Loss of Water Pressure Every 30-45 Seconds

[ryanp37]

Hello All,
I am hoping that someone might be able to help me with this issue I am having with my well pump. I know little about well & plumbing lingo but am handy enough in general. I have run into a situation where my otherwise good water pressure will be reduced to about half capacity every 30-45 seconds or so. I have watched the gaugue on my well pump and it appears that when the pressure gauge reached 35, the gauge will briefly (1 second or so) drop down to zero and then shoot back up to 50. The brief loss in water pressure corresponds to the gaugue quickly shooting down to zero. I have done some searching around the web and much over what I have read seems to suggest that my pump may be "short cycling". I have tried adding air but have no idea what PSI I should be at. I had it at 42 PSI briefly and that did not help and have also taken it down to 33 PSI and the problem is still occuring.

Another tidbit: a plumber recently came to my home and installed a new hot water mixing valve on my boiler (I have a tankless heater). The problem started happening shortly after that. Could these things be related? He did nothing in the well pump area mind you. Any help you could provide to help me correct this problem would be very sincerely appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

 

[pitless]

You need to determine what your pressure setting is. If the pressure switch has not been changed then you can read off of the switch cover. The pressure should be 2-5 psi below the pressure you pump starts to run at. It is unusual for the switch to be out of adjustment unless the plumber messed with it???

How did you check the pressure in your air tank? The proper way is to shut off the pump and drain down the system pressure. Then check the tank pressure. If you check the air pressure with out draining the system you get the system pressure not the air pressure in the tank.

If you drained the tank and the air pressure was too high then the diaphram in the tank is likely bad. The air pressure get higher when the diaphram fails and get water above it. The diaphram then falls to the bottom of the tank and won't let any water out and the tank acts like it isn't there.

So if you checked the air pressure after draining the tank and it was 50 or 60 psi your tank is likely bad.

Otherwise you may be able to adjust the air charge and get by.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ryanp37]

Well I shut off power to the pump/tank and drained all the water out of the system. I measured the air pressure at that point and it came in at 19.5. As I mentioned, it appears that the pump is kicking on when the system pressure hits 35 (thats the point when I get the brief reduction in water pressure as the gauge briefly dips to zero the jumps up to 50. So while the tank was still drained and power off, I increased the air pressure to 32.5. I turned everything back on and am still experiencing the same problem. Any ideas?


Thanks so much.

 

[Rancher]

I measured the air pressure at that point and it came in at 19.5.

You have a tire pressure gauge that is accurate enought to read in half pounds?

As I mentioned, it appears that the pump is kicking on when the system pressure hits 35 (thats the point when I get the brief reduction in water pressure as the gauge briefly dips to zero the jumps up to 50.

Is the pressure gauge correct? When the pump is off, the pressure gauge on the pipe should read the same as the tire gauge pressure.


The dropping to zero problem means the air pressure in the tank is higher than the cut on pressure of the switch, you should lower the air pressure, not increase it.

Rancher

 

[Wondering]

Your pressure gauge may be wrong. To check for the correct on/off for your system I would let the pump run till it cuts off, then take your tire gauge and check how much pressure you have in the tank(say 40psi).
Then turn the power off to the pump and turn the water on and let it run till you hear the pressure switch click. Stop the water right then and check to see how much pressure you have in the tank then(say 20psi). Now this way you know that your pump is starting at 20 and off at 40 even though your gauge says 35-50(bad gauge). Your pressure could be anywhere in these ranges so then you know you need to adjust the tank pressure(air charge) to 2 psi below wherever your pump is starting at. If you have an odd on/off range you might want to fine tune it to a 20 psi difference between on/off like (30-50) with 28psi air in tank or whatever adjustment you want. But doing it this way will tell you where your pump is starting and stopping at for sure. Hope this helps.

 

[ryanp37]

Thanks so much for all this folks. I have a lot to go on now.