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leschilli67 · Apr 12, 2008, 05:15 AM

I had to replace my pressure switch, I put on a pumptrol switch. The water pressure is fine when I turned on the water, but slows way down by the time the pump kicks back on. It does kick on at 40lbs. I have noticed that when the pump kicks on at 40, it takes about 10 - 15 minutes to get up to 60 lbs and kick off. I do have a lot of sulfer in my water and I am thinking my pump may be clogged or going bad, I checked the pressure tank, I only drained the fawcett lines completely with th epower turned off and I have 36 psi in my pressure tank. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Thanks, Bad news is I do not know what size pump or how old it is, we just bought the house a few months ago. I am guessing from my neighbors that my well is 200 to 270 feet deep thst seems to be the depth of theirs. The house is 50 years old. Before I changed the pressure switch I had good water pressure, not city water type but a lot better than I have now. It is copper pipe.

speedball1 · Apr 12, 2008, 05:44 AM

We need more information. What size and type is the pump? How deep is the well? How old is your house? What material are the pipes? Did ypu have this problem before you changed the pressure switch? Back to you. Tom

leschilli67 · Apr 12, 2008, 06:08 AM

Thanks, Bad news is I do not know what size pump or how old it is, we just bought the house a few months ago. I am guessing from my neighbors that my well is 200 to 270 feet deep thst seems to be the depth of theirs. The house is 50 years old. Before I changed the pressure switch I had good water pressure, not city water type but a lot better than I have now. It is copper pipe.

hkstroud · Apr 12, 2008, 08:24 AM

So why did you change the switch. Could the old switch have been set higher to overcome this problem (or mask it)? Ten minutes to refill the tank may be good or bad depending on the size of the tank. What type of tank do you have, bladder or pressure and how big is it?

leschilli67 · Apr 12, 2008, 11:28 AM

The points went bad in the old pressure switch. The old switch was set at 40 - 60, same as the new one. The pressure tank is a blue well-x-troll, not sure what size it's about 4 ft tall, I would guess 40 gallon size. I would guess bladder tank, it does have the air valve on the top of it. Thanks, Les

jlisenbe · Apr 13, 2008, 07:26 PM

With a valve on the top, it is a bladder tank. I would say you have a problem with pump volume, but the fact that you did have good pressure, and I assume good volume, before you changed the switch would seem to point to the pump being OK.

Does it take fifteen minutes for the pump to cut off when you are not using water at all, or when you are using water?

Is the pressure in the house noticeably less now than it used to be?

I'm sure you have copper in your house, but what kind of well pipe do you have? It will probably be galvanized or PVC. I suppose it could be copper, but I've never heard of well pipe being copper. Maybe so, since I'm not as experienced with this as others on this site. If it's galvanized, then you could have problems with clogged pipe. Galvanized is bad about "rusting up" (crud! ) and can be a problem. Get back with us.

hkstroud · Apr 13, 2008, 08:06 PM

Replacing the pressure switch should not have cause a change in the water pressure unless the old switch was malfunctioning such that the tank was being over pressurized. If you have a 40 gallon bladder tank you probably have about 18 to 20 gallons of usable water before the pump comes on again. If that is correct and it takes 10 minutes to refill you have about 2 gallons average from the pump. Since the volume of the pump varies with the increasing pressure in the tank you probably have a little more than that at the low cut in pressure of 40 lbs. maybe 3 gallons. Of course that will be at what ever pressure the pump can provide. As more outlets are open the pressure will decrease.
If this is inadequate you can increase the size of the tank or increase the size of the pump. Increasing the size of the tank increases the volume of water under the greater pressure. It also reduces the frequency of the pump cycling on and off and therefore extends the life of the pump. A larger pump not only speeds the recovery but also increases the volume and pressure when the pump alone is providing the water.