Air in water line -contant pressure system.

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Tboswel1

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Hello All,

I have an older well drilled in about 1960 it's shallow (~70 feet deep). About 1.5 years ago we switched over to the grundfos/aquasol 2 constant pressure system and didn't have any issues with it. Also installed a pelican salt free softener and pH neutralizer (injector pump). Has a small leak in the water line just off of the well in September of last year where one of the male threads after vibrating for so long caused a small pinhole in the line. Got that fixed and everything seemed alright for a bit. Then in October/early November we began having issues with air in the water line. First showing up (loudly) at toilet locations and then faucets begin sputtering shortly after. In my basement furnace room where my water enters the house and the pressure tank is setup, etc... I can hear air in the lines and when water is turned off at faucets can hear the pressure tank gurgling until it stops and is silent lasting abour 10 seconds after the water is shut off. My solution has been to to purge/run most of the faucets/toilets in the house until all sputtering is gone and air in lines isn't audible. I can't run outside spigots due to temperatures and risk of freezing. By purging the lines we go about a week until the same air in the lines pops back up. We have done this for about three months now...I thought the issue might have been the check valve in the neutralizer injector pump, but I bypassed the neutralizer with no solution (same problems). On numerous occasions I have turned the pump off before leaving the house to check for potential pressure loss with no pressure loss upon returning so it doesn't appear to be a leak of any sort. My next step is to call the well company back out and have them check the pump/check valve. Any ideas-this is driving me crazy and now have no clue what could be wrong. People have mentioned a potential well/water table issue, but that wouldn't make sense as my issues clear up when I run all facuets in the house drawing the water table down even further. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tim
 

Reach4

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The water level dropping down to the level of the intake is one potential source of air. I do understand your logic about being able to solve the problem by running more water, so that would argue against the water level being the problem.

Yet nothing you have backwashes, even your "softener". If you have a micronizer, that would induce air. But you did not mention that.

You could add something to remove the air if that is your only problem.
 

Tboswel1

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The water level dropping down to the level of the intake is one potential source of air. I do understand your logic about being able to solve the problem by running more water, so that would argue against the water level being the problem.

Yet nothing you have backwashes, even your "softener". If you have a micronizer, that would induce air. But you did not mention that.

You could add something to remove the air if that is your only problem.


We don't have a micronizer and nothing in our system backwashes. I'm able to resolve the issue for a week by purging most faucets. I'm hung up on most and maybe in the spigot lines there's air stuck, but at this point I figure that would all.be purged as well...
 

Valveman

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For the life of me I can't find anything on an aquasol2 by grundfos? Give me a link, model number, picture, something please. Is this a submersible or an above ground type pump. What type and size of pressure tank?
 

Tboswel1

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For the life of me I can't find anything on an aquasol2 by grundfos? Give me a link, model number, picture, something please. Is this a submersible or an above ground type pump. What type and size of pressure tank?
Apologies...It's actually the a Gould's aquavar solo 2
 

Valveman

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Still don't know if it is a submersible or an above ground type pump? I am guessing a submersible. Either way those variable speed controllers are supposed to be smart enough to shut the pump down if the well runs dry. I say "supposed to be" because that doesn't always work. It could also be the controller is not shutting the pump off when it should, and it churns the water until it makes air. Gonna need some more info and maybe a picture or I would just say it is a problem with the variable speed controller, which is usually the case.
 

Tboswel1

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It's a submerisble pump. When I'm present assessing it appears to shut off when it should at between 65-70 psi. I haven't noticed it running unnecessaryily, but I'm also not down there all of the time to know for sure. A couple of other items I've noted is that there is always a 3-4 psi difference between what the pressure transducer reads and what the pressure gauge reads and when I do purge the system/run all faucets (3 showers, three toilets, and 4 sink faucets) my pump/constant pressure system does have trouble keeping up, but I figure thats just because of the amount of water it's pulling at once.
 

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Well it is a variable speed drive, it could be many different things. I hope you got more than a 1 year warranty on that job. They started out giving 5 year warranty with VFD's, then went to three years, and I hear many are now just allowing one year warranty. Constant pressure is great as long as it is dependable. Those complicated computerized VFD controllers are not very dependable. Call the pump company back and make them fix it. That is what you payed them to do. I would throw a fit if they didn't warranty it.

When you get tired of all the trouble and expense of a VFD, you will find you can get the same constant pressure delivery with a simple Cycle Stop Valve. The CSV is inexpensive and dependable, which is why some pump guys don't like them. I talked to a pump installer yesterday who was upset with me. He had installed 49 of our CSV's on a new subdivision in 2009, and he was upset that he had not gotten a single service call from any of them. :)
 
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