Well pump issues...

[ck80]

I'll skip the drama with some floor sanders that were in the house, long story short they inexplicably turned on the breakers to the well and water heater. When we arrived, pump was dead and doing nothing. I fiddled around with cconnections and terminals on the pressure regulator and got... well see below.

Jet Pump Video

The well pump (jet pump) is now doing this. On the RH side you can see the pressure gauge fluctuating. Hits 40, tries for higher, if it pings the 50s near 60 it shuts off. When it dips under 40, turns back on and does this again. And that's when it works. If I'm not there fiddling with it it stops turning on and you just hear a very very faint metallic tap every few seconds, as the pressure falls to zero and it stops trying to engage. Not even as loud as the transformer on my old lionel.

I know it'll burn itself up with all the cycling and is only a year old.

Thoughts? I was thinking change the regulator box, but, it could be who knows what at this point.

 

[69hurstolds]

Sounds like a pi$$ed off duck. 🙂

Does your jet pump system have a surge tank (bladder tank) on it? It acts like either 1) it's not primed worth a flip, or 2) the bladder tank air pressure on the top of the diaphragm is way too low or non-existant.

Foot valve could be leaking? Is there a way you could manually prime the system if the suspicion is due to priming issue. If the downstream backpressure isn't there, you'll cycle the living crap out of that pump.

Check the contacts too on your pressure cut on/off switch. I use a square D pump with a catastrophic pressure loss cutoff. Has a little lever on it. When pressure is too low, the switch fails to off and you have to lift the lever and hold it until the pressure comes up. Once it gets past the low point, the pressure is high enough to let go of the lever. Provided your system is primed and your pressure tank has proper air pressure on top of the bladder.

Square D Pumptrol 40-60 PSI Well Pump Water Pressure Switch with Low Pressure Cut-Off FSG2J24M4BP - The Home Depot

The Pumptrol FSG2J24M4BP electromechanical pressure switch by Square D is the most trusted brand in residential, commercial and industrial pumping applications. This switch has a 40 psi to 60 psi pressure

www.homedepot.com

I am not a well guru, but I've always wanted to play one on TV.

 

[ck80]

Sounds like a pi$$ed off duck. 🙂

Does your jet pump system have a surge tank (bladder tank) on it? It acts like either 1) it's not primed worth a flip, or 2) the bladder tank air pressure on the top of the diaphragm is way too low or non-existant.

Foot valve could be leaking? Is there a way you could manually prime the system if the suspicion is due to priming issue. If the downstream backpressure isn't there, you'll cycle the living crap out of that pump.

Check the contacts too on your pressure cut on/off switch. I use a square D pump with a catastrophic pressure loss cutoff. Has a little lever on it. When pressure is too low, the switch fails to off and you have to lift the lever and hold it until the pressure comes up. Once it gets past the low point, the pressure is high enough to let go of the lever. Provided your system is primed and your pressure tank has proper air pressure on top of the bladder.

Square D Pumptrol 40-60 PSI Well Pump Water Pressure Switch with Low Pressure Cut-Off FSG2J24M4BP - The Home Depot

The Pumptrol FSG2J24M4BP electromechanical pressure switch by Square D is the most trusted brand in residential, commercial and industrial pumping applications. This switch has a 40 psi to 60 psi pressure

www.homedepot.com

I am not a well guru, but I've always wanted to play one on TV.

When everything was redone in mid 2019 everything was put in new - foot valve, lines, elbows, pump, regulator, blah blah blah.

I admit, my ONLY well knowledge comes from talking to the well techs a few hours while they redid that system and pointers they gave about mine, and other, types of systems while we shot the breeze.

If by surge/bladder tank you mean the small gas grill propane tank sized canister that has 38lbs or so of compressed air in it, then yes we have one.

We didn't stand around to watch as work was done. Wish we did. We DO have built in a removable plug for priming, it's that ugly pvc that might be sticking up in the air in some pictures. If I break the seal we should be able to get water in there.

Contacts on the pressure switch show some blackening but were still firing with the cover off. Cleaned them off better but it didn't make a difference, that was the first thing I hoped was wrong with no luck.

 

[carnutjw]

Weeelllll, let me tell you what I know about well pumps-they're great, until they're a pain in the *ss. That's about it. Seriously, I would go the priming route too, filling the "ugly PVC thing" and try again. Might take a few times, and it sucks because you need water to make your water pump work- oh the irony!

 

[Texas82GP]

Sounds like a pi$$ed off duck. 🙂

Does your jet pump system have a surge tank (bladder tank) on it? It acts like either 1) it's not primed worth a flip, or 2) the bladder tank air pressure on the top of the diaphragm is way too low or non-existant.

Foot valve could be leaking? Is there a way you could manually prime the system if the suspicion is due to priming issue. If the downstream backpressure isn't there, you'll cycle the living crap out of that pump.

