Hi all,
Appreciate your time if you're reading this,
Using a very old hand dug well (circa 11 metres, maybe a bit deeper) with smallish submersible pump due to the long distance to plant room in 4yo house.
All working fine for 4 years, now getting 60-second-pause symptoms when showering or when toilet looks for refill water. It might not be 60 secs or always 60 secs, but seems to always be in that region.
In the plant room, the well pump switch was at 18 psi cut-in and 38 psi cut-out with expansion tank unburdened-charge of 18 psi, so I upped the cut-in/out to 20/40.
I probably could have left that at 18/38, because the outside tap (which is before the series of 5 micron filter - UV - softener) would run fine all the time with no pause in delivery of water at any point before / during / after expansion tank fills, and the pressure would always rise right away when the light [signifying pump is pumping] goes on.
After the softener, loads of water is stored in a very big blue tank, and I believe this supplies most of the house water, although 1 or 2 things seem to be on fresh water.
To my ear, it seems the pump that pumps out water from the big blue tank is kicking in late causing the 60 second delay when showering under fine pressure for a couple of minutes, then a 60 second pause with no water, then full pressure resumes for as long of a shower as needed. Similarly, the toilets can be flushed and sit waiting for refill water for 60 seconds, unless maybe the big demand for water has happened (e.g. shower) and the blue tank pump is happily pumping away.
While investigating pressure, I found 3 gauges, the one by the well expansion tank (which goes between 20 and 40 psi, previously 18 and 38), one on the "boiler" (not really a boiler as it's an air-to-water system) which reads around 1 bar (in the green "good" area) and one near the blue tank which reads around 2.6 bar.
I tried this. Turned the water off, unplugged the power going to the big blue tank, and turned on a hot tap until that ran dry, to go and check the unburdened-charge on the (HWET) Hot Water Expansion Tank. I'm not sure if this was a valid way to go checking that unburdened-charge, but the hot water had run out so I thought it might be, and the reading I got [presumably unburdened-charge] from the Schrader valve on the HWET was 18 psi which was the same as the (WWET) Well Water Expansion Tank unburdened-charge.
I was thinking, maybe that HWET unburdened-charge of 18 psi is low? After all, they generally come with 28 psi pre-charge. Does it have to match the WWET unburdened-charge or match the 2.6 bar reading discovered earlier on one of the pipes on the system near the blue tank? Would it be usual for a 20/40 WWET to be supplying around 2.6 bar to the system, as measured near the big blue water tank?
I tried increasing the HWET unburdened-charge to 20 psi and also 22 psi, and thought it was helping as when the hot water came back on, it ran for ages and ages, but now I think that's just because the blue tank got running to refill the system and kept running. Since then, it has gone back to the 60 second pause syndrome, so I thought I better just return the HWET unburdened-charge back to where I found it, after all, everything was working fine for 4 years...
The well occasionally runs dry in September, but it's been lashing rain here in Ireland for weeks now, there is no chance the well is dry and the WWET experience all seems fine as described earlier.
Any thoughts?...
Thanks in advance
Appreciate your time if you're reading this,
Using a very old hand dug well (circa 11 metres, maybe a bit deeper) with smallish submersible pump due to the long distance to plant room in 4yo house.
All working fine for 4 years, now getting 60-second-pause symptoms when showering or when toilet looks for refill water. It might not be 60 secs or always 60 secs, but seems to always be in that region.
In the plant room, the well pump switch was at 18 psi cut-in and 38 psi cut-out with expansion tank unburdened-charge of 18 psi, so I upped the cut-in/out to 20/40.
I probably could have left that at 18/38, because the outside tap (which is before the series of 5 micron filter - UV - softener) would run fine all the time with no pause in delivery of water at any point before / during / after expansion tank fills, and the pressure would always rise right away when the light [signifying pump is pumping] goes on.
After the softener, loads of water is stored in a very big blue tank, and I believe this supplies most of the house water, although 1 or 2 things seem to be on fresh water.
To my ear, it seems the pump that pumps out water from the big blue tank is kicking in late causing the 60 second delay when showering under fine pressure for a couple of minutes, then a 60 second pause with no water, then full pressure resumes for as long of a shower as needed. Similarly, the toilets can be flushed and sit waiting for refill water for 60 seconds, unless maybe the big demand for water has happened (e.g. shower) and the blue tank pump is happily pumping away.
While investigating pressure, I found 3 gauges, the one by the well expansion tank (which goes between 20 and 40 psi, previously 18 and 38), one on the "boiler" (not really a boiler as it's an air-to-water system) which reads around 1 bar (in the green "good" area) and one near the blue tank which reads around 2.6 bar.
I tried this. Turned the water off, unplugged the power going to the big blue tank, and turned on a hot tap until that ran dry, to go and check the unburdened-charge on the (HWET) Hot Water Expansion Tank. I'm not sure if this was a valid way to go checking that unburdened-charge, but the hot water had run out so I thought it might be, and the reading I got [presumably unburdened-charge] from the Schrader valve on the HWET was 18 psi which was the same as the (WWET) Well Water Expansion Tank unburdened-charge.
I was thinking, maybe that HWET unburdened-charge of 18 psi is low? After all, they generally come with 28 psi pre-charge. Does it have to match the WWET unburdened-charge or match the 2.6 bar reading discovered earlier on one of the pipes on the system near the blue tank? Would it be usual for a 20/40 WWET to be supplying around 2.6 bar to the system, as measured near the big blue water tank?
I tried increasing the HWET unburdened-charge to 20 psi and also 22 psi, and thought it was helping as when the hot water came back on, it ran for ages and ages, but now I think that's just because the blue tank got running to refill the system and kept running. Since then, it has gone back to the 60 second pause syndrome, so I thought I better just return the HWET unburdened-charge back to where I found it, after all, everything was working fine for 4 years...
The well occasionally runs dry in September, but it's been lashing rain here in Ireland for weeks now, there is no chance the well is dry and the WWET experience all seems fine as described earlier.
Any thoughts?...
Thanks in advance