Safe to put metering device between pump and tank?

is it okay to put a metering device upstream of the pressure tank?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, it's a bad idea, but not dangerous

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • No, you will cause dismemberment and/or total protonic reversal

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .

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WayOutWest

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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.
 

Reach4

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Are there any dangers of pipe-shattering explosions if the meter gets jammed?
Probability of destroying the pump and maybe melting the pipe at the pump if the meter jams. Do meters jam? The pipe would probably survive, except where it melts.

If there is a pressure relief before the meter, then the pump should not be destroyed and pipe will not melt, but the pump won't shut off.
 

Valveman

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A meter shouldn't be able to clog like a filter. So, it should not be a problem installed before the tank and switch. Deadhead of that pump is only like 90 PSI anyway. I use an Aeotec heavy duty smart switch and have leak detectors everywhere.
 

WayOutWest

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Heres how a meter works. Even if you dead head a pump it will not explode a pipe it will over heat the pump and if its piped with pvc melt it both causing a catastrophe failure. Dae makes cloud base meters for more flexibility.

Thanks! I'm kinda old-school, not into data about my home being transmitted to some cloud server in China. The DAE-MJ100 I've got has a dry-contact output (like a light switch that the meter flips on and off) which is all I need, I take care of the electronics from that point.

If there's a better meter out there with a dry-contact output I'm interested. I only bought the DAE-MJ100 because it's what I was able to find on Amazon. No idea if it is mechanically/fluidically sound or high quality -- I'm not really qualified to judge that. It's certainly hefty though.
 

Reach4

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Thanks! I'm kinda old-school, not into data about my home being transmitted to some cloud server in China.
You aren't one with a microphone and camera in your bedroom transmitting to a cloud server? Did you put tape in front of the camera in your TV?:mad:
 
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