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mygirlpunky · Feb 9, 2009, 04:01 PM

My water pump has developed another new problem! It can be running and working properly, and then it will lose prime and continuing running without my knowledge. By the time I caught it, it wouldn't prime again and I noticed it was leaking from the inlet and outlet area of the water pump which has the pvc fitting screwed into. The fittings had swelled, thus causing the leak at the points where they join up to the water pump and caused them to be loose. This is the second time this has happened. The last time I replaced all necessary pvc connections, primed the pump and it worked fine for quite some time. The pump has not burnt up as I have no problem getting suction when I tried to prime it. What could be the problem to have spells where it will lose prime? Thanks

jlisenbe · Feb 9, 2009, 06:09 PM

Is it possible those fittings froze and that caused them to swell... cold weather?? At any rate, as long as they are leaking, you will have the problem you describe. Replace the fittings... again.

mygirlpunky · Feb 9, 2009, 06:19 PM

They couldn't have froze as I have heat in this room where the pump is at. Once I change these out again, after awhile, I'll have the same thing happen to the pump losing prime and continuing to run. It may not happen for a couple of weeks. It will run fine. There has to be a reason why I keep having this trouble. If there was a leak elsewhere, I would think it wouldn't work fine for a few weeks and then go bad again, it would happen immediately. I thought the pipes and fittings swelled because the pump ran continually for a few hours before I found it, causing it to overheat, as the pump was extremely hot to the touch. It was weird, I had to cut back a ways on the pvc pipe to replace because it swelled the pipes at least a foot out.

jlisenbe · Feb 9, 2009, 06:45 PM

The heat certainly answers the swelling question. I am wondering if you have problems further down in the well, causing the pump to lose prime, pump runs dry, pump and pipes heat up, and so forth. Do you know how deep the well is?

mygirlpunky · Feb 9, 2009, 06:59 PM

The well is at least 20ft deep. The water is up above the pipe that takes the water out of the well. When we recently had the pipe that extends down in the well out to replace the foot valve, there was no problem with the pipe itself.