Loss of prime

[Kat1013]

Greetings. I’ve been reading/trying all the suggestions, but I haven’t quite figured out my issue.

We lost water one morning—got it back with a prime. It stayed for several weeks. Then went out again. Got it back. Kept happening.

It had gotten to the point where a shower or running laundry makes it go out. It’s usually out by morning. It will hit the 30psi cut on, start running—but never come back up. Will find it at 0 psi running.

We have a jet pump, about 50ft lines. Had a 20(?) gallon pressure tank. We’ve replaced both the pump and its switch. And we replaced the pressure tank with a bigger one. We’ve checked as many of the lines as we can. Our house is from 1910, so some of the lines are in areas we can’t get to. We had a tub faucet leak—but we’ve resolved that.

Now when it goes out; it can’t be primed right back. It has to sit for 5+ hours to get it back. We’ve considered low water table, but there has been no issues with any of my well neighbors.

We’re at our wits, and pricing out city water being run.

Any suggestions of things we can check/try would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Reach4]

You want the check valve as close to the bottom of the piping that you can. A foot valve is a combination of a check valve and a screen.

If you have a sand point, instead of a dug/drilled well, put the check valve right a tee that is on top of the the pipe that was driven.


Your sand point may be clogged, and you need to drive new sand point. That may also be able to be cleared chemically. I am not a pro.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Kat1013]

You want the check valve as close to the bottom of the piping that you can. A foot valve is a combination of a check valve and a screen.

If you have a sand point, instead of a dug/drilled well, put the check valve right a tee that is on top of the the pipe that was driven.


Your sand point may be clogged, and you need to drive new sand point. That may also be able to be cleared chemically. I am not a pro.

We replaced the foot valve when we replaced the pump. Idk about a sand point—don’t know that much about well systems. We had a guy out and he said everything seemed fine. Was concerned about running toilets. So we checked all that. I’ll look into a sand point. . Thanks!

 

[Reach4]

No, don't look into a sand point. Foot valve is better.

If you run continuous water, and then the air comes in, I expect you are pumping the well dry. The water level fell down to the intake on the foot valve. I don't know if "well rehabilitation" would help. A new well, with a submersible pump, may cost less than getting city water run, depending. With a submersible pump, there is no priming.

If the well is running dry, you could also put in a gadget that turns off the pump for an interval if the pump runs out of water. You would be out of water, but you may not have to re-prime. Somebody who is more familiar with jet pumps may comment.

Another possibility is to move the down pipe and foot valve deeper. You don't want to start sucking a lot of sediment, but it could be an improvement.
If the problem is more after you let the pump sit not used for a few hours, chances are you have a leak somewhere. One way to track that down is to slather shaving foam on every accessible joint, including the connection at the pump. Turn on the pump, and look for shaving foam sucking in.

You could also have a leaky foot valve.

 

[Valveman]

When you replaced the foot valve, did you look down the well to see how deep it is to water? Or do you remember seeing a water line on the pipe? Need to make sure the foot valve is under water before starting to look for a pump problem.

 

[Kat1013]

When you replaced the foot valve, did you look down the well to see how deep it is to water? Or do you remember seeing a water line on the pipe? Need to make sure the foot valve is under water before starting to look for a pump problem.
The line was wet about 20ft up from foot valve.

We did find a leak on the intake pipe of the pump and tried sealing it. It worked great for a day. Kept pressure overnight, was able to take several showers, but then it started leaking again —and pump stalled running at 40psi. Never got back up—and ended up running the psi to 0 with a shower. So—we’re going to try and either seal better or replace that part this week.

 

[Kat1013]

Greetings! Just an update and a thanks to all the suggestions.

Ended up finding a leak under a section of the house we couldn’t get to from any of the access points around the house. Got to the point where it started spraying, so we heard it under the kitchen. Pulled up flooring and cut into the floor and fixed it. Also had to replace the pump seal shaft. Water has been perfect since . Turned where we cut into an access—so will have the ability to get under there if any other issues arise.

Thanks again for the suggestions and help