagnosis. For there to be water hammer, there usually is an inrush of water column slamming into a closed end. This usually is a topside checkvalve but it could be badly designed plumbing, a bladder tank that is waterlogged or has too much precharge, etc.

If the pipe from the pump to the tank is full of water and pressurized, there should not be an inrush to cause the water hammer.
No topside check valve, tank is 36 gallons, bladder pressure is 46 psi, line pressure is 54 psi, cut-on time with hose running is about 30 seconds, cut-off time is also about 3o seconds.
 

Valveman

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I think you have a bad tank. That size tank should hold 8 or 10 gallons. With a hose running you should get a minute or two of run and off times. 46 PSI in the bladder will also cause water hammer with a 40/60 pressure switch. You probably have 46 PSI instead of the proper 38 PSI because the tank is bad.
 

Don Dailey

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I think you have a bad tank. That size tank should hold 8 or 10 gallons. With a hose running you should get a minute or two of run and off times. 46 PSI in the bladder will also cause water hammer with a 40/60 pressure switch. You probably have 46 PSI instead of the proper 38 PSI because the tank is bad.
Is there any way to confirm a bad tank short of replacing it?
 
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