WayOutWest
New Member
Hi folks,
Is it safe to put a 1" water meter between the output of a well pump and the pressure tank? Are there any dangers of pipe-shattering explosions if the meter gets jammed? If it matters, the meter is DAE-MJ100 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IZ6S1VU), rated for 150psi and has what appears to be a pressure relief plug. I can buy a different meter if necessary. Pump is a Goulds 10GS05412CL hanging from 100 feet of 1.25" HDPE pipe.
Background/details:
I recently removed a botched jet pump (including 100 feet of PVC, both tubes full of water!) installed by the previous owner of my new house, by myself. I'll never do that again -- mainly because I put a stainless winch cable into the well with the new pump.
I'm an electronics nerd, so after that ordeal the idea of having electronic monitoring and control of my well gear is pretty attractive. Stuff like monitoring water usage, refusing to pump more than a few gallons a day if I'm not home (last-resort water leak mitigation), turning off the pump after five seconds if water fails to flow out of the well (i.e. if the well was pumped dry). I'm not sure I set the pump at the perfectly optimal height -- we have very silty soil here, so if I set it too deep the pump life will be reduced, and if I set it too high I might pump the well out during the dry summer season. Having gallons-per-pump-second measurements across multiple months would be really useful.
Last of all, it would be nice to get advance warning of pump problems by comparing the well flow rate with the pump current draw -- kind of like watching for car problems by monitoring your gas mileage. I don't expect that to help me save a failing pump, but it might mean the pump failing after a few weeks' warning rather than failing at the worst possible moment with no warning.
To be clear, the pump on/off control will still be an old-fashioned mechanical pressure switch set at 40/60. However I also have the ability to cut power to the pump -- so the pump only runs if the mechanical pressure sensor triggers *and* the electronic/software control decides to enable the well. So the consequence of a programming mistake is just "no water", not "exploded pressure tank".
For most of these goals what I really need is a flow meter measuring the well pump output. That means a flow meter between the pump and the pressure tank. I don't need a meter after the pressure tank because I can calculate the tank outflow using the tank inflow and the pressure level -- plus the tank outflow won't tell me what the pump is doing, it only tells me about the household's water use.
I've heard that you should never install anything (like a sediment filter) after the pump but before the pressure tank, due to the immense pressure transients the pump can produce. Unfortunately I couldn't find a deadhead rating in Goulds' literature for my pump. Is there a danger of catastrophic destruction or severed limbs here?
Many thanks.
Edit: the previous owner had a Franklin submersible professionally installed when the well was drilled. It failed after less than five years; he had to pull it and self-installed that awful jet pump. I don't know why the Franklin failed, but I suspect the silty soil, which is why I'm so keen to know what's going on with my pump.
Is it safe to put a 1" water meter between the output of a well pump and the pressure tank? Are there any dangers of pipe-shattering explosions if the meter gets jammed? If it matters, the meter is DAE-MJ100 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IZ6S1VU), rated for 150psi and has what appears to be a pressure relief plug. I can buy a different meter if necessary. Pump is a Goulds 10GS05412CL hanging from 100 feet of 1.25" HDPE pipe.
Background/details:
I recently removed a botched jet pump (including 100 feet of PVC, both tubes full of water!) installed by the previous owner of my new house, by myself. I'll never do that again -- mainly because I put a stainless winch cable into the well with the new pump.
I'm an electronics nerd, so after that ordeal the idea of having electronic monitoring and control of my well gear is pretty attractive. Stuff like monitoring water usage, refusing to pump more than a few gallons a day if I'm not home (last-resort water leak mitigation), turning off the pump after five seconds if water fails to flow out of the well (i.e. if the well was pumped dry). I'm not sure I set the pump at the perfectly optimal height -- we have very silty soil here, so if I set it too deep the pump life will be reduced, and if I set it too high I might pump the well out during the dry summer season. Having gallons-per-pump-second measurements across multiple months would be really useful.
Last of all, it would be nice to get advance warning of pump problems by comparing the well flow rate with the pump current draw -- kind of like watching for car problems by monitoring your gas mileage. I don't expect that to help me save a failing pump, but it might mean the pump failing after a few weeks' warning rather than failing at the worst possible moment with no warning.
To be clear, the pump on/off control will still be an old-fashioned mechanical pressure switch set at 40/60. However I also have the ability to cut power to the pump -- so the pump only runs if the mechanical pressure sensor triggers *and* the electronic/software control decides to enable the well. So the consequence of a programming mistake is just "no water", not "exploded pressure tank".
For most of these goals what I really need is a flow meter measuring the well pump output. That means a flow meter between the pump and the pressure tank. I don't need a meter after the pressure tank because I can calculate the tank outflow using the tank inflow and the pressure level -- plus the tank outflow won't tell me what the pump is doing, it only tells me about the household's water use.
I've heard that you should never install anything (like a sediment filter) after the pump but before the pressure tank, due to the immense pressure transients the pump can produce. Unfortunately I couldn't find a deadhead rating in Goulds' literature for my pump. Is there a danger of catastrophic destruction or severed limbs here?
Many thanks.
Edit: the previous owner had a Franklin submersible professionally installed when the well was drilled. It failed after less than five years; he had to pull it and self-installed that awful jet pump. I don't know why the Franklin failed, but I suspect the silty soil, which is why I'm so keen to know what's going on with my pump.
