Well pump noise ?

Ok I have a strange thing going on here. I have my well pump outside down in the hole. from what I can see the piping comes in through the foundation and goes into what looks like a check valve of some kind. Than it goes to a T where there is a gauge that is currently stuck on 60 PSI. from there it T's to the reserve bladder tank and than it T's one more time into a Square D pressure switch that sends power up to a Franklin solid state switch control.

The problem is this. When im in my laundry room I hear what sounds like a faucet is open and water is flowing coming from the pipes above. What I have found is that when i go to my well resivoir where that gauge is and the valve It sounds like its coming from there. However no valves are open and no faucets are on adn the toilet isnt even running. So I took the cover off the Square D switch and the 4 contacts arent touching. So at that point I checked for voltage and obviousely I have none. But if i manual close those contacts for a second and than open them the noise stops. Until you use the water in the house and the pump runs again to fill up the pressure. Than it starts all over.

The noise is kinda like a hissing but from the bottom of the blue resivoir tank. The best way I can describe it is if you open the kitchen faucet just a hair and you hear the water coming out.

Could it be the check valve is bad and or sticking?

Thanks in advance, Jeff

lorunner1213 said:

Could it be the check valve is bad and or sticking?

Click to expand...

Yes it could. It could alose be leaking down in the well or underground.

You need to replace that gauge. Then check to see if the pressure is dropping while not using any water.

Yeah I figured the gauge would be a good starting point. That would atleast give us a window as to whats going on.

I dont know what code is or what the usual practice is by me but could it be possible that the check valve was installed after the fact once they found that the pump was leaking back into the well, instead of pulling the whole thing up?

I can tell you that if we have a power outage in about 45 minutes the pressure is gone. So im sure somethings somethings going on.

Thanks for the input. Once i get a good working gauge in there I will get back with the readings.

Are they pretty common? Any plumbing supply store should carry them ?

Ok I put a new gauge in the system and while i had it apart I replaced the check valve. The pump doesnt turn on till the PSI gets to 40. Than as it rises it goes steady up to 60 than all of a sudden it jumps to 80 and the pump shuts off. Sound about right ?

The guy at the plumbing suply store had 2 differant check valves. One was 20 bucks with plastic inside. The other was about 80 with a metal plunger inside. Any differance other than price?

Plastic checks are usually just fine. Check the air in the tank. Pressure should not jump from 60 to 80.

Ok at 40lbs just before the pump kicks on i have 36.5 psi at the tank. when the needle hits 80 psi and the pump shuts off I have 49.5 lbs.

When i initially went in there to check it was reading 50 lbs on the gauge so i checked the tank and i had 47.5 lbs at the test port.

When you have water in the tank, the air pressure should be the same as the water pressure. If the pump shuts off at 80 you should have 80 on the air side as well. You have to check the air pressure while the breaker to the pump is turned off and all the water has been drained from the tank. Since you have been checking the air with the pump still on, I am guessing you don't have enough air in the tank, which will cause the spike to 80 before the pump shuts off. Drain the tank, leave a faucet open, then make sure you have 38 PSI air in the tank.

22 psi empty

Air it up to 36.