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Leave it as is? low pressure is fixed.
OK I'm thinking that I call it good for now.....but I'm not sure. 20 yr old 4" submersible well system, nothing has been done to the system for the last 20 years. I started sprinklers this year and pressure was much lower than in the past 26-29psi it used to be 40 or so before. Tested the system starting with the tank/blatter, ended up increasing the blatter from 20 to 30 psi held air fine but didn't change the over all pressure when sprinklers were running. System is cycling at 38/62psi which i'm assuming is fairly normal, only goes below 38 when sprinklers are running.
I decided to pull the submersible pump so I could check it over for anything obvious and probably just replace the pump and whatever else looked questionable. I was just checking it out today to assess the situation and to get things lined up to do the actual removal on Monday. I unhooked the pitless adapter lifted the pump up about 4 feet, just to make sure i was doing it right, lifted it up and down a few times to test my homemade lift system. I put everything back to gether, lots of dirty water in the house system at first when i turned it back on but it seems to be fine now. Sprinklers seem to work great now holding at 40 psi. Should i leave it as is?
If you can live with the low pressure, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. There is really nothing repairable about a submersible anymore, so you just as well get as much good as you can out of it. If you start getting air in the system or feeling a water hammer, you might have a hole in the drop pipe that COULD be fixed. However, a hole will usually get bigger and you will lose all pressure.
Ja, it's hard to say for sure "what fixed it" by your jostling it. If the flow restriction was from buildup in the pipe or on the intake screen that got knocked loose, some of the crud could have plugged up a leak in the pipe or partially clogged the sprinkler heads resulting in reduced consumption as well as increased production. Still, it's anyone's guess how much longer a 20 year old pump will last. It could go for another 10 years.
You could go with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach and hope that Murphy doesn't call in the middle of Winter.
I forget some of you live in areas so cold you can’t get things fixed in the winter. That changes everything, because Murphy always comes when it is least convenient.
Oh, we can fix stuff in Winter but it's damn inconvenient. If it involves digging up the line, frozen ground is pretty tough to dig through. We usually end up using a vac truck with hot water jetting and that gets real expensive fast. Been there, done that, got the bill for it. Mind you, it was for a fibre optic line, not a water line but the principle is the same.
Thanks for all the help and advise, great forum. I don't know much about wells, pumps and plumbing but do know all about murphy. good points.
even knowing all about murphy, i wasn't factoring him or winter into the mix of things.....I am now. thanks.
I am not generally known as an optimist and usually subscribe to a corollary to Murphy's law which states that the probability of something going wrong is inversely proportionate to your ability to right it. In other words, Murphy strikes when you are least able to deal with it.
I tried that "positive thinking" stuff once but I just knew it wouldn't work. :\
At work what we used to do as preventative maintenance we now do as predictive maintenance, the difference which, is a fine line. Cost is always a factor, so if it is cheaper to replace now than under the worst case scenario, do it. In my case, my 12 year old pump was showing signs of wear and the reduced GPM was costing me more in terms of my iron filter under-performing than the price of a new pump that I replaced without having to pay for outside labour.
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