Water drops when using a hose

dolphin122 · Nov 4, 2009, 07:57 AM

I have a deep well that has a tank with a bladder and also a pressure switch which is set for 40 low turn on / 60 high turn off. The system seems to work fine . Ive cycled it a few times. turns on at 40 shuts off 60. The bladder tank seems to be ok . Ive checked it when empty and its set for 38 psi. Now the problem is in the house. The pressure in the house is 50 psi when pump turns off. Stays there till I turn on the hose then it starts dropping even below the 40 turn on point. when i turn off the hose the pressure will go back up. Could there be a volumne problem?
The pipe from pump is 1" then it reduces in the house to 1/2.The pump is in the well and the tank pressure swith and well head are in a vault inthe back yard.
any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

dolphin122 · Nov 5, 2009, 02:14 PM

I was checking the pressure in the house thru one of the hose connections. Which is on the first floor level. It reads about 50 psi when the pump shuts off then drops down slowly til it finally drops completly to zero. Then when i shut of hose the pressure will climb back to 50 psi.

Thanks

Also there is No filters involved in the system.

jlisenbe · Nov 5, 2009, 04:13 PM

Dolphin, I would think you are seeing two things:

1. When no water is being used, the pressure in the house should be about the same as at the tank. There might be a difference of a few pounds due to differences in elevation. The size of your pipes makes absolutely no difference here, so long as no water is being used.

2. When water is used, that's a different story. I think what the other guys are telling you is exactly correct. When you have a hose on outside, your 1/2" pipes in the house just can't keep up with the demand.

dolphin122 · Nov 5, 2009, 08:47 PM

The pressure holds at around 50 psi when no water is being used. The pressure only drops when water is used. So as long as you dont use water the system will hold at 50psi. Im going to have the pipes changed out like you guys suggested. Ill try and see what happens then. Thanks for your addvice and if you think of anything else please let me know.

Thanks!!!!

jlisenbe · Nov 6, 2009, 03:57 AM

Let us know how it goes. It's amazing here how many times we never hear the resolution of a problem. Good luck. I do think you're on the right track.

Well systems are frequently a headache.

dolphin122 · Nov 21, 2009, 07:51 PM

Well i did the resizing of the pipes, increased the line to 1" from 1/2" and also seperated the hoses from the house as it comes into the house. 1" to the house and 1"to the hoses. The Pressure now goes up to 65 psi and goes down to 45 psi when the hoses are used for a long period. But now it never drops below 45 psi. So thanks for the help.
The only question i do have is do you think i should recheck the presure in the tank and readjust the pressure in the tank. The pressure was 35 psi in the tank and now the pump turns on at 45. Should the tank be increased to 43psi?
Thanks again.

jlisenbe · Nov 22, 2009, 04:23 AM

I would recheck the tank pressure, but be aware that you do this with the system off and all pressure bled off the tank by opening a low level faucet until water no longer comes out. You would then set the tank pressure to 43#. That is done, as I understand it, to preserve the life of the bladder in the tank. It really has very little impact on the operation of your well system.