Well again! What else can it be? FRUSTRATED!

[SPYDERLK]

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

The pressure switch should be monitoring pressure on the water side - not the air side. So, too high air pressure would fully deplete the water before the pump would come on. If watching a water side gauge the indicated pressure would plummet as the last water was exhausted - then jump to preload pressure as the pump came on. It sorta sounds like this might be part of it if I interpret OP corrrectly.
larry

 

[mbohuntr]

Please disregard my advice, I thought you had a jet pump (above ground) You have a submersible pump, different animal.

 

[clovergamecock]

Thanks all. Either I am not smart enough to figure this out or something else is wrong. Now I cannot get the pump to come on at all. There is 20psi in the tank right now. I have a new regulator one it now but it does not have the little switch on the side. After I installed it and cut the power on the pump came on and pressurized. I then had the wife turn the water on and let it run. After 5 minutes or so the pressyre started dropping the pump never came on and the pressure dropped to 0. Now no matter what I do nothing makes the pump turn on. I lowered the tank pressure to 20 and then started adjusting the kick in screw in to raise out to lower I essentially went full length in and out and I have nothing.

With the new switch there is no lever to turn on and off. I am about ready to say call a plumber and pay him whatever to come and fix what ever simple thing I have screwed up.

Any ideas on how I can get the pump to turn back on???

 

[ljohnson778]

Thanks all. Either I am not smart enough to figure this out or something else is wrong. Now I cannot get the pump to come on at all. There is 20psi in the tank right now. I have a new regulator one it now but it does not have the little switch on the side. After I installed it and cut the power on the pump came on and pressurized. I then had the wife turn the water on and let it run. After 5 minutes or so the pressyre started dropping the pump never came on and the pressure dropped to 0. Now no matter what I do nothing makes the pump turn on. I lowered the tank pressure to 20 and then started adjusting the kick in screw in to raise out to lower I essentially went full length in and out and I have nothing.

With the new switch there is no lever to turn on and off. I am about ready to say call a plumber and pay him whatever to come and fix what ever simple thing I have screwed up.

Any ideas on how I can get the pump to turn back on???

If I was anywhere around South Carolina, I'd help you out my friend. Pressure switches are simple, but not intuitive... Which is to say, they're not necessarily complicated, but their operation is not obvious. Please, save yourself some grief, call a plumber or a well driller.

 

[clovergamecock]

Ok guys I think that the issue is not with the tank or the switch. A friend came over that is an electrician and he jhas replaced all of this himself st one point. When he got here he manually kicked the pump on at the reg. The pressure shot to 50 psi and cut off. The wife turned the faucet on and the pressure held steady for a minute or so and then slowly started going down. At around 32 psi the reg tripped for the pump to come on. The pressure raised about 2 psi and then started falling until it hist 0. The pump was still on but pumping nothing to the tanks or to the well head. I am not a well guy as I have figured out the last week or so. However, this makes me think that I have 1 of 3 things going on.

1. The new pump is bad again or both legs are not pulling the same load. The problem with this is why does it pressurize and then when the house water is turned on and the pressure drops it comes back on bu no longer pumps??

2. The refresh rate is to slow now. The odd thing here is that it has never given us a problem over the last 8 years. The well is 322' deep. We measured the depth of the water last week and it was roughly 60' deep. The pump itself was 12' from the bottom. I took off 5 feet to rais it from the bottom more due to all the sediment that was on the line and pump when we pulled it. That still had the pump roughy 43' below the water line. The pump could really lower the well not that fast?????

3. The well is now bad. Again if this was the case why am I getting water???

At this point I do not know what to do. Does any of this point to a solution? Would adding 10' back to the line placing it 7' from the bottom fix the issue? Right now I have the breaker off to keep the pump from running. I almost would bet that if I turn the breaker back on in the morning I will have water for a while anyway.

Does any of this make sense??? Idea's????

Thank you all for the patience and help!

Wade

 

[Clint S]

Do you have a back flow valve in the house and if you do is it before or after the gauge. You may have a hole in the line in the well casing also.

 

[clovergamecock]

Do you have a back flow valve in the house and if you do is it before or after the gauge. You may have a hole in the line in the well casing also.

Thanks Clint. Not really sure what a back flow is but I really don't think so. There is nothing but the line coming from the well head under the grouns and into the crawl space to the tank. When you say casing are you referring to the water line itself or the round casing of the well?? When we pulled the pump last weekend I checked the line for holes an did not see any. I would think that a hole in the line big enough to cause something like this would have to be pretty obvious but at this point I doubt I would even notice...

 

[clovergamecock]

YEP!!! I went back out and turned the breaker on and instantly have 50psi!!! I am betting now that we will have water for the toilets, sinks and most likely 1 shower in the morning before it crashes again.....

 

[turnkey4099]

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

Common settings are 30=50 and 40-60. While you can set them wherever you wnt the recommendation is a 20psi spread.The 30-50 setting may or may not work for some impulse sprinklers - they get a bit 'sticky at the 30psi end. Pressures over 60 is discouraged for residential/normal watering use as higher pressures are hard on fixtures. Your 50psi cut in is too high. You also need to know wht the high cut out pressure is. The "spread" between high and low is adjusted with the shorter screws in the box, one for low end, one high end.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

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?

Some pressure switches have three screws, a tall and two short. Shorts set the the cut-in and cut-out point, tall one moves the range up/down.

Harry K