Hi Folks. I've been investigating a 6-week-old problem at my house and need some advice.
Once a day (or so, sometimes more, sometimes less) we lose water pressure in the house. It typically either happens first thing in the morning after sitting all night, or around mid-morning (after brushing teeth, maybe a load of dishes).
When we bought the house, there were a number of issues with the installation. There was a metal mesh sediment filter in front of pressure switch, both were installed about 30 linear feet from the 20 gallon pressure tank. There was some pressure switch hammering since we moved in. Once this water loss issue started, I buckled down and relocated the pressure switch (bought a new Square D 30/50 with Low Pressure Cutoff, adjusted to 40/60) over to the pressure tank where it's supposed to be. The old pressure switch also had a low-pressure cutoff. I also upgraded the tank from a 20 to 32 gallon (the old one didn't drain completely when I tried to drain it).
While all of this fixed the switch hammering, it did not fix the water loss problem.
I have observed, once or twice while testing, that if I leave a drain line open, when water pressure meets the cut in pressure of the switch, the water pressure just bottoms out in the house and the pump does not come on. Also, each and every time I manually turn the pump back on (lever on side of pressure switch) it jumps right up to 40PSI and doesn't seem to struggle getting water in whatsoever.
I don't know the depth of the well (though the old owner said he vaguely remembered it being 280-380', and never had low water issues included when he re-seeded the yard and watered it daily). The pump is a submersible Grundfos. There are no check valves in the house and nothing had changed in the system when we first started experiencing these issues.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Once a day (or so, sometimes more, sometimes less) we lose water pressure in the house. It typically either happens first thing in the morning after sitting all night, or around mid-morning (after brushing teeth, maybe a load of dishes).
When we bought the house, there were a number of issues with the installation. There was a metal mesh sediment filter in front of pressure switch, both were installed about 30 linear feet from the 20 gallon pressure tank. There was some pressure switch hammering since we moved in. Once this water loss issue started, I buckled down and relocated the pressure switch (bought a new Square D 30/50 with Low Pressure Cutoff, adjusted to 40/60) over to the pressure tank where it's supposed to be. The old pressure switch also had a low-pressure cutoff. I also upgraded the tank from a 20 to 32 gallon (the old one didn't drain completely when I tried to drain it).
While all of this fixed the switch hammering, it did not fix the water loss problem.
I have observed, once or twice while testing, that if I leave a drain line open, when water pressure meets the cut in pressure of the switch, the water pressure just bottoms out in the house and the pump does not come on. Also, each and every time I manually turn the pump back on (lever on side of pressure switch) it jumps right up to 40PSI and doesn't seem to struggle getting water in whatsoever.
I don't know the depth of the well (though the old owner said he vaguely remembered it being 280-380', and never had low water issues included when he re-seeded the yard and watered it daily). The pump is a submersible Grundfos. There are no check valves in the house and nothing had changed in the system when we first started experiencing these issues.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!