OnTheHillVA
New Member
Hello. I am in need of some advice to improve our current setup.
We bought this home in 2021, but it was built in the 70s and was using gravity fed spring until ~2013 when the city water came. We live in southern Virginia on the side of a mountain. We connect to the city water at the road with 1" PVC.
The total length of our water line is approximately 2,140 ft long.
(These are rough estimates from walking the line with a GPS tracker and reviewing in Google Earth)
Coming into the booster pump (at the end of section 1), we have about 20psi and ~3gpm flow rate. Sometimes a little more or less, depending on neighborhood usage.
The booster pump is/was a Goulds 7GBC07 with an 60/80 pressure switch. A 45 gallon pressure tank is at this location as well. I now realize the low flow rate was probably starving the pump.
Unfortunately, we had the suction side pipe of the booster pump blow off recently, most likely ruining the pump as it ran dry.
We have had a few different problems with fittings/pipes blowing on the pump discharge side as well, and recently replaced the section between the booster pump and the well tee with galvanized 1".
My pump guy is recommending either replacing the 1" water line with 2" or to put a 500 gallon water tank where the booster pump is as well.
I don't think I want to get into replacing the 1" line if there is another way this could work.
It's been a rough 6 months battling different water problems and trying to find the best solution that could get us working reliably again. We have basic working water now, but have to be careful and only use one faucet at a time, have low pressure, and once we ran out of water until the city water made it up the hill again.
I appreciate any advice you may have.
Thank you
We bought this home in 2021, but it was built in the 70s and was using gravity fed spring until ~2013 when the city water came. We live in southern Virginia on the side of a mountain. We connect to the city water at the road with 1" PVC.
The total length of our water line is approximately 2,140 ft long.
Length (ft) | Beginning elevation | Ending elevation | Elevation change | |
Section 1 - Between city meter and booster pump | 1153 | 1325 | 1467 | 142 |
Section 2 - Between booster pump and above house to connect to old spring box plumbing to house | 730 | 1467 | 1536 | 69 |
Section 3 - Coming into house | 257 | 1536 | 1500 | -36 |
Total: | 2140 |
Coming into the booster pump (at the end of section 1), we have about 20psi and ~3gpm flow rate. Sometimes a little more or less, depending on neighborhood usage.
The booster pump is/was a Goulds 7GBC07 with an 60/80 pressure switch. A 45 gallon pressure tank is at this location as well. I now realize the low flow rate was probably starving the pump.
Unfortunately, we had the suction side pipe of the booster pump blow off recently, most likely ruining the pump as it ran dry.
We have had a few different problems with fittings/pipes blowing on the pump discharge side as well, and recently replaced the section between the booster pump and the well tee with galvanized 1".
My pump guy is recommending either replacing the 1" water line with 2" or to put a 500 gallon water tank where the booster pump is as well.
I don't think I want to get into replacing the 1" line if there is another way this could work.
It's been a rough 6 months battling different water problems and trying to find the best solution that could get us working reliably again. We have basic working water now, but have to be careful and only use one faucet at a time, have low pressure, and once we ran out of water until the city water made it up the hill again.
I appreciate any advice you may have.
Thank you