Something's up with water flow?

[Billfig]

I went ahead and renewed my diaphragm tank and plumbing for preventative maintainance. I put in a Gould v100s 32 gal short and fat tank which replaced my Gould v60 19.6 gal tank. psi switch set at 34/54, I also removed my charcoal whole house filter. Everything seemed really great! A week or so after I reinstalled the filter but then after a week or so the psi seemed too low..esp. when operating a couple appliances/draws..so I removed the filter again but can't seem to get that wow factor? Last night we had the washer going(my wife does 2 loads every night) so I had her run the powder room faucet and flush the toilet while I observed gauge which did eventually get down to 34 and cycle up to 54 as it should? The softener is only 6 mos old and the other filter is a basic sediment filter.

 

[Furd]

The first thing to check is that sediment filter. Ideally you would have "differential pressure gauge" plumbed across the filter to show the pressure drop across the filter and then you could change the filter according to that pressure drop rather than on an arbitrary time schedule. Unfortunately, differential pressure gauges are a bit pricey. The next best to the DP gauge is to have a single gauged piped with isolation valves so that it can be connected (via valve manipulation) to either the inlet or the outlet of the filter. Least desirable, but better than no gauges, is to have individual gauges on the inlet and outlet of the filter.

Understand that with no water flowing there will be no differential across the filter and that the differential will increase with increased flow. Using two filters in parallel is often done to reduce the differential pressure and can often result in less frequent filter changes while still maintaining fairly low differentials.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Billfig]

I'll try removing the sediment cartridge though I just renewed it a month or so ago..?

 

[LLigetfa]

Put the softener on bypass to see if that makes a difference.

 

[Billfig]

I found the immediate problem of a fine mud(on napkin) which was caked inside the center of the clear housing under the cartridge! So then I screw it back on and the incoming is brownish/red..booo, so I take off & find all that new crap(pic). I then tried drain on tank which was clear so I figure any other debris is between tank outlet & filter housing? I also ran the water at filter housing without screw on cannister using a 5 gal bucket to try to flush it. PSI is nice even running thru softener.
Is this crud due to stiring up the bottom of the well? Pump too low?

 

[LLigetfa]

If you have a mud well with a casing, it doesn't much matter what elevation you place the pump intake because it is still sucking up from the bottom of the casing.

 

[Billfig]

If you have a mud well with a casing, it doesn't much matter what elevation you place the pump intake because it is still sucking up from the bottom of the casing.

I don't know about a "mud well" . I put in a new charcoal filter I had settin around and psi seems wonderful again....we'll have to see what happens?

 

[Cacher_Chick]

Looks like iron to me.... have you had a water test done? If your iron content is that high it will ruin your softener.

Charcoal filters are never a good choice unless you are trying to remove chlorine.
Any store bought filter rated at less than 20 microns is going to cause a notable drop in flow rate.

 

[LLigetfa]

I don't know about a "mud well" .

Well then, what kind of well do you have? All we can possibly know is what you tell us. Is it concrete well tile rather than a casing?

 

[Billfig]

Looks like iron to me.... have you had a water test done? If your iron content is that high it will ruin your softener.

Charcoal filters are never a good choice unless you are trying to remove chlorine.
Any store bought filter rated at less than 20 microns is going to cause a notable drop in flow rate.

No water test in 15-20 years.., I figured the charcoal was just a better/finer filter...lol

Well then, what kind of well do you have? All we can possibly know is what you tell us. Is it concrete well tile rather than a casing?

sorry, yes you are correct it is a casing, the well is 80' and I had a Gould 10GS05422 replaced almost 6 yrs.ago which replaced a 10EJ05422 which was the original from 1987(18yrs). I just renewed the tank which is 24yrs old and still worked...though I don't know exactly how well?

Update: well I took a shower and "holy cow"! This is the best I can ever remember, now I can only hope it stays that way for a long time...