Water Well Pump & Tank Questions

I am a bit new to the whole well water thing and have some questions.

System is 150' deep well with a Galvanized tank, pressure switch is set for 25 psi pump on 50 psi pump off IIRC.

Pump really seams to be cycling excessively, running the kitchen faucet as an example the pressure cycles down and back up every 10-20 seconds or so.

Tried turning off pump and letting the tank drain completely and then just turning pump back on which did not help.

Any suggestions, do I need to pressurize the tank then fill or fill with air valve open then close air?? What is the proper ratio of water to air in the tank??

Thanks!!

What's your bladder set at? Off hand I'd say the bladder tank needs replaced. And most switches I've experienced are set for 38-58.

Like previous posters said.....You more than likely need a new pressure tank. They last about as long as the warranty!

About a month after we moved into our current house our pump went out. Actually what happened was the pvc pipe connected to it broke and the pump ran until it burned out. Ended up replacing the pump and pressure tank but went with a fiberglass one. That was 12 years ago and no problems since.

I have bad luck with pumps, came home from work a few weeks back and heard my sump pump running continueously. The float stuck in the up position and the pump ran dry for who knows how long. By the time I got home the everything was so hot the plug was melting off the wires. Hopefully it would have tripped a breaker before much longer but if not the house might have gone up. This is the 4th sump pump I've put in there in 12 years. This was a fancy new Watchdog, with battery backup, monitoring, etc set up but doesn't seem to matter how much you spend on them, they are all junk. It wakes you up beeping in the middle of the night to tell you it's working fine but it doesn't know when it's about to burst into flames, yikes.

Air206 wrote: How big is your cistern? How do you tell the pump is cycling? Most pumps are in the well.... Well, well, this is interesting. 25/50 PSI seems REAL low. Must be a different set up than what we had in Oregon 350ft deep, and Virginia 75ft. deep.

peter1234 wrote: is your tank galv ? is the pump in the basement? if you have both of those things and a set point that low it must be a shallow well system and those are correct parameters for it but it does sound like the tank has a pin hole as mentioned above

It's a deep well jet. Just because the casing is 150' deep, that doesn't mean his jet is that deep. I'd say Chris's pump is about 10 above the water table and about 12' above his lake.

Chris, Yup, get a new bladder tank. Sorry the drain and fill didn't work.

Steve,
Cistern???? Must be a difference in translation?? We haven't had them since well water was so hard, you needed to collect the rain water to do laundry. I 'm also wondering why you feel 50 PSI is low??

Before he just starts to be a parts changer he could test it first he can drain the pressure off the tank by turning off the power to the pump and open a faucet. When he gets no more water out check the pressure on the tank it should be 2 lbs lower than the cut in pressure. Fill it with air if it's low and see if that fixes the problem if it does the bladder is bad but it will give him some time to get it fixed it won't be an emergency call! I just replaced mine again after a 13 year run,either fiberglass or steel the bladder always goes first for me anyway.

81nautique wrote: This is the 4th sump pump I've put in there in 12 years. This was a fancy new Watchdog, with battery backup, monitoring, etc set up but doesn't seem to matter how much you spend on them, they are all junk. It wakes you up beeping in the middle of the night to tell you it's working fine but it doesn't know when it's about to burst into flames, yikes.

Alan,
I just noticed your comment and will agree. I too have had bad luck with the battery back up. When Watchdog wanted big money for the "mother board" that went out, I said no. I ended up building my own with a BIG Rule bilge pump, a bilge float switch, a automotive relay and a battery maintainer. With the exception of the audible alarm that wakes you up, it' works fantastic.!