Need help. No water.

[N80]

Down at my cabin for a week vacation of hunting and projects and now have no water and can't figure out why. This is what happens:

Turn faucet on and water runs, slows down, stops. A minute or so later it comes back on.

Watching the pressure gauge on the tank under the cabin it will cycle normally once or twice. It seems to be set between around 28 and 20. In other words, cycles on at 20, cycles off somewhere above 25. Then it will drop down to 20 and then suddenly drop to 0.

Breaker has not been tripped.

At the well head everything appears normal including the big black snake in the little pump cover. No frayed wires etc.

Any advice? Worried this is going to ruin my vacation.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[herm0016]

see if the well is running dry? check the current on the wire to the pump.

 

[sea2summit]

Is the pressure switch clean? I had a spider build a nest in one a few years back that caused me all kinds of issues until I figured it out, pretty obvious as soon as you pull the cover off if there's anything in there.

 

[EddieWalker]

If your gauge says that you have 20 pounds, there should be water at the tank. I would open up the line as close to the well as possible and make sure water is coming out.

Then it's just a matter of working your way along the line to see where there is water and where there isn't.

 

[bcp]

Rust in the 1/4 inch pipe to the pressure switch will make it do odd stuff like that.

I replaced mine with brass.

Bruce

 

[ponytug]

Great advice!

+1 on the flakey pressure switch and/or a clogged line to the pressure switch. It happens every couple of years here. The switches are pretty cheap, so I have taken to replacing them rather fiddling with them to get another year or two out f them. Once there is rust or gunk at the diaphragm, the party is basically over.

I would start by turning the power off, and looking inside the pressure switch cover, checking the contacts for spiders )thanks @sea2summit!) and general corrosion. Inside the cover should be a diagram on how to raise the pressure. Turn the screw to raise the pressure a bit. If that fixes it, great, if not, power off, and then loosen the coupling at the pressure switch and see if water flows freely out of it. If it has crud, or rust in it, clean out the line and the fittings, or replace them, remembering to clean things out at the pump, too.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Valveman]

If the pressure switch is turning the pump on at 20, it should be turning it off at 40. I think the overload in the motor is tripping at like 28 before the tank is full. Then it takes a minute or so for the overload in the motor to cool down and reset. During that time the pressure goes to zero. New control box and pressure switch is a good place to start. But I am afraid a new pump/motor is in your near future.

 

[xrjohndeere]

Down at my cabin for a week vacation of hunting and projects and now have no water and can't figure out why. This is what happens:

Turn faucet on and water runs, slows down, stops. A minute or so later it comes back on.

Watching the pressure gauge on the tank under the cabin it will cycle normally once or twice. It seems to be set between around 28 and 20. In other words, cycles on at 20, cycles off somewhere above 25. Then it will drop down to 20 and then suddenly drop to 0.

Breaker has not been tripped.

At the well head everything appears normal including the big black snake in the little pump cover. No frayed wires etc.

Any advice? Worried this is going to ruin my vacation.

Any help much appreciated.

I believe your pump is going out. With the faucet on it should run until the faucet is closed. You can rule out the pressure switch by bypassing it and connecting your leads together. Just shut off your breaker. Wire the leads together, open a faucet and flip the breaker. If water runs like it should and doesn’t stop you have a bad pressure switch. Also if it is dropping to zero you may have a bad check valve.

 

[N80]

Update:

Pressure switch looks fine from the outside.

Got voltage all the way out to the well head.

Tank has about 18-20 pounds of pressure when empty so tank is okay.

Removed pressure switch and it is gunked up and rusty looking inside. Waiting for wife to get back with new switch.

Still some unexplained weirdness though. The switch started staying in the On position regardless of the pressure in the tank. Earlier it was functioning some but now staying in the On position. With the breaker On the water would run and then stop even with the pressure switch stuck in the On position. After a minute or two it would come back on again. Then stop. When this was happening their was no change in voltage at the well head. I can't explain that unless there is an overload feature on the pump as @Valveman suggests......but this cycling on and off would continue to happen with the faucet at the well head open. Not sure why the pump would overload with the tap open.

My brother-in-law was here. He's better at this stuff than me. He is stumped. He called a plumber friend. Went through the details and he at first thought it might be the pump but ruled that out and suggested we see if the switch was gunked. Which it is.

Wife is taking forever to get back from town but will let you all know what happens with the new switch installed.

 

[MF RED in MT]

N80 said, "In other words, cycles on at 20, cycles off somewhere above 25. Then it will drop down to 20 and then suddenly drop to 0."

Sounds like to me that your check value in your well pump is not working and it's letting the water in the pressure tank flow back into the well, or you may have a water leak in your system somewhere.

And if your pump is shutting down at 25 pounds of pressure, then maybe it's hurting a lot also.

KC