turnkey4099
Elite Member
Yep. too much pressure and the pump will never turn on. Set it 2psi below the cut-in pressure. It is set with the tank empty of water...or at least as empty as you can get it.
Harry K
Well again! What else can it be? FRUSTRATED!
- Thread starter clovergamecock
- Start date
- Views: 19531
Yep. too much pressure and the pump will never turn on. Set it 2psi below the cut-in pressure. It is set with the tank empty of water...or at least as empty as you can get it.
Harry K
OP
clovergamecock
Gold Member
Thanks Harry. This is a leason I have learned the hardway. After reading up I should have set the tank pressure as soon as I installed it and not after allowing the water to flow.
For checking the pump to tank pressure I shut off the house and bleed the pressure in the house. Then I use the "Tall" adjustment spring to set the pressure in the line which would be the cut on point of the pump. Mine is currently at 50psi. Is that to much? If not then that means I would want the tank set at 48 psi.
Is this all correct?
Thanks
Wade
For checking the pump to tank pressure I shut off the house and bleed the pressure in the house. Then I use the "Tall" adjustment spring to set the pressure in the line which would be the cut on point of the pump. Mine is currently at 50psi. Is that to much? If not then that means I would want the tank set at 48 psi.
Is this all correct?
Thanks
Wade
sam5570
Platinum Member
Wade you can set your switch to cut on and of at any preasure between 30 and 60 lbs. if you want to maintain good preasure all the time i would set the switch to cut on at 45 and cut off at 60. Wade is it possible to take a couple pics of your tank and switch so we can see for sure what system you have and how it's placed.
Bikewanderer
Gold Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2010
- Messages
- 263
A couple possibilities:
1) Too much pressure in the tank didn't allow it to fill and the pump short cycled, kicking a thermal fuse or overheated the contacts on the pressure switch.
2) Is the switch on the tank? Too much pressure could keep it from kicking back on after meeting initial pressure demand.
1) Too much pressure in the tank didn't allow it to fill and the pump short cycled, kicking a thermal fuse or overheated the contacts on the pressure switch.
2) Is the switch on the tank? Too much pressure could keep it from kicking back on after meeting initial pressure demand.
mbohuntr
Platinum Member
Yup, If you have 20' of head already, you could be near the limit of your pump's capacity. The pump cannot push that much pressure, and will dead head until it overheats. Crank it down to 25 and 40, and see if it will cycle. If yes, bump up the cut off (high) pressure a bit and see how it acts. We had a 24' well, and the pump worked pretty hard to pull it. You can push a ton of water, but pull very little.
'
OP
clovergamecock
Gold Member
Here is my setup and and how the pressures are set now.
SWITCH SIDE VIEW:
TANK PRESSURE:
SWITCH TOP VIEW:
LINE PRESSURE FROM PUMP TO REG:
SWITCH SIDE VIEW:
TANK PRESSURE:
SWITCH TOP VIEW:
LINE PRESSURE FROM PUMP TO REG:
Bikewanderer
Gold Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2010
- Messages
- 263
Do the following things:
1) Lower the pressure in the tank to 20 PSI.
2) Turn the pump on. When it kicks off record the pressure (probably 50 or 60 PSI)
3) Open a faucet and watch the gauge. Record the pressure when the pump kicks on again (probably 30 or 40 PSI)
4) Raise the tank pressure to 3 PSI less than the pressure reading you recorded in step 3.
5) Post the results.
You say you have a regulator. What is the pressure reading after the regulator?
1) Lower the pressure in the tank to 20 PSI.
2) Turn the pump on. When it kicks off record the pressure (probably 50 or 60 PSI)
3) Open a faucet and watch the gauge. Record the pressure when the pump kicks on again (probably 30 or 40 PSI)
4) Raise the tank pressure to 3 PSI less than the pressure reading you recorded in step 3.
5) Post the results.
You say you have a regulator. What is the pressure reading after the regulator?
uglyboywith11fingers
Gold Member
guage readings are not necessarily an indication of pressure settings, depending on if the pump is running at the time or not...
I would start from scratch...
If you want your pump to cycle between 35psi and 55psi, as an example, I would turn off the pump, open a tap in the house until it stops running water, then using your air compressor, adjust the pressure (pre-charge) in the tank to 32 or 33psi. Start up your pump and adjust the cut-out so the pump stops at 55psi. Open a tap, and adjust the cut-in so the pump starts at 35psi. The cut-in has to be a couple psi higher than the tank pre-charge, or you will run out of water in the house before the pump starts up. Leave a tap running, let the pump cycle a few times, and verify the cut-in and cut-out points are adjusted to where you want them to be.
Pete
I would start from scratch...
If you want your pump to cycle between 35psi and 55psi, as an example, I would turn off the pump, open a tap in the house until it stops running water, then using your air compressor, adjust the pressure (pre-charge) in the tank to 32 or 33psi. Start up your pump and adjust the cut-out so the pump stops at 55psi. Open a tap, and adjust the cut-in so the pump starts at 35psi. The cut-in has to be a couple psi higher than the tank pre-charge, or you will run out of water in the house before the pump starts up. Leave a tap running, let the pump cycle a few times, and verify the cut-in and cut-out points are adjusted to where you want them to be.
