[jondfloyd]

Please help! My daughter's normal 30 min shower turned in to an hour this morning!! I have a 40 year old home on a crawl space. The system has a bladder type pressure tank, a reasonably new water softener, a new water heater, and a submersible well pump. I have performed the recommended routine maintenance on the appliances but now, suddenly, I have real water pressure issues. When the water is first turned on, the pressure is outstanding. Within seconds, the pressure drops to a trickle. I watched the pressure gauge on the pressure tank and it never drops below 40psi and tops out at 60psi. Water coming from the pressure tank has really good pressure. While the water is running, the rate of flow is around .6 to .8 gpm. With the water off, the rate of flow is 0.0 gpm. This information comes from the readout on my watersoftener. I would think that if there was a broken or cracked pipe, the rate would not zero out. There seems to be air entering the pipes because of the blow out occasionally. I can actually watch air bubbles come out of the slowly trickling tub spout. I haven't checked the well pump yet. The ground is saturated right now due to rain and snow melt. This seems to be a common occurrence when the ground is wet, but it has never been this bad and usually corrects itself within a day. Any suggestions?

[jlisenbe]

Bypass the water softener and see if that solves the problem. You have a restriction somewhere. The well is probably OK.

[submersiblepump]

There are two types of pressure tanks. A galvanized tank or a pre charged bladder style pressure tank.

What color is you're pressure tank?

Does it have a pressure gauge mounted on the side of it? Or is there a tire stem valve (air valve) on the top of the tank?

If the tank is galvanized or "silver" color:
The grey valve your pressure gauge is threaded into is called an Air Volume Control and has a red float connected to it located in the tank. If you un-screw the gray valve from the tank make sure that the little red float is still connected to the swing arm of the air volume control. Sometimes the red float will rust away from the swing arm and fall into the tank. If this red float is floating in the tank when you turn on the water you will have great pressure for a minute and then all of a sudden the float will jam into the pipe and cut down the flow & pressure. Then when you shut the water off it will exit the line back into the tank freeing up the line again. Then it happends again when you turn the water back on.

The air volume control (AVC) lets excess air out of the tank so that you don't get any air in the line. If the AVC is broken this will be the reason you are getting air in the lines.

If you have a Bladder tank (typically blue, or green, or tan in color) that has a bicycle tire valve on the top, the air might have escaped from the pre charged air portion of the tank. You will need to check the air pressure in the tank. To do this turn off the power to the pump and drain the tank. Make sure the pressure gauge read "0" LBS. Then take a tire gauge and check the air pressure in the tank using the air valve. The tank should have 38PSI in it. If it has significantly less air, then the tank probably needs to be replaced. After you verify that the tank is drained and the pressure gauge is reading "0" PSI, slap the side of the tank and make sure all of the water is actually drained. If you still feel water in the top of tank with the line completely drained then you need to change the bladder tank. This should solve your problem.

I suggest if you need submersible pumps, well pressure tanks, water pressure tanks, or water well accessories go to this submersible pumps website.

If you have questions about diagnosing well pumps or troubleshooting water well submersible pumps go to the constant pressure pumps blog. There is rich content about water well pumps and filtration that might help you around the house.

[jondfloyd]

Thank you for the replies. The suggestion about the water softener wasn't the problem, but it did lead me to the solution. I tried the bypass on the water softener, with no results. However, while I was looking at that appliance, I noticed another appliance that I hadn't done any maintenance to. The whole house water filter was a disaster. Hadn't been changed in god knows how long. It was basically mud clog. I changed it and magically, I have 2.5gpm with 60psi. Thanks for the responses.

[jlisenbe]

Terrific. Glad you got it fixed.