Water Pump, Lack of Water...?

Hi.

I'm hoping someone could offer their opinion on what this problem might be...

When I'm running the water in the house, I may get about 3 minutes of water before it stops flowing and the faucet is making that "running dry" sound. The water pump in the basement will not go on at this point (in the past, it went on periodically when using the water so there would be a constant flow to the tank). Now, maybe after about ten minutes without water, the water pump will kick on and run for about 5-8 minutes and move the "water pressure at pump outlet" gauge up to 60psi (*edit: I just took a look at this gauge, and it still says 60psi even though the pump is not on right now...last night, this gauge read 15psi when not on). About 5 minutes after the pump kicks on, the water will again flow to the faucet, but only for another 3 minutes before repeating the whole problem again.

We are renting this house and the landlord said he'd come out to take a look at it "in a few days" and that he would not pay for a professional until he looked at it himself. In my opinion this is total B.S. since having an irregular flow of water is not, you know, a little problem. But anyway, the problem with the landlord is not the point of my post...

Any thought/help/insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Brian

Tell the LL a house without water is not usable and you will prorate the rent based on how long it takes him to get there.

Sounds like a blockage in the pump switch and / or gauge but could be something else, lets see what the well guys have to say.

It sounds like the piping going to the pressure switch is plugged and it takes a while for the water movement to actuate the switch to tell the pump to turn on or off.

bob...

Well, somehow (and I say "somehow" since my luck never works out like this) the landlord decided to come over today, after calling him only last night, and it was exactly what you guys said. The fix was simple: he turned off the power, unscrewed the pipe going to the pressure switch, cleaned the nozzles out with a thin nail (it was plugged with rust), put it back together, and it worked better than it had in the last 9 months of living here. Wow.

Thank you both for your insight so much! Very cool.

Regards,

Brian