Check Valve problems

I have a submersible pump in a well 160ft. My problem is that I have to replace the 11/4 check valve every year due to it's failure. I have tried various brands and types. Mine setup has the check valve prior to the pump. Can someone tell be what type of valve I can use that will last longer than 1 year. My system also provides my irrigation water during the summer months so that pump gets a lot of useage. In my home I have an 80g pressure tank. I don't have a lot of sediment to speak of and I have a sediment prefilter in the line. I know the check valve has failed to due water draining back out of the line and constant pump cycling. Thank you in advance for your assistance!

First of all, there should not be any check valves in the system anywhere but in the top of the submersible pump. Why do you have one up top?

The other thing you don't want is for your pump to cycle while your watering the yard. This eats motors, start capacitors, pressure switches, relays, pumps and tanks. If you are really cycling your pump while watering, you need a Cycle Stop Valve in the place of your up top check valve. This alone would prevent all of the above from happening.

bob...

The check valve is on top of the sub-pump. I did not word that correctly. What is a cycle stop valve and where do I get one?

So are you saying you don't have a check valve up top?

I have never known anyone to have this kind of problem with checkvalves. Did the original pumps check valve fail? What brand of pump is this?


Cycle Stop Valves

bob...

Are any of the removed check valves showing signs of fouled sealing surfaces? There is probably a minimum mesh size for straining the water, to achieve guaranteed check valve performance. If there are no leaks in the plumbing, then maybe a strainer can be installed, followed by a check valve(s).

He said he has a submersible pump. The only strainer would be the screen on the pump.

bob...

I'm pretty sure you can pull stuff through a submersible screen that would foul a check valve. Sight unseen, it's hard to guess what's being pumped. I've pulled BB-sized stones from old well-water-fed sprinkler heads that could easily foul a check valve. I would think you could get a mesh number from a check valve manufacturer that would assure no fouling.

It happens here with the lime rock wells we have. They can stick one partially open sometimes. It doesn't happen often.

I talked to him on the phone and he said the failure was the spring was always broken. Then I asked him the brand and he said they came from HD. Problem solved. He bought a CSV and a good brass check valve from us. This should cure the check valve problem completly.

bob...

Home Depot?!! Oh, murder...

Even with an 80 gallon tank, the normal cycling will still slam a check valve to death. Then when the check is broken, it is the excessive cycling that is finally noticed. Stop the cycling, solve the problem. New check valve is just another short term band aid.