Hello all,
I'm having an issue with my water pressure where my water runs out after so many minutes of use. Inside my house seems to be fine. We can shower and use sinks/laundry/dishwasher no problem. When I use a hose outside my water runs out in about 5-10 minutes. The hose runs to a slow trickle, and after about 30-60 seconds it kicks back on at full pressure. It will continue to do this over and over again.
With the hose on, I went into the basement and watched the pressure gauge. It was dropping to zero before the pump kicked on and it would quickly jump back up to 40. The psi would slowly increase to about 55 before turning off. I replaced the gauge, then the pressure switch and I'm having the same issue. I have a 40/60 switch and I verified that the pressure in the tank when it's empty is right at 38 psi.
The psi wouldn't seem to increase beyond 55psi unless I shut off the hose and gave it a few minutes. The pump would then kick on and it would increase to 60psi before shutting off.
I found a well pressure tank "test" that instructed me to turn on the kitchen sink and wait for the psi to drop and the pump to kick on. Once the pump kicked on we shut off the kitchen sink and timed how long until the pump turned off. During this test the psi dropped to the correct 40psi before turning on and then off at 60psi. It took 35 seconds to complete that cycle. The test said that if it was less than a minute the tank was probably bad.
Today I replaced the tank and the entire T assembly. I ran the kitchen sink for about 20 minutes and it seemed to cycle properly. Once I used the hose I'm having the exact same issue.
Before writing this post I performed the following steps:
- Turned off power to the well
- Drained the tank
- Double checked the empty pressure and it's at 38psi
- I turned power back on
- Pump immediately turned on and increased psi to 50psi before turning off
- 2 minutes passed and the pump turned on once again and increased to 60psi before turning off again
- Turned on the kitchen sink and watched psi slowly drop
- Pump turned on just above 50psi (Should've turned on at 40psi)
- 2 minutes passed and once again the pump turned on and increased to 60psi before turning off
- Kitchen sink still running, pressure dropped to 38psi and then quickly to 35psi and the pump turned on
- Pressure increased to 48psi and the pump turned off
- Pressure decreased to 42psi and the pump turned on
- Pressure increased to 50psi and the pump turned off
- Turned off the kitchen sink
- Waiting a couple of minutes and the pump turned on again increasing pressure to 55psi before turning off
- Another couple of minutes went by and the pump turned on increasing to 60psi
Before I go replacing the well pump, any suggestions on next steps or possible causes would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Zach
I'm having an issue with my water pressure where my water runs out after so many minutes of use. Inside my house seems to be fine. We can shower and use sinks/laundry/dishwasher no problem. When I use a hose outside my water runs out in about 5-10 minutes. The hose runs to a slow trickle, and after about 30-60 seconds it kicks back on at full pressure. It will continue to do this over and over again.
With the hose on, I went into the basement and watched the pressure gauge. It was dropping to zero before the pump kicked on and it would quickly jump back up to 40. The psi would slowly increase to about 55 before turning off. I replaced the gauge, then the pressure switch and I'm having the same issue. I have a 40/60 switch and I verified that the pressure in the tank when it's empty is right at 38 psi.
The psi wouldn't seem to increase beyond 55psi unless I shut off the hose and gave it a few minutes. The pump would then kick on and it would increase to 60psi before shutting off.
I found a well pressure tank "test" that instructed me to turn on the kitchen sink and wait for the psi to drop and the pump to kick on. Once the pump kicked on we shut off the kitchen sink and timed how long until the pump turned off. During this test the psi dropped to the correct 40psi before turning on and then off at 60psi. It took 35 seconds to complete that cycle. The test said that if it was less than a minute the tank was probably bad.
Today I replaced the tank and the entire T assembly. I ran the kitchen sink for about 20 minutes and it seemed to cycle properly. Once I used the hose I'm having the exact same issue.
Before writing this post I performed the following steps:
- Turned off power to the well
- Drained the tank
- Double checked the empty pressure and it's at 38psi
- I turned power back on
- Pump immediately turned on and increased psi to 50psi before turning off
- 2 minutes passed and the pump turned on once again and increased to 60psi before turning off again
- Turned on the kitchen sink and watched psi slowly drop
- Pump turned on just above 50psi (Should've turned on at 40psi)
- 2 minutes passed and once again the pump turned on and increased to 60psi before turning off
- Kitchen sink still running, pressure dropped to 38psi and then quickly to 35psi and the pump turned on
- Pressure increased to 48psi and the pump turned off
- Pressure decreased to 42psi and the pump turned on
- Pressure increased to 50psi and the pump turned off
- Turned off the kitchen sink
- Waiting a couple of minutes and the pump turned on again increasing pressure to 55psi before turning off
- Another couple of minutes went by and the pump turned on increasing to 60psi
Before I go replacing the well pump, any suggestions on next steps or possible causes would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Zach