Air in pipes? Nothing has been opened/drained. Could my Well be running dry?

[CountryBumkin]

I have not been to this forum in a while - everthing has been working well (until now), and no projects lately. I hope everyone is doing good.

Yesterday i noticed a noise from the kitchen faucet that sounded like air spitting out with the water stream. Today I heard it in the shower too. My wife said she noticed it to when the washer was filling. It doesn't do it all the time.
It sounds like air in the water line (like when you drain the lines to repalce a fixture and then turn the water back on - but not that extreme).

I checked the water condtioner/softner to make sure it wasn't in a regen cycle, and I see no leaks anywhere. I can't think of anything that would cause this noise - except my worse fear, the Well is running dry and starting to suck air. I guess if this continues, I'll need to call Well Driller person. The house/Well is around 25 years old. I'm in Central FL.

Is there anything else I can check? Any ideas?

[LLigetfa]

Do you have an iron filter that uses air entrainment and precipitation tank? If so, it could be the air volume control. Do you have a bladder tank or galvanized? If bladder, it might be busted. If galvanized the AVC could be acting up.

A well can somtimes produce gas bubbles or it could be running dry. If it's a jet pump it could have a suction side air leak.

[jadnashua]

The check valve might leak, pulling air into the pipes if a valve was not tightly closed as the water column falls back down the well.

[CountryBumkin]

I had forgotten where this post was - this forum moves pretty fast.

I now know that the noise is from the hot water side. I can turn the hot off and the noise goes away. It's a weird problem because everything is under pressure on the hot side. If I had an air leak, I should also have a water leak - I would think. And since the problem does not occur everytime I turn on the water it's making finding the source/problem even harder.

I have had some trouble with my Water Heater in the past (actually for past two or three years now). It's 20+ years old and I have not (will not) try to open the drain valve and flush it for fear it won't close again. I have not flushed in at least 5 years (and I'm on a well). Sometimes the water gets real hot and then trips the overload (its all electric 50 gallon unit). I just push the reset button and its fine a for a few more weeks. So maybe this is the source of the problem.

Since this is the next thing to be replaced on my list - I'll see if the noise goes away once I install a new heater. I'm leaning toward getting one of those Heat Pump style WHs. But that's a different thread.