Water hammer

The problem is that the check valve in the pump has failed. The water hammer was a symptom.

The pump needs to be pulled.

You get to decide whether to replace the pump or just install a good quality check valve in the output pipe, directly above the pump.

Because of finances, I'm in no position to pull out the pump, I may just have to install another check valve where the other one was, and hope that it holds me for a while.

If I have to pull pump up, I might as well replace pump, and check vave, it was installed in 1990, and instead of metal pipes, I'll go with polyethylene, I have no idea of how deep well is, I'm sure that the deeper it is the more cost in labor it will be to pull.

cacher_chick said:

The problem is that the check valve in the pump has failed. The water hammer was a symptom.

The pump needs to be pulled...

Click to expand...

A checkvalve holds best if it has a constant pressure against it. For some unknown reason, some folks think it is a good idea to also install a checkvalve topside. The problem then is the topside one doesn't allow constant pressure to be applied to the one in the pump, causing it to eventually leak down, creating a vacuum at the top. The vacuum causes water hammer on start which eventually damages the topside checkvalve.

Hammer on stop would suggest both are now bad but replacing just the topside one won't prevent hammer on start. The hammer will eventually damage the topside one again.

If you go on the cheap, be sure and spend for a BALL CONE spring loaded check valve. With the high cut out, you get a free CSV and the quick closing ballcone will likely reduce hammer much. Better save up for a pump though.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ww...+check+valve&N=0&GlobalSearch=true&sst=subset

I installed a check valve where the faulty one was, no more water hammer, and to top the cycling I set cut off pressure to 70lbs because that's what I needed in order to stop zone #4 from cycling the pump, all other were not cycling somewhere between 55 and 60lbs, I hope this holds me over for a while, the bladder pressure tank is rated to 100lbs of pressure, is this going to affect or damage any other parts of the system?

sounds good to me.