Tracked and fixed most of the problem, but....

Thanks to many of the wonderful posts and replies here, I was able to diagnose and fix MOST of my well/pump issues.

I started with the pump cycling constantly and found that the pressurized tank had no pressure. I drained the tank, and put about 20psi of pressure back in. My cutoff/cuton pressures are 40/70 and all seems to be working better. Now I understand that the pressure in the tank should be 2 psi less than the lower setting (thus 38 psi in my case) and I plan on adjusting more.

Finally to the question....

When I watch the pump cycle, it cuts on at 40 and off at 70 as it should with the water running. I run the water just long enough for the pump to come on, then shut it off and watch the pressure build to 70. Now, without any water running, the pressure slowly bleeds down to ~50 and holds. Is this normal, or should it maintain the higher setting of 70 until the water is turned back on? If it is not behaving as it should, will the adjustment of the holding tank up to the proper level of 38psi help this?

Thanks again for the great forum and advice.

JW

While you are now online, I will chime-in that absolutely, you need to get the tank pressure up. Gotta be what's letting the pressure drop (in the absence of obvious leaks of course).

I AM wondering though why your tank had "no pressure" to start with so you'll have to monitor it to see if the valve is leaking or the tank/bladder is shot.

I'm wondering the same thing about the tank having no pressure, but it doesn't surprise me considering the comedy of errors I've had with my system since it's installation in 2004. I have had to replace the pump and the pressure switch so far. The pump went bad because it was cracked at the bottom (submersible) and was running constantly.....pressure switch...who knows.

Anywho....thanks for the reply. I will get the tank pressure up and monitor from there. Next check will be for leaks in the tank itself I suppose.

I'm becoming a water pressure expert against my will.

On another note.....are there safe min/max settings for the on/off of the pressure switch? I read 30/50, 40/60, etc and as I stated before I have 40/70 currently, but I still have pressure problems when running more than one water source inside the house (IE laundry and shower). I know most of the problem lies with the water softening system inline (kills the pressure), but was wondering if a min/max of 50/70 would help and still be safe.

You could have overextended the bladder in the tank by not having enough pressure in it. In essence, you could be (nearly) bottoming it out. It may be that since water doesn't compress, it goes to 70, then through a (very) minor leak, releases enough so thatthe bladder comes off the bottom. In theory, you should never be able to compress the bladder fully, but you sure can get it to a small volume.

get the pressure up where it should be. Also, most of the tanks are designed for a 20 pound differential, by using 30 pounds, you will stress the bladder more and it isn't likely to last as long before it breaks.

jewilson2 said:

When I watch the pump cycle, it cuts on at 40 and off at 70 as it should with the water running. I run the water just long enough for the pump to come on, then shut it off and watch the pressure build to 70. Now, without any water running, the pressure slowly bleeds down to ~50 and holds. Is this normal, or should it maintain the higher setting of 70 until the water is turned back on? If it is not behaving as it should, will the adjustment of the holding tank up to the proper level of 38psi help this?

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Assuming your pressure switch (and nothing else) is beween your pump and tank and that all three are relatively close together, your pressure drop after the pump stops *could* be caused by (1) a restriction at the tank fitting (quite unlikely), (2) a hole in the bladder or (3) a check valve or some other component or fixture on down the line. If your tank is horizontal and has a bad bladder, it will/could/might eventually waterlog a bit and your start/stop pump cycles will increase. If your tank is vertical and has a bad bladder, the situation would be similar with a little water passing into the air chamber during the pumping cycle and effectively "neutralizing" your bladder a bit, thereafter allowing the chamber to lose some of its water-consumed air every time the water pressure is low and some water goes back to its own side of the bladder. But, maybe the true experts would say something more or different here.