Last year we installed a new bladder holding tank. Pressure set at about 27 lb since pump turns on at 30LB. After installation pump was running a long time to fill pressure tank. If drawing water from multiple sources at one time once pressure dropped and pump went on it could not supply enough water. Installed new jet pump. Problem still not solved and has gotten worse. It is taking 5 minutes to fill bladder tank even with all water turned off once we hear pump kick on. Pump shuts off when gauge at 41 LB which I am not sure why because I thought it was a 20 LB differential so was expecting 50LB shutoff. When installing new pump noticed that galvanized pipe in check valve looked restricted. This weekend dug up entire 50 foot section of incoming line and replaced galvanized 1 inch line with poly. Pipe was not as bad as we had hoped so problem still exists. Also should mention we are getting some air in system which comes out of taps at times. Well may be 40 to 50 years old not sure. Could there be any other explanation except for a bad well?

"This weekend dug up entire 50 foot section of incoming line and replaced galvanized 1 inch line with poly."

I assume you mean you dug up the pipe leading to a pressure tank in the house? If you used galvanized pipe in the well, and the pipe is several decades old, then you could very well have a restriction in the well pipe caused by iron. We had the same situation. When the old well pipe was pulled up, there was one section where you could not have gotten a pencil through. If you are going to replace the well pipe, use the heavy pvc.

Since this is a jet pump (pump above ground) then the air could signify a leak in the suction side of the pipe. Any little leak, no matter how small, will cause trouble here. A good thing to do is turn off the power to the pump, unhook your well pipe from the pressure tank and turn on the pump. See what kind of volume you are getting (should be at least 6 to 8 gallons a minute) and see if you can notice any air. If you will let the water run under the water in a 5 gallon bucket, you will be able to see any air coming out. Air bubbles can mean trouble. Let us know what you find out.

BTW, the issue with the pump cutting off at 41# is controlled by the switch. Cutin/out points are controlled there. Not hard to change.

We replaced the galvanized input line from the top of well that goes to the above ground pump. The top of the well had what looked like a 3" diameter galvanized pipe which goes down into the ground. On top of that pipe was what appeared to be a reducing elbow to get it down to the 1" line that runs to the pump. We replaced the 1" galvanized pipe with 1 " 160 lb poly line. We thought that there might be a restriction in the 1" gavanized but it was not as bad as we had hoped and therefore was not the problem. I thought that the 3" pipe which goes down into the well was just a casing which would have a 1" line inside going down into the well, but when I stuck my finger in the elbow it appears that it is 3" down to the water. Is this typical of wells built in late 60's maybe early 70's? If the 1" galvanized which is horizontal was not restricted I doubt the 3' that is vertical could be the problem. Could it just be a well that has gone bad and the air is being sucked from the well? It was unclear why I should disconnect my pipe ftom the pressure tank. I know when I have a full tank (at cutoff) I can drain 4.5 gallons before coton. If I then turn off water and just let the pump run it takes 5 minutes to fill the tank and then cutoff. So we are still getting water from the well but it appears it is only getting about a gallon a minute.

As far as the switch it says it you can only control the cutin. It says the cutout is preset to a differential. I thought it was a 20 differental so I expected it to cutout at 50 since it cuts in at 30.

The purpose of disconnecting from the pressure tank is just to check pump volume with no pressure. However, it sounds like you are only getting 1 gallon a minute which is not even close to what is needed. This site has a pretty good discussion of well types.

Well Pumps- Keidel Bath and Plumbing - Cincinnati, OH

Like you, I would have thought the 3" metal casing would have been well casing, not pipe. Certainly it would not be restricted. From your description, you would have to be dealing with a shallow well pump. Check your water depth. Just use a string with a washer on the end. Check the depth to wet string. It can't be much, probably not over twenty feet. If it is over 25 feet, a shallow well pump, as the website above will explain, will not work. It may be that your water table has dropped enough to make pumping difficult. Are you in an area affected by drought?

BTW, where is the pump located, at the well head or inside?

