[rickwells]

I am losing water pressure in my house. I have a shallow well, and my pressure gauge on my pump is losing pressure. I replaced the foot valve, and my pump is still kicking on evey 12 minutes even with no water turned on. I drained the pressure tank and put 28lbs of air in it. 2 psi below my cut in pressure, filled it back up. I tapped my tank, it sounds like a dead thud sound up to about half way then the top half sounds hollow. I have a 1/2 hp mastercraft pump and about a 20 gallon goulds pressure tank. Any advice would greatly be appreciated. Thanks Rick

[jlisenbe]

Do you have a cutoff valve to the house? If so, turn off the house water and see if pressure holds. If so, then the problem is between the house and the tank. If not, then you might want to check your well pipe for leaks or the possibility of a leaking checkvalve.

[rickwells]

Thanks jlisenbe for your quick response. I do not have a shut off valve to my house. I did put a new check valve in, but may replace that again before I go any further as they are pretty cheap and it may have been a faulty one.

Thanks. Rick

[speedball1]

Somewhere, between the pump and the house there should be a shut off valve. It may be at the pump or just before it enters the house but every house I've ever worked on has a house shut off. Find yours, ( if you don't have one then have one installed).
Actually, you should have a shut off after the pump also.
If you're ever going to locate the source of your leak You're gonna;
1) be able to isolate the house with a shut off so it can be checked, **and**
2) you should also have a shut off on the discharge side so the service can be checked fro a leak.
Until you can isolate the house, the service line and the pump you can't localize the source of the leak
Cheers, tom

[rickwells]

Thanks all for you imput. I do have a shut off right after the pump but not before it. I found the problem, it was in the well. The right degree elbow was leaking at the hose going down into the well. I put a new elbow in, tightened it up and now everything seems to be working fine. Still don't have a lot of water pressure. If I were to replace the 1/2 inch copper pipe with 3/4 inch pipe, would that increase the pressure. I think it is the original pipes in the house which is approx 35 years old.

Thanks again. Rick

[speedball1]

Thanks for the update Rick. Always helpful to hear back. Thanks, Tom

[jlisenbe]

Increasing pipe size would not increase pressure, but it would increase volume, which is really what you are after.