Pete
Mickey_Fx
Veteran Member
Hope we've not gotten our OP blackrat too confused with all the various comments/suggestions. 
Here's my take. (doing this from memory so I could be wrong) First I'd want to know what the current cut-in/cut-out settings are for the pressure switch since you've messed with them.
* With power to the pressure switch and all faucets closed, using your pressure gauge on the schradder valve at the top of the tank, watch the reading and start bleeding the pressure slowly. Note what the pressure is in the tank when the switch closes. That is the cut-in pressure.
* Next, leave the pump running and note the pressure in the tank when the switch opens. That's the cut-out pressure.
With that knowledge you can make any adjustment necessary to set the pressure switch to what you want/need. Should be 2 adj screws on the switch. One sets the cut-out pressure and the other is the differential pressure, i.e. the pressure drop before the switch closes. I'd adj the cut-out pressure first then tackle the pressure differential adj screw. Each of these screws are compressing a spring. Cycle the tank a few time to see if the switch adjmt has been taken care of. It would be good to begin by dropping the pressure in the tank to insure the tank pressure is lower than the cut-in pressure. Note, the pressure differential should remain fairly consistent regardless of cut-out pressure. 20 psi is the norm.
* Next, with power off, open a faucet and let the tank empty.
* With the tank empty adj the pressure in the tank, as has been said a couple times, so it is several pounds less than the cut-in pressure.
* Cycle the tank a few times to insure the pump kicks in when it should.
You should now have things working right if all is OK other than the various pressure settings.
Now for a question. I see from the pic the water pressure gage is reading somewhere around 48 psi. Please explain that reading. Is that the initial reading, constant or max. If the If that is the max, you're going to have to adj the pressure switch to no more than that reading. One more question, how big is the new tank? Draw-down capacity and not the size of the tank itself. My tank is ~80 gal with a draw-down of ~25 gal. You want to size the tank so it doesn't cycle too often as that is hard on the pump.
Both adjmt screws on the pressure switch and the pre-charge pressure in the tank are interlinked and you may have to make some fine adj to get it all balanced out.
Hope I've not been too confusing. For sure I can do this a lot faster than writing this post.
Here's my take. (doing this from memory so I could be wrong) First I'd want to know what the current cut-in/cut-out settings are for the pressure switch since you've messed with them.
* With power to the pressure switch and all faucets closed, using your pressure gauge on the schradder valve at the top of the tank, watch the reading and start bleeding the pressure slowly. Note what the pressure is in the tank when the switch closes. That is the cut-in pressure.
* Next, leave the pump running and note the pressure in the tank when the switch opens. That's the cut-out pressure.
With that knowledge you can make any adjustment necessary to set the pressure switch to what you want/need. Should be 2 adj screws on the switch. One sets the cut-out pressure and the other is the differential pressure, i.e. the pressure drop before the switch closes. I'd adj the cut-out pressure first then tackle the pressure differential adj screw. Each of these screws are compressing a spring. Cycle the tank a few time to see if the switch adjmt has been taken care of. It would be good to begin by dropping the pressure in the tank to insure the tank pressure is lower than the cut-in pressure. Note, the pressure differential should remain fairly consistent regardless of cut-out pressure. 20 psi is the norm.
* Next, with power off, open a faucet and let the tank empty.
* With the tank empty adj the pressure in the tank, as has been said a couple times, so it is several pounds less than the cut-in pressure.
* Cycle the tank a few times to insure the pump kicks in when it should.
You should now have things working right if all is OK other than the various pressure settings.
Now for a question. I see from the pic the water pressure gage is reading somewhere around 48 psi. Please explain that reading. Is that the initial reading, constant or max. If the If that is the max, you're going to have to adj the pressure switch to no more than that reading. One more question, how big is the new tank? Draw-down capacity and not the size of the tank itself. My tank is ~80 gal with a draw-down of ~25 gal. You want to size the tank so it doesn't cycle too often as that is hard on the pump.
Both adjmt screws on the pressure switch and the pre-charge pressure in the tank are interlinked and you may have to make some fine adj to get it all balanced out.
Hope I've not been too confusing. For sure I can do this a lot faster than writing this post.
ljohnson778
Platinum Member
Based on your pics, it looks like you do have a pressure switch with "low water protection" on it. Basically, designed so that if the well runs dry and pressure drops, it will kick off the pump so that it doesn't run dry and destroy itself. Also, on most common pressure switches, there are two springs, whose tension is adjusted by screwing a nut in or out. One controls the kick on pressure, the other controls the differential. That is to say, the pressure spread. So if you adjust the one spring to kick on at 40 psi, then the other would set the kick out pressure. If it was set at a 20 psi difference, it would kick off at 60 psi. Set it at a 10 psi spread, it kicks off at 50. Clear as mud, eh?
