Newbie help with water pressure issues, thinking of a CSV

[Ed Megarry]

Hi All,

I bought and moved into my money-pit,, err um house in August 2016. Lots of issues all over the place, but since this is a water based community, I will limit my woes to that...

Lots of issues, iron, maganese, IRB, sulphur smell, and a bit of coloform... I bought and installed a filter system,, (2 big blue housings, 20 micron sediment and 5 micron prefilter, then into a hydrogen peroxide injection into a whole house backwashing carbon filter, and finally through a Silecte quantum disinfection unit)

woo-hoo, I have clean water,,, last piece was a RO unit under the sink,, and,,, no pressure for it to work at all.. nothing,, nada...

Took a look at my pressure switch its a 20/40 and the pressure tank is prob about 20 gal,, (36 inch high). It cycles for everything I do, every flush of the toilet, goes through 7 or 8 during a shower,,,

At first I was just going to add a booster pump for my RO, but my pressure sucks (and coming from the city that had 60psi steady pressure, and now 20psi in the shower I barely feel like I am getting wet).

I have a split level ranch, so all this stuff is squeezed into the half height part of the split stairwell in the middle of the house. I figure that is why such a small tank and low pressure switch was used, since to increase it, I would need to add tanks, I could probably squeeze 3 of them in the space at most)

I dont know too much about the pump except that 1/2 HP is written in sharpie on my pressure tank.

So, I could just get the booster pump for the RO, but for about 400 bucks I can get the complete CSV setup with tank etc. So.. question is...


Would a CSV be the best route for me to go to try and increase pressure and get the
RO working?

How probable that the well cannot provide the water needed to keep the valve flowing at 50 PSI?

If I put in the CSV, would adding a mesh spin-down sediment filter before the the CSV help keep it running better? or will that cause problems with the pressure?

Thank you everyone..

 

[Valveman]

Any pump will produce more GPM at 20/40 than it will at 40/60 pressure. But the shower will let out more water at 50-60 than it will at 30 or so. The only question I have will the pump produce the pressure you need and want. The CSV will give you strong constant pressure only if your pump is able to build that much pressure.

An easy test would be to go out and tighten the large adjustment screw in the pressure switch until it is working at 40/60 or maybe even 50/70. I doubt that a 1/2 HP will build more pressure than that. If the pump will build to 70 and shut the pump off, then you can use a 50/70 switch setting and set the CSV1A at 60 PSI, just like the city pressure you prefer. Don't let the pump run more than a couple of minutes to see if it will build to 70 PSI. If it just get to 55 or 67 and just sits there, that is all the pressure your pump can build, and we have to work lower than that.

A little larger pump would be nice so you could get more pressure. I would like to see you use a 60/80 pressure switch and a CSV setting of 70 PSI. You will probably lose 10 PSI through all the filters and stuff, so it would be good to start with 70 to get 60 to the house, which would still only leave 50 upstairs.

But it is your pump system, you can have as much pressure as you want. You just have to have a pump that will build that kind of pressure. The PK1A kit will work with 20/40 up to 60/80 pressure switch settings. I would opt for the 10 gallon tank instead of the 4.5 gallon tank when working with pressure higher than 50/70 because the higher the pressure the less water a tank holds.

I don't think you need a filter before the CSV1A valve in the PK1A kit. It is designed to handle some sediment and is easy to clean out the iron when needed. Sediment or sand would be the only reason to filter before the CSV, and it can take quite a bit of that as well.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Ed, if your pump is down the well, rather than up top, I would crank that pressure switch up from 20/4o to 30/50. First set the air precharge in your tank to 28 (2 psi below cut-in). Then turn the pressure switch nut on the big spring CW.

To raise or lower the cut-in and cut-out settings while keeping the
differential between those two settings constant, adjust the range
nut. The range nut is the 3/8-inch nut that adjusts the larger of
the two springs in Models FSG, FYG, FRG, and Type G Pumptrol
switches.
Turn the range nut clockwise to increase the cut-in pressure and
counter-clockwise to lower the cut-in pressure. Three and a half
revolutions of the range nut will change both the cut-in and
cut-out settings by approximately 10 psi.​

If that works out, consider going higher. Keep the differential at 20 (controlled by the nut on the smaller spring).

We don't know how far your pressure switch will adjust. We don't know how high your pump will support. But there is a really good chance that your pump will be OK at 40/60 even more. So no booster pump if it works out as hoped.

If your pressure switch will not go high enough, you could buy a new pressure switch. But since the pside-kick kit includes a pressure switch, you could wait for that before reaching higher pressures that will make your RO happier.

The only penalty for setting the precharge higher than the standard 2-psi-below-cut-on is that the water pressure will stutter as the pressure drops. No damage. If you set the precharge air a lot below the standard amount, you would be stretching out the diaphragm more than normal. So better to over-precharge while experiment than to under-precharge. For a jet pump, you need to set the precharge a little lower (4 psi below cut-on typically) because jet pumps are slower to deliver pressure.

I am not a pro.

I now see that valveman has covered cranking up the pressure. Maybe what I wrote will fill in something.

 

[Ed Megarry]

Wow, thanks for the info guys. I knew I could crank the screw up a bit, but did not know how much play I had. I wish I had more info on my pump, but if it is anything like any of the repairs the previous owners did, it is a home depot el-cheapo special. (but it sits down in the well, all I have in the crawl space under the stairs is a black plastic pipe coming up through the cement.)

I will play with the pressure this weekend, and if it can sustain the higher pressure, I will feel better knowing that I should be able to replace the setup with the side-kick (or maybe just get the valve and re-use my 20gal tank). If I can get it at 50 psi constant. I would be happy.

 

[Valveman]

Probably a 10 GPM, 1/2HP. It will do about 90 PSI max from a very shallow well. The deeper it is to water in the well, the less pressure the pump can build.

Another good test is a bucket test. Open enough faucets to keep the pump running below the shut off pressure. Then measure the flow from the faucets in a 5 gallon bucket and add them together to get the total GPM you pump can supply. A 10 GPM series can do maybe 15 GPM max. A 5 GPM series can do maybe 9-10 GPM max.

 

[Ed Megarry]

thanks again, the well is very shallow, when I popped the cover off to bleach it, I could see the top of the water as I looked down. I am not a great judger of distance, but if that top of water was more than 20ft down I would be surprised.

(there is a lake just down the road from us, and my house sits way down low. If I stand on the road, at the end of my driveway, I am about a half story above my house.)

 

[Ed Megarry]

Got the new kit last week and put it in place yesterday. So far so good. Much better pressure in the shower, no cycling. (Still can't get my RO system under the sink working though)

thanks.