Complete confusion: bad foot valve something else?

[stormlight]

Hello all,

I have a 21 foot well. 10 feet to water then 11 feet of water. 4 inch casing pipe with a 1 1/4 suction pipe connected to a shallow well pump.

After priming my pump the pump pulls up water for a minute and then goes dry. It doesn't appear that it stops because I have depleted all the water out of the well/casing pipe and the well needs to recharge. I say that because I can still see the water line in the well casing to be 10 feet down. If its an issue with recharging I would expect the water in the casing to draw down to the foot valve.

This led me to believe that I had a bad foot that would somehow close when suction was on.

However, here is the confusing part. I placed a hose into the casing pipe and turned it on while the pump was running. As long as the hose was on water was being pumped out of the well. (which means the check valve works) I then turn the hose off and then the pump goes dry again as I am looking at no water in the case drop below 10 feet.

Any ideas as this makes 0 sense to me. The well as acting as it needs to recharge but there is no draw down on the 10 foot water line.

Thanks

 

[Reach4]

I presume that the pump continues to run, but the pressure gauge does not keep rising to the shutoff pressure. Vacuum leak is a good candidate. Try using the search box above searching this forum for

 

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[Valveman]

A foot valve only works when the pump is off. It has nothing to do with your problem. It does sound like you are pumping the well dry. How deep is your foot valve?

 

[stormlight]

A foot valve only works when the pump is off. It has nothing to do with your problem. It does sound like you are pumping the well dry. How deep is your foot valve?

If the foot valve was stuck and wouldn't open when the pump was on, wouldn't that be part of the problem?

The foot valve is 11 feet under water at the bottom of the casement pipe. It goes ground level - go 10 feet to hit water - then go through 11 feet of water to foot valve.

How can the well run dry if the water in the casement pipe does not lower. If you were to watch this scenario and say the well is dry would you expect to see you casement water level go all the way down to foot valve? Like drinking all of the water out of a cup with a straw.

That doesn't happen. My water in my casement pipe does not recede and sits 11 feet above the foot valve.

And im not sure how a vacuum leak would be an issue when it pulls up water when im feeding the casement pipe with water from a hose.

This doesn't make sense.

 

[Reach4]

And im not sure how a vacuum leak would be an issue when it pulls up water when im feeding the casement pipe with water from a hose.

Say what?

I was thinking you were describing something else. I was thinking you were saying that you were delivering water from the well to a hose. That would not necessarily require much pressure. But the pressure was not rising enough to reach the shut off pressure for the pressure switch.

OK. Maybe you are saying you were recirculating the water from the pump back into the casing. Then you stopped the hose water. If that is it, what was the pressure gauge indicating while the hose was putting water into the casing and what did it indicate after you stopped recirculating water?

 

[Valveman]

Re-circulating water is the way pump test pits are set up. So it sounds like your pump is working fine as long as you are re-circulating water like in a test pit. But when you stop putting water back down the well the pump quits working, which sounds like it is pumping the well dry. Like Reach says you could have a suction leak. If that is the case the pump should lose prime while trying to fill the pressure tank with all other valves closed?