Clarification of Well Pump Cycling

wsmm

Member
I need to clarify my first post. I've noticed the pump coming on during the night, when I don't believe anyone is using water. The pump is in the basement under our master bedroom. It does not appear to be a short cycle, the pump comes on and seems to run for the normal amount of time that is does when you run water long eough to drop the pressure and water in the holding tank. I would say it comes on maybe 2 or 3 times in an 8 hour period unless someone flushes the toilet and even a flush of the toilet dosen't always trigger it to come on. I tapped the bottom and the top of the pressure tank and tere is a different tone difference. The bottom sounds as if it is full and the top of the tank tends to have a hollow sound to it. I did notice the the cut out pressure maybe 5 pounds low at 45 psi on the guage. This is a 13 gallon tank. I'm thinking of replacing it in the near future with a 20 gallon tank. Only my wife and I live in the house. The ghould vs10 pump sits right on top of the horizontal pipe coming from the well. From the pump there is a "T" one side of the "T" is connected to the pump, one other side is connected to the pressure thank and the third side has a shut off valve on it and supplies the plumbing system. I have not noticed any leaks in te piping inside the house. We do have hard water and some sand does make it into the plumbing system. I looked at the stand pipe outside, mainly becasuse we believe the area around it, flowers, small fensing and solar lights was run over by a delivery truck. I did notice what appears to be a little paint transfer on the stand pipe. I placed a level on 4 side of the stand pipe and did notice that in one direction, it was not at a true ninety degrees. It was just a bit of, but I don't know if it was this way before or not. Not beng a plimber or well type guy, was rasied in the city, I just want to make sure I'm not over lookibng any thing or over reacting.
Thanks for all of answers
 
Something is leaking.

Should have a valve after the pressure tank, turn it off over night, if the pump stays off the leak is on the plumbing side. If the pump still come on the leak is in the well, pipe or check valve.
 
I just got a house with a well and I don't even know what I'm looking at or what I have but that should would make me look for a leak in the feed pipe. { or call a guy after ten minutes ] Good luck .
 
A larger tank will only gain you less cycling of the pump, it will not give you more water volume or pressure. If the tank holds twice as much water the pump will only come on half as often, as there is more water to use before the pressure drops to the point the pump comes on. I would say that unless you like long showers there is little to gain by the $$$ of a larger tank especially as yours seems to be OK. I think you have a leak somewhere that is bleeding off your water causing the pump to come on. As your pump seems to be in the basement under your bedroom you have a "shallow well pump" not a submersible pump down the well where you can't hear it run. So probably the foot valve or check valve near the pump is leaking, same if you have a "jet" pump that allows you to have a shallow well pump lift more than about 18 or so feet max. Even if the bladder in your tank was leaking the tank would still function as the old style bladderless tank. Over time the water would absorb the air and the air volume would become less and less and the pump cycle would be shorter and shorter, but you aren't describing this. If thes was the case you could just add air once in a while as folks used to do before bladders. I think your system is leaking down somewhere, could even be a faucet leaking, dripping, have you looked for that, I expect so. So it is probably the foot or check valve. Probably you have both. The foot valve in the well at the bottom of the suction pipe and the check valve after the pump and before the tank. The foot valve is nothing buy a check valve, just called a foot valve because of the location at the foot of the system.
 
+1 about leak. The leaks that I wrote about in my prior post caused the pump to cycle at exactly the same rate as yours. They were both pinhole leaks, so it took awhile to bleed off enough water (= pressure) so that the pump would kick back on again.
 
Be sure to check the "Flapper" valve in the toilet tank! a leaky flapper will do exactly what your saying, and the pump will come on 3-4-5 times at night. Jim in N.M.
 
I would turn the pump off and then add some air to the system. That way you can rule or a water logged problem and the cost well just a few minutes of your time. If that takes care of it good if not then you know you have something else wrong.
 
Keep watching for water to start coming up through the ground somewhere. Eventually,it'll generally come straight up from the hole or break in the pipe.
 

I would urge you to go to a tank even larger than 20 gallons.
Your pump will run lass often, and that will increase pump life, and in the long haul, reduce the cost of your pump.
 
Shut off the house completely from the pump and tank. If the pump doesn't cycle in the next hour you know you have a leak in the house. Somewhere...
 
Rather than a larger tank you could also consider a cycle stop valve. Basically just a constant pressure valve. It wouldn't fix your current problem, but it sure is nice to have constant pressure.
 
Maybe. It wasn't the case on the two leaks I mentioned. First one, the pinhole was just above the pump, below waterline in the well, but it would drain the 60+ ft column of water in the pipe above it. Second leak, the path of least resistance was thru the basement block wall - I got seeping from one or two drain (?) holes thru the wall, into the narrow slit that had been cast in the concrete slab, all along the outer wall.
 

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