pitless adapter with piston pump

**TonyC** · 08-10-2012, 05:56 PM

I have a piston pump in basement, with 1" line out to well casing, and at present I have a homemade connector in casing to the down pipe and foot valve. The foot valve has started to leak, and so pump will start every so often. I want to dig a pit and install a pitless adapter, for easy maintenance in the future. From what I have read, it seems that pitless adapters can leak air into water line with a piston (Suction) pump and would airlog the water tank.

Can anyone put me straight on this.

Many thanks
Tony C

**LLigetfa** · 08-10-2012, 06:01 PM

There is no way the pitless knows what kind of pump is in the house. Suction is suction. I've heard of waterlogging a tank but have never heard of airlogging. If you get get air in a bladder tank, it will exit on the next cycle and spit air at the faucet.

That said, not all pitless are equal and with submersibles, there is never suction, only pressure.

**bcpumpguy** · 08-11-2012, 08:37 AM

I have had airlogged tanks, never called them that. I have quite a few jet pumps with pitlless adapters out there without a problem. would not see why a piston pump would be any diffrent?

**LLigetfa** · 08-11-2012, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by bcpumpguy

I have had airlogged tanks...

Maybe you could enlighten me on what exactly that would be and what if any downside there may be.

As for a leaky footvalve on a piston pump, I would just install a checkvalve above ground. There is not the same issue with water hammer as there is with submersibles. The only downside is that priming may be a bit more effort. There are a lot of sandpoint installs with no footvalve.

**TonyC** · 08-11-2012, 10:55 AM

I have installed a check valve, as near as possible to the well. This has stopped the leakdown, but the pump is gurgling and is slow to reach pressure. I wondered if the old foot valve, plastic one, has broken and parts been pulled into the pipe, and partly plugged it. I shall find out when I dig the hole. With regard to possible leakage of air into a pitless adapter with a piston pump, I have e-mailed the manufacturer with this regard, and hope that they can give a definite answer.

I will post again when this is all fixed,

Tonyc

**bcpumpguy** · 08-11-2012, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by LLigetfa

Maybe you could enlighten me on what exactly that would be and what if any downside there may be.

As for a leaky footvalve on a piston pump, I would just install a checkvalve above ground. There is not the same issue with water hammer as there is with submersibles. The only downside is that priming may be a bit more effort. There are a lot of sandpoint installs with no footvalve.

The downside is that when somebody opens the tap the person and surrounding area gets wet because of air and water flying all over the place, i dont know how your wife and your customers (if you have any) would like that but most don't.

I would recommend to change the foot valve, and if you are getting air in the suction piping its is likely not a faulty foot valve but could be leaky piping or low well water level.

**TonyC** · 08-25-2012, 05:27 PM

Finally got things working again. I contacted Burcam in Laval Quebec, who said that a pitless adapter would work with either a submersible pump, (adapter under pressure) or a piston pump, (adapter under suction). On their advice, I installed the necessary parts, (not an easy thing for a 79 yearold, but after a few hours work I triumphed!!) and as they said it works great. No air leaks etc. I think my slow pump up to pressure is due to lower than normal well levels. This is a 50 foot drilled well, and usually water rises to about 5 feet from grade, but at present is about 10 feet from grade and pumps down quickly, but returns to level about 5 minutes later, so we likely won't run out of water if we are careful. We have had an extended period of drought around this area, and even the occasional thunderstorms seem to have managed to miss us.

Thanks to you all for the input, and Pitless adapters work with any pump.

Thanks, TonyC

**valveman** · 08-26-2012, 01:11 PM

Glad you got it working. But a piston pump is positive displacement. It should not pump up slower unless the motor is running slower. Every time that piston comes up, you should get X amount of water, no matter how deep the water level. This along with the leak down you solved with an extra check valve makes me think you still have a hole in the drop pipe.

**TonyC** · 08-29-2012, 06:08 PM

Hi Valveman,

I realize that my pump is a positive pump, but with a new down pipe of about 28 feet and new foot valve, that there could be some, I would call it cavitation, when the water level gets that far down, and so the efficiency of the pump would then be compromised, or am I full of bull here? I'm really waiting for the "Rains" to come. We did have a good downpour a couple of days ago, but I'm sure that it wasn't enough to bring up the levels to normal, and will have to wait a few more weeks.

**valveman** · 08-30-2012, 08:09 AM

Positive displacement or not, 24’ is the max you can suck water up from.

**LLigetfa** · 08-30-2012, 08:16 AM

Ja, displacement is only positive on the output side. The input still needs to follow the rules of physics. Water won't compress but it can stretch! LOL