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mammaguz · Jul 21, 2007, 11:42 AM

When I run my outside sprinklers I loose water pressure in about 5 minutes. I recently replaced the water tank. I get good pressure inside the house.

speedball1 · Jul 21, 2007, 12:00 PM

You're going to hafta give us more details then that. Pump or city water? Is the sprinkler system on a pump or off a meter? If meter, are there two? One for house and one for the sprinkers. In short, give us more information to work with. Regards, tom

mammaguz · Jul 21, 2007, 03:28 PM

I have a well. Only one pump. A guy came out and told me I needed a new well but why would I if I still get good water inside the house.

scirocco70 · Jul 21, 2007, 05:54 PM

I suggest you quit watering your lawn...

I had the same symptoms you describe, and my problem turned out to be that the water level in my well had dropped to very close to the level of my pump.

My well was drilled in 1969.

There are two kinds of water level in the well... static and dynamic. The static level is what it's at when "resting"... i.e. the pump is not on. Dynamic level is the level it stabilizes at when the pump is running.

When the pump kicks on, it draws the level down... if the level goes down enough, no more water, and you lose pressure.

At my house, it got to the point that you couldn't take a shower without the pressure going down to around 15 or 20 psi, at the gauge before the tank. The tank is large (90 gal) and in good shape, so it would last for a minute or two, but then... no good. My switch is set at 40/60.

I had to have the well guys come out and lower the pump. Unfortunately, I only had another 20 feet, so that's it... Estimate for a new well is around $18k, and will go between 500 and 800 feet. Current well is only 200 feet, which in 1969 EVERYONE thought it would "last forever."

HA!

So, since your own water usage has a direct impact on how soon you have to replace your well... it might be in your best interest to have a brown lawn for a bit.

In my area estimates for loss (aka drawdown) run from 10 ft/year (yikes! ) to 2 ft/year. Either way I'm on borrowed time... you may be too.

The well guys only charged me $275 to come out and lower the pump and let me know what the deal is...

Good luck!
~aaron

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