Water from well keeps going

webpal

I have a private well and all was good until recently. The water goes after a while and I have to wait anything up to 90 mins before it comes back. when it does come back the pressure is very strong. After a while it calms down a bit and eventually goes to a trickle and then gone again for another while. There is a little black button on the small tank outside at the well which doesnt seem to work anymore if thats any help to anyone. Any ideas whats up??

Tazio

Hi

I had that problem last year with my well supply... there is an electrical pressure regulator on the expansion tank (either near the well or in your shed/garage) that had become full of solids from the water...

They are around euro20 new, and literally a 10min job to unwire, unscrew and replace..

It's called a "Square-D" pressure switch... see enclosed pictures... the second pict shows the corrosion/muck that blocks the water pressure compressing a diaphragm inside...

Cheers,
Cathal

aah yes

webpal wrote: »

I have a private well and all was good until recently. The water goes after a while and I have to wait anything up to 90 mins before it comes back. when it does come back the pressure is very strong. After a while it calms down a bit and eventually goes to a trickle and then gone again for another while. There is a little black button on the small tank outside at the well which doesnt seem to work anymore if thats any help to anyone. Any ideas whats up??

The main thing to look at when this happens is well water yield or recovery rate.

Depending on the depth of well and ground rock porosity, the amount of water that can pass from rock to bore through the permeability of the rock and the amount of surface area of the bore created by drilling to a sufficient depth will give a certain yield figure.

If your water is drying up every so often it might be worth doing a yield test which many well drillers will have info on or contacts they use to look at ground geology. In a way the day to day water use is kind of a yield test if all else is okay.

Was your well drilled fairly shallow, or was there hard consistently smooth rock with few fractured seams that allow only a slow flow rate through permeability only.


Always worth checking if you have any sticky ballcocks around the house in toilets. Do not rule this out at your peril, check first of all and save a lot of messing.

A silent dribble on a toilet can seep as much as 2 or 3 thousand litres a day between a few toilets without been seen or heard, and this can drain wells a lot quicker than a water tight household plumbing system. Won't help a low yield problem.

Sounds like you need to check the reset button / capacitor in the pump control box, but I don't think the Square D pressure switch is the first thing on the list yet, unless you have a lot of iron in your well, or sediments.

.243

sounds like either the pressure vessel has gone or the pressuse switch has gone,

aah yes

First question to ask is how old is well and how long has it been used ?

webpal

sorry guys, i've been busy. thanks for all the responses. turns out it was the pressure switch, which i managed to pick for €15 in heatmerchants. I had already replaced the capacitor, it went during the snow last winter. thanks gain for your help

webpal

sorry guys, i've been busy. thanks for all the responses. turns out it was the pressure switch, which i managed to pick for €15 in heatmerchants. I had already replaced the capacitor, it went during the snow last winter. thanks again for your help