henrydavis
New Member
A few days ago I noticed the water coming out was looking dirty after taking a shower and looking at the mat. I went downstairs and discovered my whole house water filter (yarn type) was absolutely disgusting; like it had a layer of mud on it. I replaced it and that fixed it. Well, I decided to check on it a day later and holy moly, it was getting dirty quickly. I then discovered my well pump was short cycling, which I'm guessing was mixing up the water in the well and making it dirty. The pressure box would click on and off 10-20 times rapidly once the upper pressure limit was reached (around 55 psi). I tried reducing the cut off pressure to 52 and 50 but that didn't help things so I put it back. I then did a ton of reading online and tried what I read. What ultimately worked was taking a reading of the bladder pressure and it read 28 psi. Since my cut-in was set to 35 psi I pumped the bladder to 33 psi and bam, no more short cycling. I was a hero. We had water!......for a day.
This morning I took a shower and ran the dishwasher. No problem. I go to wash my hands and notice the water pressure was pathetic. Downstairs the pressure gauge was reading 10 psi. Lovely. I took the pressure box top off and the leads for the well pump were touching. The pump was running (I hope it's working). However, I'm not getting any increase in pressure. I ran to the breaker box and flipped the dual 20A breaker off. I purged out the water tank and took the bladder reading. Down to 28psi. Hmm. Ok. Let's see if the pump is working. I hooked a hose up to the tank drain, shut the valve after the tank to remove the house from the system and turned the well pump on, hoping to hear water come out of the garden hose. Nothing. I'm obviously a novice when it comes to wells but I would think the pump would be providing water to the tank, and then it immediately be released through the drain.
So, I'm at a loss. Memorial day, two kids under three, 94º outside and I have zero water. What do you guys think I should do. Call someone in? I'm a DiYer, having totally remodeled this house including a new softener and hot water tank, but something like this I'd rather leave to a pro. We bought the house 5 years ago (built in 1986) and the tank still looks new, but that's not saying much. It's a Well Mate WM-6 with a Pumptrol Square D pressure switch. I have no idea what type of well pump it is.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Oh, here's a video of the pressure switch cycling. This was after I sort-of fixed it and it was only clicking around 5 times. The water was running when I shot this (so it would activate the pump; that's why it drops pressure at the end) Probably not useful but videos are always fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxV1yfgZuM
This morning I took a shower and ran the dishwasher. No problem. I go to wash my hands and notice the water pressure was pathetic. Downstairs the pressure gauge was reading 10 psi. Lovely. I took the pressure box top off and the leads for the well pump were touching. The pump was running (I hope it's working). However, I'm not getting any increase in pressure. I ran to the breaker box and flipped the dual 20A breaker off. I purged out the water tank and took the bladder reading. Down to 28psi. Hmm. Ok. Let's see if the pump is working. I hooked a hose up to the tank drain, shut the valve after the tank to remove the house from the system and turned the well pump on, hoping to hear water come out of the garden hose. Nothing. I'm obviously a novice when it comes to wells but I would think the pump would be providing water to the tank, and then it immediately be released through the drain.
So, I'm at a loss. Memorial day, two kids under three, 94º outside and I have zero water. What do you guys think I should do. Call someone in? I'm a DiYer, having totally remodeled this house including a new softener and hot water tank, but something like this I'd rather leave to a pro. We bought the house 5 years ago (built in 1986) and the tank still looks new, but that's not saying much. It's a Well Mate WM-6 with a Pumptrol Square D pressure switch. I have no idea what type of well pump it is.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Oh, here's a video of the pressure switch cycling. This was after I sort-of fixed it and it was only clicking around 5 times. The water was running when I shot this (so it would activate the pump; that's why it drops pressure at the end) Probably not useful but videos are always fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxV1yfgZuM
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