Pressurized Well Tank Hissing

I turned on my sprinklers this morning and noticed low water pressure. After about 15 minutes only a trickle of water was coming out of the sprinklers. I checked the tank. It is making a hissing noise and the pressure gauge is at 15. I have turned off the well pump for the time being. The tank is 5 years old. What other things do I need to look for to diagnose the problem? Or is that enough. I have been running sprinklers every day in the morming and I imagine that it has contributed to the problem.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

Your pressure tank probably failed. Turning off the pump is a good idea. How old is the pressure tank?

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Originally Posted by drick

Your pressure tank probably failed. Turning off the pump is a good idea. How old is the pressure tank?

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Ja, and the well probably ran dry too or else the pump failed.

Sigh.
Time to call in the pros. And maybe take the camper to the campground.

No, bypass your pressure switch by using a couple short pieces of wire so that the pump is wired directly to the circuit breaker. Next open the faucet to your sprinkler and then turn on your circuit breaker. (Do Not close the fAucet until you have completed this test and you turn off the circuit breaker and remove the small pieces of wire!) Does the sprinkler run? If yes you probably just need a new pressure tank. If not the pump may have failed from running the well dry or overcyling the pump when irrigating. If the pump cycled itself to death you need to run more sprinklers so that the pump does not cycle when watering or you need a cycle stop valve.

Bypassing the pressure switch is not a very smart thing to do.

I think like you say "Time to call in the pros. And maybe take the camper to the campground." ,

Would be a better decision.

Enjoy the outdoors.


DonL

I think it may just be time to let the grass die. After 3hrs with the circuit breaker turned off I turned it back on. The hissing apparently is just the water running into the tank. The tank eventually regained 60psi on the gauge. I figure that the well is low and it cannot keep up with watering anymore. We are having a plumber out tomorrow just to check it out so we don't have something blow up.