I have a 2 year old renovated home with a well. Pressure was never really great in the house, but acceptable.

The well and line to the house is about 40 years old. Inside the house is a 2 yr old Amtrol xtrol pressure tank, which feeds a 2 yr old water softening system, which feeds a whole-house new water filter. All of the plumbing pipes (plastic tubing) and all of the fixtures are only two years old.

I replace the filter every 6 months or so, with no problems.

Last week I replaced the filter. Water pressure was the same as usual. About a day later we noticed a significant drop in water pressure and called our Well service company.

The gauge at the bottom of the amtrol tank in the house is now 22 psi.

The Well technician assumed a bad pump in the well, however when they checked it they said that the PSI at the well was 95 psi.

So now they said I probably have a bad pipe from the well to the house and I need to dig a trench etc etc.

Is there anything else I could check? Is it possible that replacing the pipe from the well to the house WON'T fix the problem?

So you have 95 lbs pressure at the well head. What is the pressure of the well pipe at the house. It should also be 95 lbs. If you cap the well line and put a pressure gauge on it, it should read 95 lbs Even if you only had a pin hole opening through the pipe the pressure should eventually reach 95 lbs. If it doesn't then you have a busted pipe. That should show up as a wet spot along the line if the pump runs long enough. The real question is what's the flow at the house. At 95 lbs and say a 3/4" pipe you should have a real good flow, probably about 5 gallons per minute. If you have pressure but don't have a good flow then you have a pipe that is so rusted on the inside that it is blocked. I suppose it could be blocked from mineral deposits. Seems to me that a pipe so rusted as to completely block the flow would burst. But maybe not.

Check your pressure and flow at the house. If you have pressure and flow then you have another problem.

Hi Harold. Thanks for the info.

I am left handed too.

Where the well pipe comes into the house, it runs into the bottom of an amtrol tank. Right where the pipe goes into the tank is a gauge that reads 23psi. Is that what you mean by checking pressure?

The flow is 0.6 gallons per minute

Thanks

No, the 23 is the pressure on the tank. The set up procedure for a bladder tank is to pressurize the tank to 2 lbs below the cut in pressure setting of the pump switch. That way the pump comes on just before you run out of water.

To measure the pump pressure at the house you have to block the pump line and measure the pressure on the line while the pump is running. It should reach the same pressure as was measured at the well head. Is the .6 GPM the flow at the well? Even at .6 GPM the pressure in the tank should reach the cut off pressure of the pump setting.

The piping at the tank should have a means of disconnection from the tank. If the piping is galvanized pipe there should be a union. If it is copper you may have to cut the line.

You said that the pressure has never really been great. With new piping through the house, that would be because of the pump settings, not because of the piping from the well unless the piping is totally blocked or busted. If the well head pressure is static pressure, that is the pump can produce 95 lbs. on a capped pipe, but only has .6 GPM flow, your tank pressure should still reach cut off pressure. It is the tank that provides the pressure to the house.

With proper pump switch settings the house pressure should be what ever you desire. With a low flow from the well you tank may be slow to refill but the pressure should be there.

Since the well technician said you should replace the pipe, I would think he would have check the pressure and flow at the house. That would have confirmed that either the pipe was block or or has a serious leak.

Just exactly who is the well technician? Is he a well driller? Somehow I get the impression that your home is a new home built on site where a previous home existed. Is the technician a representative of the person who sold you the home.

How far is the well from the house?

If the pump is really at 95 (That's high!) and the tank is only at 23, then it would certainly seem that the supply line from the well has a problem... probably filled with crud, although the whole thing still strikes me as a little strange. At any rate, you can do this yourself by renting a trencher and using PVC. It's not difficult.

One other thought. There will be a checkvalve between the pump and the tank, probably right off the tank, but possibly at the wellhead or it could even be in the well. If you can get to it, I'd check that before I started digging holes in the ground.

Hi

The technician is from a well driller and well service company. They serviced this house for the previous owner, and I simply continued using them when I remodeled the house since the old owners gave me their number. They put in the new tank for me in my basement.

The .6 I was referring to was actually a measurement I took on one of my sink faucets--now I understand this is totally not what you were describing.

Unfortunately I am not skilled enough to cap off or cut the pipe, plus my time is pretty limited to get this kind of testing done myself.

When the well technician told me about the 95 psi reading, it was based on a gauge that he rigged up outside the house at the top opening of the well out on my front lawn.

He suggested a temporary fix of hooking a garden hose to the device that he put into the top of our well, which had a spigot just near the gauge, and putting the other end into the regular hose spigot on the house, forcing more pressure into the house in reverse.

I declined, because I didn't want unfiltered well water going into the house.

Should I be getting a second opinion? Or would I be better off calling a plumber for this? Or are there more tests that the well guy should be doing.

THanks

So you have a hose bib at the well head correct? Put a hose on it, with the pump running, measure how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon buck. Then, if you have a hose bib at the tank (a drain), connect the hose between the well head and the tank. Get a hose for a clothes washer. It has a female connection on both ends. Use it to make the connection between the hose and the tank. That will be your temporary piping.