Check the contacts too on your pressure cut on/off switch. I use a square D pump with a catastrophic pressure loss cutoff. Has a little lever on it. When pressure is too low, the switch fails to off and you have to lift the lever and hold it until the pressure comes up. Once it gets past the low point, the pressure is high enough to let go of the lever. Provided your system is primed and your pressure tank has proper air pressure on top of the bladder.

Square D Pumptrol 40-60 PSI Well Pump Water Pressure Switch with Low Pressure Cut-Off FSG2J24M4BP - The Home Depot

The Pumptrol FSG2J24M4BP electromechanical pressure switch by Square D is the most trusted brand in residential, commercial and industrial pumping applications. This switch has a 40 psi to 60 psi pressure

www.homedepot.com

I am not a well guru, but I've always wanted to play one on TV.

But you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[64nailhead]

Jet pump 👎

Why not use a submersible?

 

[ck80]

Jet pump 👎

Why not use a submersible?

It's what is there, and has been there. Sure, it'd be nice to drop $2000 - 3000 bucks on something like that IF it was our residence, but it's a house we're getting rid of, and swapping pump styles isn't a good ROI. I've dropped enough on spanking new heating and air, appliances, insulation, painting, refinished hardwoods, etc.

Well is also a bored well, not a drilled well, and clocks in around a whopping 25 feet deep or so.

Back when we planned to keep it I priced drilling and talked to that same company that's been local forever and kind of knew roughly where they were hitting fracture zones to fill the wells. That was going to be, at best guess, a $6000 endeavor plus pump, lines, and wiring. Plus a health dept approval, requiring a full parcel as-built survey of 7 acres. So we figured that would clock in at $10k plus and just replaced the entire jet pump system for under $500 including labor.

 

[ck80]

Weeelllll, let me tell you what I know about well pumps-they're great, until they're a pain in the *ss. That's about it. Seriously, I would go the priming route too, filling the "ugly PVC thing" and try again. Might take a few times, and it sucks because you need water to make your water pump work- oh the irony!

Worst case scenario, fill a bunch of bottles up at home with tap water to dump in. Decided in the grand scheme of being really pissed off at this place today we're going to regroup at home, gather more tools/supplies, and head back... I guess with 10-12 gallons of water. Maybe Thursday. Or Friday. We'll see. Try to find out as many things to check and test as possible first so we don't leave anything behind.

 

[69hurstolds]

Well is also a bored well, not a drilled well, and clocks in around a whopping 25 feet deep or so.

Typical. Jet pumps are mainly used in small bore, "shallow" wells. And 25 feet would do it. Our well is about 200 feet, so the submersible pump is the only way to go.

Depending on the design of the ejector pump, it likely has an impeller that shoves water through the eductor, which pulls the water up through the suction pipe. Foot valves aren't infallable, and is more important role in the jet pump because you're depending on lifting water from the suction pipe. If it leaks (not a shocker if it does as sand and debris could build up and keep it from sealing sometimes) eventually it will drain back down and pull water with it if it sits too long, potentially to the point of losing prime. There SHOULD be a priming plug on the case of the pump somewhere. If not, I guess you'll have no choice but to try to prime via the pipe plug. I guess it'd be easier.

This is all assuming your bladder tank is still at 38 psi when totally void of water. If the air pressure is low, and you fill it with water, it's going to compress that air to read higher than it is. The video you showed would show symptoms exactly how an extremely low pressure tank pressure would act. So check the air side pressure when the unit is off and the tank is empty of water. I'm also assuming you checked the tank with a tire pressure gage during troubleshooting and not going by what the well guys said it should be? It needs to be slightly less than the cut on pressure setpoint. 38 is normal for 40-60 psi ranges. Sorry, not trying to insult your intelligence, but most of my troubleshooting dilemmas that got prolonged were because I overlooked the simple crap. My last pressure tank was leaking at the valve base. Which was just a regular rubber tire valve that installed from the inside of the tank. Not bad for 15 years of service. Diaphragm wasn't leaking, but the valve was corroding. But to replace it, I would have to cut into the tank. WTF? Middle of the road initial construction tank was installed, so when I replaced it with a slightly larger one, I got a good one with a welded air valve. Pricier, but way better construction/materials.

So with all my scientific and major knowledge on everything well water which fits inside a thimble, I'm going to put $100 in chips on the priming. It's cycling so bad that your pump can't run long enough to build up any sort of suction lift/flow it seems. So you either got a suction clog, or a flow issue in the pump. JMO.

This is all derived from a 16 second video, mind you, so take it FWIW.

 

[LeftLaneOnly]

points are shot new regulator. they should not open and close while the pump is working.
and there is an adjustment to move the pressure thresholds larger then 40-60 .m my house pump is 30 years old and I have replaced 4 of these so far

good luck