Well pump not building pressure

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rosebaum

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Yesterday my husband came home to find that we didn't have very much water pressure. He went to the basement to find that the small black tube from the pump to the electrical box on the side had a pin hole in it and water was streaming out. The pump was running with about 15 lbs of pressure. he shut the pump off and fixed the tube by cutting off the piece with the hole and and reattaching it. He started the pump up but it wouldn't go above 20 lbs. He thought maybe it needed to be primed so he removed the pressure gauge but the pump was still primed. Now the pump runs continuously and will only go to about 20 lbs. We have been only turning it on when we need to use the water. We are not sure if it is the pump or the well. Everything had been fine up until yesterday. What could the problem be? It is a shallow well pump 1/2 hp Flo-Tec about 5 or 6 years old. Not sure how deep the well is. It was here when we bought the house.
 

bcpumpguy

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depends on how the pump is built, sometimes there is 1/4" plug right underneath the suction line that you can take of, use a coat hanger to to push throught the dirt. If it is a convertible jet pump ie jet package bolted to the front of the pump you will have to unbolt it and remove the dirt from the inside out.
 

rosebaum

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Thanks! We will try that tomorrow. We kind of thought it was the tubing or something behind it. We will let you know the results. Thanks so much.
 

rosebaum

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We took off the brass fitting on both ends of the tubing and cleaned them. The water pressure went up to 30 quickly but stayed there. I just realized that the there is a 1/4" plug under the suction line that we did not do anything with. The water tank had 0 pressure in it and we filled that to 28 lbs when we drained the water to take the fittings off. When we shut the pump off the water tank was making noises like air or something inside it. We haven't heard that sound before. Is that normal? We are going to remove the 1/4" plug and clean that also. Does this sound like we are moving in the right direction? We do have a new pump ready to go on but hoping we can take it back.
 

bcpumpguy

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its not the fitting that you want to clean, its what is behind the fitting is just a plug stopping water from coming out. behind it is most likely the injector/venturi assemly take a long nail or cut a wire coat hanger to push crud trough and out. The tank if it has a bladder is shot.
 

Masterpumpman

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Jet pumps don't build pressure the nozzle in the injector does! You will have to locate and unplug the 1/4" nozzle in the jet/injector assembly. Once this is done you will have pressure again!
 

rosebaum

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Thanks to everybody! You guys know what you're talking about and are a lifesaver. We took off the plug cleaned out at much as we could. We did get more pressure but it still wasn't where it should be. After a while, just decided to put the new pump on. Pressure built up quickly and is running the way it should be. We are getting a new water tank this week. We were concerned it was a well problem and figured if we had to do something with the well we would get a new pump anyway. Now we know it was the pump.
 
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