Well water system up and running, here's the report:

Well, I finally have the entire water system hooked up and running. The system specs are:

1hp, 10 gpm pump at 210', 32 gallon pressure tank, 40/60 pressure switch.

I ran the system with one outdoor spiggot fully open. The tank will supply water starting at 60 psi for about 2 minutes, then the pump kicks on at 37 psi and takes 3 min. 15 sec. to fill the tank back to 60 psi. So about 3:15 on, 2:00 off for the pump. That's with one spiggot full open.

Being as this is my first time working with any of this, how does this sound?

It doesn't sound right to me.

What is your static water level and what type of pump do you have; submersible or jet and is the jet a single or two line?

At 40/60 a 32 gallon tank holds 8.5 gallons of water. Using that in 2 minutes means your hose is putting out 4 GPM. Refilling in 3 minutes 15 seconds means you’re your pump is putting out about 7 GPM at that head. Which is correct for a 1 HP, 10 GPM pump at 210’ and 60 PSI.

What this tells me is that you need to always use more than 7 GPM when running hoses or irrigation. This will keep the pump from cycling on and off. Because even though cycling on for 3.25 minutes and off for 2 minutes does not sound like much cycling, it adds up to 274 cycles every day, which is 100,000 cycles per year.

Of course when you run 7 GPM with the hoses, there is no pressure or water volume left for the house. So you can’t take much of a shower while the hoses are running. This is one reason I believe a Cycle Stop Valve with any size tank is better. The CSV would not let the pump cycle while using a 4 GPM hose. So you can run a hose and have ample water to take a shower at the same time.

The same 4 GPM hose that causes 100,000 cycles per year now, would only cycle 1 time if it had a CSV. Not only does the CSV increase the life of all the components in the pump system but, gives you steady, constant pressure in the house. A constant 50 PSI is much better than feeling the water pressure swing from 40 to 60 several times during a shower.

Having said all that, your pump system is acting normally for a pressure tank only system. It will give you an average pump system life of seven years and helps keep pump installers as well as pump/motor manufacturers in business.

Designie said:

1hp, 10 gpm pump at 210'

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At 60 PSI I get 62% efficiency for your pump at 7 GPM. It takes 0.62 hp to lift 7 x 8.3 pounds of water or anything else the equivalent of 348' in one minute.
Not bad, I guess.

With a motor as small as 1 hp the overall "wires to water" efficiency is probably 1/2 or 1/3 of this.
Does your pump manufacturer give the rated power input for your pump/motor combo?

Keeping it simple, everything appears to be working OK! To make it work better , extend the life of your pumping system and give you a constant pressure while taking a shower, install a Cycle Stop Valve. I promise you'll wonder why you didn't already have one!

Thatguy said:

At 60 PSI I get 62% efficiency for your pump at 7 GPM. It takes 0.62 hp to lift 7 x 8.3 pounds of water or anything else the equivalent of 348' in one minute.
Not bad, I guess.

With a motor as small as 1 hp the overall "wires to water" efficiency is probably 1/2 or 1/3 of this.
Does your pump manufacturer give the rated power input for your pump/motor combo?

Click to expand...

I don't really know what "wires to water" means, first time doing this. I can check out the pump manual for the rated power input, they are calling for a 25A breaker for the pump though.

Gary Slusser said:

It doesn't sound right to me.

What is your static water level and what type of pump do you have; submersible or jet and is the jet a single or two line?

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The static water level is 30', it is a 4" submersible pump.

Enjoy your water and forget all the rest. It works fine.

With 30' water level, you might have used a smaller pump however.

Designie said:

I don't really know what "wires to water" means, first time doing this.

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The pump has an efficiency rating and the pump motor has an efficiency rating, so the overall pump/motor combo has a "wires to water" efficiency rating [which is not all that high for small pumps].