It was very dry this past summer, but this problem started in summer of 2006 and seems to be getting worse. It is a summer house so I can't tell you if it was any better during a different time of year. I haven't hear anyone else in the neighborhood having problems. The pump is in the crawl space about 50 feet from the well head. Next spring I will have to dig up the well head again and do the string test. Also I was thinking about disconnecting the line where it enters the pump and hooking up a temporary line that I could put into a large tub of water. I should expect it to draw 5 gallons of water to fill up my holding tank in under a minute. Does this make sense?

Probably more than 5. You will probably need to reprime the pump before you begin. That is done at the top of the pump casing, where you will find either a plug or a pressure gauge. Remove it, pour in water until it is full, then replace. Of course, bear in mind that the deeper the water, the less volume you will get. A shallow well pump cannot draw from much more than 25'. If your water table has dropped, that could be your problem.

Switches can be had that will allow you to adjust both cut in and cut out points. They cost 20 bucks or so. See here for example:

NEW 40/60 SQUARE D WATER WELL PUMP PRESSURE SWITCH - (eBay item 280173546381 end time Nov-24-07 03:50:28 PST)

The switch is a simple install. Turn off the power, take off old, put on new, rewire, turn on power.

If the water table is the problem, there are ways to use your current pump for depths greater than 25'. I'm just not sure about the 3" casing pipe, if that would provide enough room. The website I sent before gives a pretty good idea of how it is done. A local well contractor could answer that. MUCH cheaper than a new well if it can be done.

Best wishes! Please rate this answer if you have found it to be useful.

Speedball, as usual, gives a great description of how to adjust your switch, assuming yours is a Square-D.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/plumbi...=adjust+switch

Thanks, I already read the section on deep wells. This leads to several questions. If the water level dropped in my shallow well, is the well drilled deep enough already to modify it to a deep well system? Would there already be a foot valve at the bottom of my shallow well? What normally would be at the bottom of a shallow well, just a well point with a screen? If that is clogged then its game over right?

The only way there is a foot valve is if there is one pipe going down the well and a second pipe coming back up. That does not sound like what you are describing. I would think that if you have sufficient diameter to get a foot valve down there, that would be a possibility. But again, if you have, let's say, a water depth of fifteen feet, then that would not seem to be the problem. The only way to find out about the depth of the well, since it is so old and documentation probably does not exist, is to measure and see. You could use several 10' sections of small pvc to measure down to fifty or sixty feet easy enough. Just make sure you don't drop one! If your water table is thrirty feet (for instance) and the well is at least sixty feet, then I would think you would be able to work with that.

A submersible pump would be wonderful, but they are four inches in diameter and that would not seem to fit what you have.

Would I also be able to messure the depth by using a weight on a string? That way I could get total depth and also depth to water. I guess the thing that has me confused is if my water level has dropped below the 25 feet that my above ground pump can lift, why would I still be getting some water?

1. I guess you could measure depth with a string, but I would be more comfortable using something rigid. It would not be easy to determine when the string had bottomed out. You can buy half inch pvc for a couple of dollars per 10 section, so the expense is small. There are probably better ways to do this. The pipe just seemed reasonable to me. At any rate, the number one thing you need to find out is water table depth.

2. Suppose the water table is at 23 or 24 feet. In that case, you would get water but not what you would get at 15 feet. It is a law of diminishing returns, at least as I understand it. But again, if the well is indeed a shallow well as you described it, then the water table is your number one concern.

3. One other item. Bear in mind that the pump is drawing water, in this case, by suction. Any little air leak in a pipe anywhere between the water table and the pump will allow air in. That results in air bubbles and lessening of suction, thus less water delivered. You must be certain of the pipes. That's why, if I was you, I would want to see the pump's discharge just to satisfy myself it was not pulling air.

I know that I am getting some air from somewhere because I can hear it when the toilet tank fills up. Can this air be the result of the level of the water table or would there have to be an air leak somewhere? In a properly operating system after the pump has filled the holding tank and shuts off, does the entire incoming pipe all the way to the water table stay filled with water? I guess it would have to or you would inintially draw some air every time the pump kicked back on.

It would stay full. More likely, the air would be the result of a water leak. At any rate, you are stuck as regards trouble-shooting until you check out your water table.