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BrianV
join:2008-11-17
Long Sault, ON

BrianV

Member

[Plumbing] Low water pressure after refilling pressure tank bladd

Hello!

We have a well with a pressure tank. I've since we moved in, I've noticed that the well pump would cycle on once or twice a minute when there was a draw on the house water, but I never thought anything else of it.

I learned this week that this is a sign of an issue with the air bladder in my pressure tank, and when I checked it, it was showing 0 PSI.

I turned off the well pump, opened an outdoor hose to drain the system, and added air to the bladder until I had 32 PSI (pump cutin is at 35psi) and there was no more water getting pushed out of the system.

I then turned my water back on. The well pump filled the tank in about 30 seconds.

Now however, the water pressure in my house is pathetic. Showers won't be happening at all, and you can't really even flush the toilet without waiting about 5+ minutes for the tank to fill to a suitable level.

What have I done?

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

ropeguru

Premium Member

What is showing on your pressure guage when there is water flowing?

Does it drop close to zero or does it drop slowly then back up when the pump kicks in?

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
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Have you watched the pressure gauge while the pump is running to double check cut in and cut out pressure?

The pressure tank controls pump cycle time, lack of pressure is something else.

Assuming that looks good you may have dislodged some gunk that got logged in a valve.

/tom
BrianV
join:2008-11-17
Long Sault, ON

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It drops slowly to the cut-on point, then raises quickly to the cut-off as the well pump runs.

The gauge at the pressure tank shows pressures between 35 and 55 PSI (my cut on / cut off). However, at the first hose bib (first junction in the system, before the water softener), I am getting a bare trickle. If I leave it for a minute, I think pressure builds up in the house pipes, and I get a brief bit of pressure in teh water system before it drops off to a trickle.

I wonder if this process somehow dislodged some debris that is stuck in the system now and is restricting water flow past it. Any idea on how to check for that?

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

ropeguru

Premium Member

Edited:

Did you by any chance use a cutoff valve between the tank and the house?

tp0d
yabbazooie
Premium Member
join:2001-02-13
Bulger, PA

tp0d to BrianV

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If you have an old multi-turn globe valve between the tank and the rest of the house, its very possible the washer has fallen off the stem and is blocking the outlet. Only way to see is to shut down and drain the system again, and remove the stem from the valve body... The stem threads are usually damn tight, hope you got some orangutan arms

-j
BrianV
join:2008-11-17
Long Sault, ON

BrianV

Member

You guys are awesome for all the suggestions so far.

Ok, so my thought is exactly as suggested - some debris got dislodged somehow and is clogged somewhere. The problem is finding likely spots.

Now, presumably, the blockage is on the house side of the pressure as turning on a faucet (and dropping the line pressure to presumably 10 PSI) does not cause the pressure switch to engage.

The blockage must be before my outdoor faucets split off (before my water softener and hot water tank) because they have pathetic pressure as well. So lets look at what's in between:

1. I have a ball valve after the pressure switch. I am presuming there is no blockage here. It feels like it opens and closes without any issues.

2. Next item is an old water softener. At some point before I owned the house, it presumable broke. Rather than replace it where it was (before the outdoor faucets split off) a new one was added downstream after the outdoor faucet line splits off. All house water still goes through the old, unplugged softener unit.

3. After the old water softener, there is a T-intersection where a line splits off. It T's into another straight pipe that goes across my crawlspace and terminates at each end in an outdoor faucet.

I am presuming the blockage is either in the ball valve, old water softener, or in the T where the outdoor lines are split off. Both the outdoor faucets and the house lines which exit this T have the low water pressure.

Now, I suspect I can rule out the ball valve. That doesn't seem likely to me. That leaves the old water softener and the T-connector.

My first instinct to fix this may be to drain my house lines, and clean up the plumbing down here by eliminating the old softener from the system. I would basically be able to go from the ball valve, straight to the T-connector that splits the outdoor lines off of the main water system. To do this cleanly, I would actually cut off the T-connector and extend that line another 1-2' to the other side of the water softener, which would also eliminate the old T-intersection as a blockage point.

However, I'm a touch hesitant because this will take me into the evening to get done, and I would be slightly screwed if my problem somehow lay somewhere else.
BrianV

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said by ropeguru:

Edited:
Did you by any chance use a cutoff valve between the tank and the house?

See my post just above. Yes, there is a cutoff valve there, but it remained open the whole time. Once I saw the problem with the water pressure, I opened it and closed it a few times in case that is there the blockage was. I felt nothing, it seemed to open and close smoothly, so I think the blockage is downstream of it.

davidg
Good Bye My Friend
MVM
join:2002-06-15
00000

davidg

MVM

just because you felt nothing at the valves does not mean it is not blocked. if there is trash/washer/etc on the inflow side of the valve and not actually in the mechanism it will restrict flow without you being able to feel it there. I would start at the closest place on the output of the tank and begin disassembly/checks. while you are at it go ahead and plumb around that old softener. Keep in mind that taking apart old plumbing usually means you will be replacing some sections, so get sizes, take some pictures, and go pic up most of what you could need before you start. you can return any usunsed items during one of the 3-4 follow up trips to lowe's Depot.

tp0d
yabbazooie
Premium Member
join:2001-02-13
Bulger, PA

tp0d to BrianV

Premium Member

to BrianV
Its definitely one of the softeners.. Should be a bypass valve somewhere on the unit, or possibly plumbed into the water piping. Bypass both of them and see if the pressure returns. If it does, turn only the new softener back to normal, and hopefully the blockage isnt in the new one. Some of the resin media beads could have come loose from the old softener and clogged the new.. hope not

good luck

-j
iknow_t
join:2012-05-03

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if it seems you can't find the blockage, you can disconnect a section at a time, and run that into a big bucket, check the flow from there, then work your way back to the pump until you find the bad section..
BrianV
join:2008-11-17
Long Sault, ON

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Well, I can tell you it isn't the new softener since it's past the faucets, and the faucets are blocked. I'm presuming it's in the old one somewere, but I have piping now to replace everything down to and including the ball valve the shuts off everything past the pressure tank.

In other news, the situation has improved - I think some of the blockage might have dissolved or otherwise became less... blocky. It's still not great, but it's workable. It took me a few hours to get all the parts to fix it (the big orange box store was a zoo and out of some things). Now I'm back, but I don't think I want to tackle this one at 7:00 PM.

We'll just have some mediocre showers in the meantime, and I'll tackle it with a vengeance when I have Tuesday off.

mackey
Premium Member
join:2007-08-20

mackey

Premium Member

Before you get to replumbing, make sure the old softener valve is in "bypass" mode. New ones have the bypass valve separate from the unit, but older ones had it as part of the controls.

/M
BrianV
join:2008-11-17
Long Sault, ON

1 recommendation

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said by tp0d:

Should be a bypass valve somewhere on the unit, or possibly plumbed into the water piping

said by mackey:

Before you get to replumbing, make sure the old softener valve is in "bypass" mode. New ones have the bypass valve separate from the unit, but older ones had it as part of the controls.

Both you guys hit the nail on the head. When the previous owners installed the new water softener, nobody took the old one out of 'Service' mode. I found the valve and put it into Bypass, and all my water pressure problems resolved themselves. In fact, we suddenly have better pressure than we ever have before!

At some point, I'm going to completely remove the old softener from the system, but now there's no urgency!

tp0d
yabbazooie
Premium Member
join:2001-02-13
Bulger, PA

tp0d

Premium Member

Ding ding! we have a winnah