Water Pump making a strange hissing noise

wiilow74

Hi there , just looking for a bit of advice .....I noticed today that my water pump came on in my shed outside and was making a really loud hissing noise as if air was comming out at high pressure , there was no sign of it stopping so I just turned off the pump . My pump is approx 10 years old and my well is fairly deep at around 400 feet and it has never gone dry so far and it's never had any bother and no taps were left on so just wondering what could be happening ?? Thanks in advance for any help !

sanbrafyffe

sounds like the pump needs primeing etc...the pump contains more air than water

i hope the pump isnt running dry

wiilow74

Found a pinhole in the tank, that seemed to be the problem so have sealed that as best we can and it is holding and all working normally , probably just the age of the tank but hopefully it'll hold out another while till we can afford to get a new one !!! :rolleyes:

Irish Steve

Don't want to rain on your parade, but if the pump wasn't stopping, and there was no water coming out of the hole, there's another issue, the pump is struggling to get water from the well.

I am guessing that there's a pinhole in the pressure vessel, so air was escaping as the pump was running, which was air being forced out as the rubber or neoprene bladder in the tank expanded with water being pumped into it. in theory, once the bladder was full, the pump pressure should have built up in the line and the sensor switch should have stopped the pump. When a tap is turned on, the pressure in the "tank" normally pushes the water out, when the pressure drops below the sensor setting, the pump cuts in and refills the tank bladder.

So, if the bladder is full, and there are no taps or tanks taking flow from the pump, it should have stopped. If it didn't, there's either a leak somewhere else, or the sensor has a fault and is not cutting the pump out, or the pump can't get enough water from the well to pressurise the system to cut off pressure.

Any or all of these are not good, if the pump is running all the time, and not getting water, it may overheat, if the well is 400 Ft, it's not a small pump, so it will cost if it's running too long, and if the air has got out of the tank, the pump will "short cycle" when water is being drawn off, as there's not going to be the correct pressure in the vessel to expel the water correctly.

The other possibility is that the sensor may be blocked by silt or similar, or the diaphragm on the sensor may have become hardened, so it's not flexing correctly.

Whichever, leaving it too long may prove to be more expensive in the longer term.

Short term, will the temporary repair allow you to pressurise the vessel again? If yes, then you should be OK, if not, the system will not be working correctly.

Hope that helps