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    Ron in WI's Avatar
    Ron in WI Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Apr 9, 2007, 06:03 PM
    Well water pressure?
    Hello, we have been having a low pressure problem that has slowly gotten worse over the last two years, it is mostly noticeable in the shower. When taking a shower it goes from great pressure to almost a trickle. When we moved in the house it had a new pressure tank, so yesterday I decided to drain the tank and check the air pressure per the instructions. I should have been at 28 PSI with the 30/50 Square D pressure switch but it was only at about 20 PSI so I filled it up to 28 and took a shower but know it seems to be worse, not the low pressure but it seems to get low during the shower 2-3 times more often then before. I noticed the kick in is 30 PSI but the cut out is sometimes 55 and sometimes 60, I tried to adjust both but it didn't seem to effect it. Is it a bad switch and or pressure gauge? Something else?
    Thanks for the help-Ron
    speedball1's Avatar
    speedball1 Posts: 29,301, Reputation: 1939
    Eternal Plumber
    		  
    #2

    Apr 10, 2007, 11:34 AM
    Hey Ron,

    How old's your house? What kind of pipes? Copper? Plastic? Gakvanized? When you set the pressure in the bladder tank did you shut the pump off at the breaker box and bleed the system down? Regards, tom
    Ron in WI's Avatar
    Ron in WI Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
    New Member
    		  
    #3

    Apr 10, 2007, 12:58 PM
    Hello Tom,
    The house is about 30 years old with all copper plumbing. I did switch off the breaker and bleed the tank before adjusting the air pressure.

    My two thought are that one, I used 100' of garden hose to get to the sump pit and maybe it had some back pressure because I never disconnected it before reading the air pressure, also should you leave the drain valve open or closed when testing the air pressure?

    The second thought is after watching the pressure gauge go through a few cycles, it seems that my adjustments had no effect, it always kicked in at 31 PSI and out at 55, 60, or 65 but I never adjusted the larger spring, only the smaller/shorter one (Square D 30/50). Also the gauge seems to get stuck at 40 and 50 PSI for a few seconds when the pump is running, what I mean by that is the needle rapidly bounces between 38 and 42 or 48 and 52 but it climbs steadily the rest of the time. So I thought the gauge could be bad and not reading the correct pressure?

    Thanks so much for any input.
    Ron
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