Air in water lines

[dackpockity]

Hey everyone, I’m having water issues in a new home we just built . Basically I’m having fairly bad air sputtering at all faucets and showers . Bit of a story here but I’ll give all the info I can. When we purchased the lot the well depth was 205ft and the paperwork rated it at 1gpm. I purchased a 1/2 hp 8gpm submersible pump and 1800 gallon tank for storage and began pumping the well. I realized once we were running we were only getting about .25gpm . This wasn’t going to work so we had a driller come drill the well to 315ft and now have around 15gpm. So I dropped the same pump to 250ft and now have 1 inch black poly from the pump up to the pitless with a check valve half way roughly. From the pitless I have 1.25 pvc to the pressure tank 300ft from the well in my crawl space. Static head in the well is 20ft .
So far I’ve tested the air pressure in the bladder, shut off the valve on the house end of the pressure tank and the gauge remained steady at 60psi. I do have a small drip under one of the fittings once every couple of minutes on the pvc to brass fitting under the pressure tank but that’s the only thing I can see wrong with the whole system. The pitless adapter doesn’t appear to be leaking and I can’t hear anything in the well that would indicated air getting in or leaking. I’m going to take care of the small drip in the fitting under the pressure tank tomorrow but it seems like a lot of air is entering from somewhere. My well pump is also undersized I believe but I’m trying to make it work for now. Any ideas where the air would be coming from? One thing I should add is that my electrician Initially wired the system wrong and caused the system to pressurize to the point that the valve on the pressure tank was forced to open because of the excess water pressure. This was the reason I drained all the water and checked the bladder .

 

[Reach4]

So I dropped the same pump to 250ft and now have 1 inch black poly from the pump up to the pitless with a check valve half way roughly

It would have been better to not have that check valve half way up. That won't cause air, unless there is a hole below that check valve, and the hole is below the water level.

Pumping the water down to the pump can introduce air. There are devices that can detect that the pump is out of water, and shut the pump off for an interval so that the water level can recover. Sounds like a good thing for you to get.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[dackpockity]

It would have been better to not have that check valve half way up. That won't cause air, unless there is a hole below that check valve, and the hole is below the water level.

Pumping the water down to the pump can introduce air. There are devices that can detect that the pump is out of water, and shut the pump off for an interval so that the water level can recover. Sounds like a good thing for you to get.

I currently have a Pentek I believe it’s called connected to the pump that will shut the pump off if the well runs dry. It has a timer on it that I can adjust. I do not think I am running the well down to the level of the pump though. We haven’t been using a lot of water.

 

[LLigetfa]

Are there any other check valves, perhaps above ground?

 

[Valveman]

Yeah air has to be coming in because of that check valve half way through. No other way it can get in. Need to remove that check valve. Would be a good time to put in that larger pump while you have it out.

 

[LLigetfa]

A check valve is most likely masking a leak in the pipe upstream. That leak might also present the symptom of the pump being undersized.

 

[dackpockity]

Are there any other check valves, perhaps above ground?

No other valves no

 

[dackpockity]

Yeah air has to be coming in because of that check valve half way through. No other way it can get in. Need to remove that check valve. Would be a good time to put in that larger pump while you have it out.

I’ll pull he pump and remove it. The current pump seems to be working fine. Is it a must that I change the pump even though it’s on the small side?

 

[Valveman]

I’ll pull he pump and remove it. The current pump seems to be working fine. Is it a must that I change the pump even though it’s on the small side?

No.

 

[Reach4]

Still using the cistern? That affects the choice of pumps. Your common submersible pump both raises the water and supplies pressure and flow volume to the house. With a cistern, the pressure and flow required by the pump is much smaller.

If you ever do pull the pump, consider putting a flow inducer sleeve on the pump if the casing is 5 inch or bigger. That can increase the life on the pump. I would not pull the pump just to add that however.

 

[dackpockity]

Still using the cistern? That affects the choice of pumps. Your common submersible pump both raises the water and supplies pressure and flow volume to the house. With a cistern, the pressure and flow required by the pump is much smaller.

If you ever do pull the pump, consider putting a flow inducer sleeve on the pump if the casing is 5 inch or bigger. That can increase the life on the pump. I would not pull the pump just to add that however.

I am not still using the cistern. The pumps were purchased to fill the cistern / pump from the cistern to pressure tank which is why I mentioned they were too small to be supplying the pressure tank from the well directly . I’m going to try and make it work with the pump I have if possible.

 

[dackpockity]

Yeah air has to be coming in because of that check valve half way through. No other way it can get in. Need to remove that check valve. Would be a good time to put in that larger pump while you have it out.

If the check valve is under water how could air be getting in?

 

[Reach4]

If the check valve is under water how could air be getting in?

It couldn't, but don't you suspect your water ever falls to 125?

Just to make sure, you don't have a check valve above ground, do you?

Air cannot get into a pressurized pipe. The pipe above the highest check valve is pressurized.

There is some water treatment equipment that injects air on purpose. You don't have that, do you?

 

[dackpockity]

It couldn't, but don't you suspect your water ever falls to 125?

Just to make sure, you don't have a check valve above ground, do you?

Air cannot get into a pressurized pipe. The pipe above the highest check valve is pressurized.

There is some water treatment equipment that injects air on purpose. You don't have that, do you?

No I only have some basic sediment filters just after the pressure tank. The problem seems to happen at all times of the day. Do you think air could be trapped in my system from when t was originally all set up? Like hot water tank etc holding air? I do not have any other check valves.

 

[Valveman]

If the water level pulls down more than 200' that pump cannot build to 50-60 PSI and cannot shut off. You could be churning air out of the water at that point. You could also be pulling the well down to 250' and actually sucking air.