Reply With QuoteHow deep?Originally Posted by swbrown23
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Short cycle
We have a vacation cabin in the Southern tier of NYS. The well was put in about 12 years ago with the presure tank (thought to be a membrane type)buried 6 ft deep next to the well head. The issue was noticed this summer with a short cycle of a couple of minutes when no water is being called for. The presure gauge started at 40 lbs and drifted down slowly to 20 which caused the pump to cycle.
We were hoping to not dig up the old presure tank this winter and a theory was hatched to add a second membrane tank in the house thinking that if the old one had ruptured it might just act like a dead end pipe.
We installed the new tank in the house and at first glance it seemed we had sucess, the presure gauge read a steady 40 lbs. Over the course of the weekend we then realized that gauge would hold at 40 for a couple of minutes than drift down to 20 and kick the pump on when no water is being called for. The short cycle is now longer at about 5 minutes.
I think we know what must be done at this point, just wondering if there is anything else we should check like the presure switch before we get out the shovels?
How deep?
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The well was 155 ft deep from what everyone remembers.
What exactly are you thinking Mr. Brown...Upper
That we have to dig out the old presure tank and cap the connection since we now have a new tank in the house. How likely is it that the old tank still has enough air in it to be causing the 5 minute short cycle?
I have a suspicion that when you unearth the old tank you will find that it has a leak or two in it. They were not made to be burried.
That would not suprise me at all, I was not there when the well was drilled but I would guess they buried it to keep it from freezing? or maybe the well guy was planning to replace it about now....
Pressure tanks that can be buried have been around for decades.
You really want to remove the old tank from the water line because the area above the bladder is not meant to have water in it and any water that gets above the bladder gets really funky really fast, and rusty too. It can smell like the most rotten thing you ever smelled and it's not good for your health.
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Did you remove the AW8A? Is is want makes the underground tank work with the pump. To do this, you will have to lift the dope pipe up about five foot. It screws into the pitless. We bury about 20 tanks each year. Likely that was your problem in the first place. They go bad from time to time.
We did not remove anything at the well head. I am not familiar with the "AW8A" is that a valve of some sort?
There are different styles. Take the cap off the well and see what you have. There should be a tube with greenish liquid running down to the pittless. If it has a submersible pump.
So, if I understand correctly the pitless adapters connection could fail over time essentially creating a leak which allows the pressure drop. I wonder if we could detect the leak by looking down the well casing.
If you have an AW8A it is causeing the problem now. It needs to be disconnected or a new one and use the underground tank. It is telling your pump to run.
Just in case this is the old style, where is your pressure switch? At the well head?
Sorry, I just saw this. An AW8A is a type of pressure switch for underground tanks. So if you added a switch with your new tank, you could have two switches telling the pump what to do.
Last edited by Allen Meyers; 10-20-2009 at 10:08 AM.
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