I have no water!

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Clarinetmom

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NO WATER!!! HELP!!!!
I have had random water pressure problems with my well for the past few months. We can't have anything running outside or the house has no pressure. The pressure gauge seems to bleed off pressure from 60psi to 10 or below. Well today when I came home from bringing my husband home from the hospital we have 0 pressure with nothing running outside. I checked the electricity to the pressure switch and I have electric to it, nothing out and it is not engaging. I am also noticing that I have a small leak near my intake side of my pressure tank. What could be wrong? How can I fix it. I am pretty handy but know nothing about plumbing. Hubby can't do anything due to stroke and no money for plumber. HELP!!!!! BACKGROUND: About 6 months ago I replaced my pump due to iron and calcium deposits eating up my old one. I have replaced my pressure switch several times in the past few months too.
 
Clarinetmom said:
I have replaced my pressure switch several times in the past few months too.
Click to expand...

Replacing a pressure switch usually means your pump has been cycling on and off to much. You probably have a busted bladder tank. Check the sticky above on tank maintenance about how to check the air in the tank. Also when the bladder is bad and the pump cycles to much, it will trip an overload in the motor which leaves you out of water for a few minutes, then resets itself and tries again.
 
Clarinetmom said:
NO WATER!!! HELP!!!!
I have had random water pressure problems with my well for the past few months. We can't have anything running outside or the house has no pressure. The pressure gauge seems to bleed off pressure from 60psi to 10 or below. Well today when I came home from bringing my husband home from the hospital we have 0 pressure with nothing running outside. I checked the electricity to the pressure switch and I have electric to it, nothing out and it is not engaging. I am also noticing that I have a small leak near my intake side of my pressure tank. .... About 6 months ago I replaced my pump due to iron and calcium deposits eating up my old one. I have replaced my pressure switch several times in the past few months too.
Click to expand...
What is not engaging, the contact points in the switch? If so then there could be a blockage in the switch, the nipple it is installed on or, the hole in the switch or where the nipple screws into the tank tee or water pipe could be blocked with rust.

The leak should be fixed, it will cause the pump to come on when no water is being used.

Calcium and iron do not eat up pumps.
 
To me eat up a pump means corrosion but you're saying rust caused a pump to fail. Hard to believe. When I opened it up to see the rust, I would have cleaned it out, maybe replaced the impeller etc. and saved the customer the majority of the cost of a new pump and only replaced it if they wanted me to.
 
nhmaster said:
I have no idea why the pump failed cause I didn't see it. I am saying that they get filled with iron and prehaps the serviceman decided that cleaning it out, changing the seals, perhaps the volute and impeller also was not worth the expense.
Click to expand...
I've never seen a jet pump stopped by "calcium and rust". And IMO anyone saying calcium and rust stops them without taking the pump apart is guessing and wouldn't be saying; "I have personally serviced more jet pumps full or iron deposits than I can even begin to remember.".

I have seen subs that couldn't move much water due to IRB because the inlet screen was all but totally plugged with IRB encrustations. And if you clean the screen, they are as good as new (so to speak). Here's a picture of one.

See the like 1/4" hole right in the middle, just to the left of the shinny motor. The customer's complaint was "low pressure".
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Clarinetmom said:
NO WATER!!! HELP!!!!
I have had random water pressure problems with my well for the past few months. We can't have anything running outside or the house has no pressure. The pressure gauge seems to bleed off pressure from 60psi to 10 or below. Well today when I came home from bringing my husband home from the hospital we have 0 pressure with nothing running outside. I checked the electricity to the pressure switch and I have electric to it, nothing out and it is not engaging. I am also noticing that I have a small leak near my intake side of my pressure tank. What could be wrong? How can I fix it. I am pretty handy but know nothing about plumbing. Hubby can't do anything due to stroke and no money for plumber. HELP!!!!! BACKGROUND: About 6 months ago I replaced my pump due to iron and calcium deposits eating up my old one. I have replaced my pressure switch several times in the past few months too.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure of your level of competence when it comes to things electrical, and I surely would not want you to get yourself electrocuted, But here's how to test things. with a well insulated screwdriver, manually make the contacts in the pressure switch. If the pump starts and runs then you have an obstruction either or in the pressure switch (where the line or pipe come into the bottom of it) or in the line or pipe in which case, shut off the power, drain the pressure, remove the pressure switch and clean the crud out. Re-assemble and you should be good to go. If the pump does not start then the contacts in the pressure switch may be so burned that they will no longer conduct. From there requires the use of a multimeter/amprobe and possibly pulling the pump up if the wiring checks out.
 
Last edited:
Gary Slusser said:
I've never seen a jet pump stopped by "calcium and rust". And IMO anyone saying calcium and rust stops them without taking the pump apart is guessing and wouldn't be saying; "I have personally serviced more jet pumps full or iron deposits than I can even begin to remember.".
Click to expand...


nhmaster said:
I can only surmise that either you do not work in an area where iron is a big problem, or that you just have not done enough service to have run across it. Oh and that be a submersible you done took a picture of and I do believe we was talking shallow well jet pumps weren't we Bub?
Click to expand...
I have extensive experience with iron (and quoting posts) and the pump in the picture is only one of many I pulled with rust clogging the inlet screen. I also worked on jet pumps, both single line and two line and never had one that had to be replaced due to "calcium and iron" as you have. I had foot valve screens clogged up on both types jet pumps though.

Here's another submersible pump I pulled.
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nhmaster said:
Also not talking about calcium either, you are the only one mentioning calcium.

And I suppose that since you have never seen a pump ruined by iron deposits that such a thing can not be possible. At least in your little corner of the world.
Click to expand...
From the OP's first post; I replaced my pump due to iron and calcium deposits eating up my old one.

You are having more than a few senior moments here... and you still don't have the quoting thing down.

Yes I can't see a jet pump "ruined' by rust. IF rust is a problem, it's easily cleaned out with Iron Out.
 
At $ 138.00 an hour, taking the pump out of place, taking it all apart, cleaning the rust out, replacing the O rings and gaskets and re-assembling it ends up costing more than replacing the pump.
 
Goulds Part no 5K230 O ring, the one that seals the two halves of the impeller housing.

The jset can often be cleared by "sticking something" in through the pump inlet. If the entire housing is full of iron though, the pump will need dissasembly.
 
Yes, you're right, I agree with you, there are no o-rings in the wet end of a jet pump and, you don't need to take the wet end apart to unblock a jet, and rust is not able to build up in a wet end of a jet pump to the point where it stops the pump from delivering water. And if you want to get rust out of a jet pump, you don't have to take the wet end apart to use Iron Out to do it.
 
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