Ask Me Help Desk - Water cuting off and on

Hi, we have a well, and a couple of weeks ago the water would go off for a few seconds then then come back on. Didn't think much of it initially, but it started getting more and more frequent.

Last weekend we took it all apart and bought a new submersible pump and pump control box or pressure switch, whatever you call it. It worked great after that. 2 days later a coupling cracked betweent he actual well hole and the pump control box. Fixed that. Today, after running fine for 2 nights, the water won't stay on for more than a minute or 2 when say washing clothes and dishes at the same time. We have checked for more leaks and found nothing. The pressure tank we were told needed to be at 28 pounds since we had a 30/50 switch. It had 42lbs in it so we bled it to 28lbs. We also replaced all of the cable powering the pump, because it had multiple breaks in the line.

The well is 65ft deep and when we pulled the pipe out after 10 ft the pipe was wet the rest of the way down. So it doesn't look as though the water table is the problem. For a drought situation we we told we had an amazing amount of water.

So back to the main problem again, the water now will not stay on but a couple of minutes at a time and the pump is constantly turning on and off. No leaks that we can find at above is everything that we have done so far.

Thanks for any help you can give me.
Soundmanc

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundmanc

Hi, we have a well, and a couple of weeks ago the water would go off for a few seconds then then come back on. Didn't think much of it initially, but it started getting more and more frequent.

Last weekend we took it all apart and bought a new submersible pump and pump control box or pressure switch, whatever you call it. It worked great after that. 2 days later a coupling cracked betweent he actual well hole and the pump control box. Fixed that. Today, after running fine for 2 nights, the water won't stay on for more than a minute or 2 when say washing clothes and dishes at the same time. We have checked for more leaks and found nothing. The pressure tank we were told needed to be at 28 pounds since we had a 30/50 switch. It had 42lbs in it so we bled it to 28lbs. We also replaced all of the cable powering the pump, because it had multiple breaks in the line.

The well is 65ft deep and when we pulled the pipe out after 10 ft the pipe was wet the rest of the way down. So it doesn't look as though the water table is the problem. For a drought situation we we told we had an amazing amount of water.

So back to the main problem again, the water now will not stay on but a couple of minutes at a time and the pump is constantly turning on and off. No leaks that we can find at above is everything that we have done so far.

Thanks for any help you can give me.
Soundmanc

Did you replace the wire running from the control switch to the pump?

Quote:

So back to the main problem again, the water now will not stay on but a couple of minutes at a time and the pump is constantly turning on and off. No leaks that we can find at above is everything that we have done so far.

This could be a faulty foot or check valve. Let me explain. The pump pumps up th pressure and stops. A faulty foot/check valve would allow the pressure to bleed back into the well and the pump starts the same scenario over and over again. I would take a hard look at the check valve on top or the foot valve at the bottom. Good luck. Tom

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlisenbe

Did you replace the wire running from the control switch to the pump?

Yes, we replaced all of the wiring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedball1

This could be a faulty foot or check valve. Let me explain. The pump pumps up th pressure and stops. A faulty foot/check valve would allow the pressure to bleed back into the well and the pump starts the same scenario over and over again. I would take a hard look at the check valve on top or the foot valve at the bottom. good luck. Tom

I'm not sure we have a foot/check valve. I wouldn't know where it would go anyway. The pump is a Water Ace R200A 1/2, 10 GPM, 115V. I didn't know what a check valve looked like so I went to check, I am positive I didn't see one when we pulled everything apart. Looked at the manual for the pump and it said I needed a check valve, but in the directions it never said where the check valve went.

I appreciate your answers so far.

The check valve is required. It simply prevents the water from flowing back down the well pipe and out through the pump. It allows water to flow from the pump to the pressure tank, but not the other way around. If you don't have a check valve, I would not think you would ever have any consistent pressure since, when the pump cuts off, water would exit down the well pipe and lower the pressure within a few seconds, causing the pump to cut back on over and over again. However, if your check valve is present but defective, it could cause the problems you have described. These sites will at least let you know what one looks like.

http://www.usvalve.com/deepwell.htm
Well Vent - Check Valve-0476 pictures from landscaping photos on webshots
Well reverse flow check valve - Patent 4688593

I failed to mention that the check valve is usually attached to the well pipe just above ground, before the pipe enters the pressure tank, or it can be down in the well above the pump.