Alice businelle
New Member
Hey guys, glad I found this forum. The only problem is when I search the problem I am having, the other posts will be slightly different bc building presure is the only problem.... like the posts I find are people whose pump was working fine and then started losing pressure, or not reaching the cutoff pressure. Mine is doing that now but its potentially a problem we created.
Let me explain. We have a Goulds Jet water pump. The old style, 1" line running down 2"casing. The well was there 30 years ago when my parents bought the land. Have replaced the pump twice that I remember. Most recently was 2 years ago, the day my father died. He was the fix-it guy of the family so now I have no one to help or ask.
We started losing prime often. Anytime power went off, even for a minute, but also at random times. And it was REALLY hard to prime. Took a lot of water. So, we realized that the foot valve was probably bad, as far as I know it was never changed in 30 years.
So a few days ago we pulled the pipe and changed the foot valve. Replaced the pvc while we were at it, ran pipe back down and started priming the pump.
Now the pump will not build pressure to prime. Let me add here that we bought a new pressure gauge, too, the one that was on it was broken/frozen so as long as I have been dealing with the pump without Pop here I dont know the cutoff pressure bc the gauge never worked. At first pressure would literally bounce around. Slowly build to 20psi, then to 30, then down to 20, to zero, back to 30 etc.....would bounce all over the place. Someone told us to try again, and this time when the pressure built, just when it started to drop to turn the pump off and add water and power it back up. To continue doing that and after 7 tries or so it would lock in the pressure.
Well, that helped.....but still did not get it where it needed to be. Doing that method we could get and stay about 40psi, but the gauge would still shake and bounce around 40. Once we got to 45psi, but mainly we cant get over 40.
Any ideas? We have checked under the casing and looked at the points, etc. Everything looks new and shiny, no burned tips or wasps nests or debris.
I am learning some from the forum here, but as I said, this is a problem since we took it off and pulled the pipe. Before it was hard to prime, but it did t act like this. Once we had enough water it would pressure up and run fine, so perhaps this is something related to us. Maybe mud or debris got sucked up? Any suggestions i will try.
Let me explain. We have a Goulds Jet water pump. The old style, 1" line running down 2"casing. The well was there 30 years ago when my parents bought the land. Have replaced the pump twice that I remember. Most recently was 2 years ago, the day my father died. He was the fix-it guy of the family so now I have no one to help or ask.
We started losing prime often. Anytime power went off, even for a minute, but also at random times. And it was REALLY hard to prime. Took a lot of water. So, we realized that the foot valve was probably bad, as far as I know it was never changed in 30 years.
So a few days ago we pulled the pipe and changed the foot valve. Replaced the pvc while we were at it, ran pipe back down and started priming the pump.
Now the pump will not build pressure to prime. Let me add here that we bought a new pressure gauge, too, the one that was on it was broken/frozen so as long as I have been dealing with the pump without Pop here I dont know the cutoff pressure bc the gauge never worked. At first pressure would literally bounce around. Slowly build to 20psi, then to 30, then down to 20, to zero, back to 30 etc.....would bounce all over the place. Someone told us to try again, and this time when the pressure built, just when it started to drop to turn the pump off and add water and power it back up. To continue doing that and after 7 tries or so it would lock in the pressure.
Well, that helped.....but still did not get it where it needed to be. Doing that method we could get and stay about 40psi, but the gauge would still shake and bounce around 40. Once we got to 45psi, but mainly we cant get over 40.
Any ideas? We have checked under the casing and looked at the points, etc. Everything looks new and shiny, no burned tips or wasps nests or debris.
I am learning some from the forum here, but as I said, this is a problem since we took it off and pulled the pipe. Before it was hard to prime, but it did t act like this. Once we had enough water it would pressure up and run fine, so perhaps this is something related to us. Maybe mud or debris got sucked up? Any suggestions i will try.