Low Water Pressure, please help!!!

My wife is turning 50 tomorrow and her only birthday present request is to fix our water pressure problem (that we have been living with since moving to this house 7 years ago)

I have enjoyed reading the posts on this forum and have learned much in trying to problem solve. At this point I am scratching my head and appreciate any advice you can provide.

Some Background:
We have a well (I believe about 100 feet deep). The pump was replaced about 2 years ago and it seems to be functioning fine. The main water pipe goes in to a Web-X-trol pressure tank with Square D 40/60 switch. The out-pipe goes into a culligan water softener/ iron binding system (which has bypass valves to bypass this system). From there it appears to be 3/4inch pipe off which there are many 1/2 inch pipes that go to various end points. We live in a 3 level house (counting the basement as level 1--which is where the main water supply and Web-X-trol pressure tank live.

The problem:
We have always (since living in this house--with no change after replacing the well pump 2 years ago) had poor water pressure coming out of our pipes. The shower pressure(on level 3 where we shower) appears to be best in the morning if you are the first to shower and gradually lessens to become fair pressure (at best) after a about 2 minutes. Subsequent showers and showers the rest of the day in general have only fair pressure. If someone opena a fawcet somewhere, the shower water volume decreases noticeaby. If a 3rd floor toilet is flushed, the water volume also diminishes significantly (the shower water volume is even worse if a 2nd floor toilet is flushed--and frequently the shower goes to a trickle or completely disappears).

What I have checked:
After shutting off the pump, I drained the pressure tank (by running basement sink faucet until water stopped coming out at which point the pressure guage on the out-pipe of the pressure tank read zero. I measured the air pressure of the pressure tank at the valve near the top, and adjusted (let out a few extra psi) until the pressure read 38psi. The pressure guage at the pressure tank out pipe reads about 40psi almost immediately after turning on the well pump and the pressure steadily increases (no water running) and shuts off when the guage reaches about 63-64psi---[this takes about 90 secs from turning pump on until it shuts off at 63-64 psi]. I notice that with no water running, the pressure guage settles and holds at 60-61psi. When I turn the 3rrd floor shower on fully, the pressure guage falls quite slowly (with a fair shower stream)
the guage falls to 55psi at 1 minute
the guage reads 50 psi at 3 minutes
the guage reads 45psi at 5 minutes
the pump kicks on at about 40psi at 8 minutes.

With the shower on full (fair stream) it takes the pump 1 min 55 seconds to go from 40 psi when the pump kicks on to 62-3psi when the pump kicks off.
With no water running, it takes the pump 1 minute 20 seconds to go from pump on at 40psi to pump off at 62-3psi. Please all of the above was done with the water conditioning system bypassed.

I am sorry if I provided unnecessary info or neglected to provide any other info...I am hoping the more info I can provide the better.

Any ideas??? Thanks (my wife will thank you---and me too

You didn't indicate what kind of well pump you have, submersible, or above ground jet? Also how far from the house is the well, and how much elevation change is there?

1/2" piping throughout the house I think is the first problem, however I will defer to the real plumbers on this forum, I plumbed my entire home with 3/4" and wanted to use 1" but was talked out of it by the plumbing wholesale supply place. (I would still use a main line of 1")

You're solution other than tear out all the plumbing and re-plumb. Increase the pressure in the square D pressure switch to 50/70, the center nut inside does that, turn it clockwise. Increase the pressure in the bladder tank to match the 2 psi less than the turn on switch setting. If your pump can't make the additional 10psi, then i don't know, you're probably stuck.

Rancher

My guess is it is a submersible.

Put the filter into by pass and see what the pressure/flow is like, if no increase, by pass the softener. If no increase, you may have a stop valve that isn't open all the way or a piece of galvanized blocked with rust but...

It may be the size of the pump, what gpm and hp rating is the pump? What type of pump?

Thanks for your thoughts....
It is a submersible pump (about 100' deep), and the well cap is about 100' or so from the house. We had the pump replaced about 2 years ago and asked for a heavier duty pump than the old one.
At this time, I am unsure of the hp of the pump(will try to find out).
I do not recall what the well pump flow rate is. Is there a way I can measure this???.....do I simply open up a tap in the basement and see how much water I catch in 60 sceonds?

I did try top bypass the iron filter and water softener simultaneously with no significant change in flow upstairs.....but will try to do each one individually to see if this matters.

I was also thinking that the pipes may be too small. The pipe from the well to the pressure tank is 1 inch. Pipe out from pressure tank is 3/4 inch pipe which goes to iron filter and water softener. pipe from water softener is 3/4 inch which is the trunk size that supplies the first floor, with 1/2 inch branches to each sink, toilet etc. The pipe that serves the 3rd floor is 3/4 inch with 1/2 inch braches to end appliances.

Of note, the 1/2 inch line to our kitchen sink branches out from the 3/4 inch pipe not far after coming out of the softner, and the 1/2 inch run is perhaps 10' total. When the kitchen sink faucet is fully open, the volume is reasonably good, but if another first floor faucet is open, the volume reduces to a fair flow (noticeable decrease). I would think that if my problem was either a plumbing pipe (too small), the problem would worsen farther away from the water source. In my cae the problem seems relatively evenly distributed in general.

Thanks for any suggestions. I will try to get the info you asked.

Unless, we can find something fixable ie pump, pressure tank, water softener, clogged pipe....I fear you may be right about the