Airless water pressure system

Howdy - Great forum ... I've followed a few threads in trying to diagnose my problem, but no go.

I have an underground well pump that feeds my sprinkler/drip irrigation system. It has worked fine for years, but this summer I changed the configuration of one of the zone, converting it to a drip line. After that, I found that I was getting lots of short cycling on that line ... I managed to tweak the pressure regulator switch enough to keep the pump on when the drip line was running, but now the pressure in the entire system is down way too low. A little water shoots out when I turn the sprinklers on and then it quickly goes down to a trickle.

Today I started messing with the pressure tank which is a Jacuzzi Hydrocel patent #3394733 "airless water pressure system" .... following someone elses directions on here, I turned of the well pump at the breaker box, and then drained the water out of the system with an open hose bib. The I unscrewed a nut on the top of the tank expecting to see a shrader valve, but there was none and no air came out. Then I took the whole tank off and only a dribble of water came out.

So what is an airless pressure system, how do I tell if it's working and does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm obviously a novice with this and inherited the system from the previous owners ... any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Nate

First a little on pumps. They are water cooled. No water passing through the pump = overheated dead pump. You need to draw at least a gallon a minute past the pump to keep it cool. Failure to do so will cost you a lot of money.

The Jacuzzi Hydrocell, as far as I can tell, is a sudo constant pressure type of setup with NO WATER STORAGE. This is why there is no water in the so called tank. This is fine for an irrigation system where you are either drawing a ton of water or nothing. It is really bad for a drip irrigation system because you are drawing water so slowly the Hydrocell thinks you have stopped drawing water and shuts it off only to then see a pressure drop an then restart the pump resulting in short cycling which will kill your pump.

The short cycling was you clue that something was very wrong. Unfortunately changing the setting on the pressure regulator was the wrong solution. This resulted in too low a flow past the pump to keep it cool and killed it.

Your setup will not support drip irrigation as is. You need to replace the Hydrocell with a large 50+ pressure tank and a cycle stop valve (and unfortunately a new pump). The large pressure tank will allow the drip irrigation to run for a while without cycling the pump too much (an off time of 2 minutes between starts is ok and longer is always better) and still allow the pump to reach cutoff pressure. The cycle stop valve will prevent the pump from cycling as long as there is adequate flow which would be the case when your regular sprinklers are running.

Short version: rapid pump cycling = dead pump, low flow past the pump motor= dead pump. You have to prevent both these conditions.

-rick

Hydrocells are old. But I guess it does prove that a constant pressure valve does make pumps systems last longer. I think the air pressure in the tiny tank also determines the valves operating pressure. Ie. you have low pressure because the air pressure in the tank is low. The principle is similar but a CSV has many advantages over that type system.

Thank you both for the info ... if my pump still runs and puts out a trickle of water, are you sure it is dead?

I think the old Hydrocell is holding you back to a trickle, probably not the pump.