Shallow Well Sand Point Losing Prime Overnight?

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needwater

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I recently bought a house with a shallow well that has been neglected for well over four years. Long story short, I went from getting 0.25 GPM to 10 GPM after reading everything I could find online and some luck within last week by cleaning out the well with some compressed air.

I believe the well is a sand point well. There was no "drop pipe" inside the well. It's a 1.25" galvanized steel pipe that's about 20' down. The water table is around 11'.

Here's my problem. Starting from scratch, after priming the pump and all the pipes up to the check valve next to the well head, closing all the water valves, it takes about 3 minutes for the water to start flowing into the tank. Once the water starts flowing, it works great and fills the tank to 55PSI. I can empty the tank to 30PSI and it will keep flowing and recharging the tank for hours at around 10GPM. Everything's good to go for the day.

The next day, the pressure gauge is showing 55PSI or whatever PSI it was last on the day before. I turn on the water, as it flows the PSI drops to 30, pump kicks on and the pump is unable to get the water fast enough out of the well. The pump looses prime as the water's gone. I have to prime the pump again. Wait 3 minutes without using any water and it's all good to go again.

This happens every day. So now when I want water in the morning, I turn on the hose, wait until the pump hits 30PSI and starts to pump and turn the hose off. There's enough water in the system to prime for 3 minutes. Once the water from the well head starts to flow, the tank fills up and the water's good for the whole day as long as I keep using it occasionally.

Am I losing the pressure inside the well pipe? I've filled the well pipe with water and it will drain down.
Any thoughts on what could be causing this? It's working great just have a small procedure I have to do every morning to get it going properly.

Thanks for any suggestions!
 

Reach4

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You may be getting an air suction leak in your pipe and fittings before your check valve. If making a joint sopping wet increases the pumped pressure, you have located a leak. Your leak may be small enough that that will not be a sensitive enough test.
 

needwater

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Thanks for the replies! The check valve is right on the suction pipe on a T. I'm guessing if there's a leak it's somewhere underground. I'm a bit hesitant to try and pull the well out. I'll try pouring water on the check valve and the T fittings around the well pipe to see if there maybe a leak there.
 

ThirdGenPump

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The check valve is holding otherwise the system would lose pressure and turn on. Your leak is prior to the check.
 
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