Any well/water guys out there??

Over the past week or so our water pressure has gone down. I didn’t drop all at once, it’s progressivly gone down. Any quick ideas?

I will add, when I turn on the kitchen faucet I can here what sounds like air. It’s not sputtering like after I have turned off the water to change our filter. But still has the faint sound of air in the line.??

BIRDDOG

Does your well pump kick on and off often??? If it is, Your pressure tank blew it’s bladder. Not a hard fix, you can do it yourself if your adept enough.

I had something similar happen a few years back and it turned out the well went dry. They had to come in a dig it deeper. I hope that isn’t your problem.

The bladder in our tank also went bad not too long ago. From your description, that’s what it sounds like. It was a pretty straight forward repair.

OK, I don’t know squat about wells, pumps, etc…If I run water my psi drops to approx. 65, shut the water off it’s up to 75. It seems my pump is running alot! How does one go about changing the bladder? I don’t have to replace the entire tank, correct? What does a bladder cost these days, approx?

BIRDDOG

I replaced the whole tank. I don’t think you can replace the bladder.

Don’t be intimidated. I knew NOTHING about doing that, and it went very smoothly. Maybe I was lucky…

Check out this web page: http://www.peekspump.com/tanks.htm. It may help you diagnose your problem a little better. You may just need to add some air pressure to your tank to get the pressure back up again. If not, it will let you know about the bladder replacement or tank replacement.

That would be my first line of attack, try adding air to the tank first. Then if that doesn’t work, you may need a new tank. I am not positive, but I thought you could replace the bladder?

Wats, Just had the same problem you described here at the club. Needed new well motor. Also I don’t know how old yours is, but upgraded the wiring, box and some 100 feet of pipe put in. Had John Benson in Viroqua do the work, very reseaonable priced.

Take the cap off the air valve at the top of the tank. Press in on the valve core and if water comes out, the bladder is most likely shot. It can be changed, but you’ll be lucky to find a replacement without having to order one. Most of the box stores that sell the pressure tanks don’t even think about repair parts. Our ‘throw away’ mentality says it’s easier to just replace the tank.

If no water comes out of the valve core, it could just be low on air. But, big but, you need to drain the tank of water before shooting more air in so you get the proper amount of air pressure to coordinate with your pressure switch. There should be a label on the tank telling you how much air pressure the tank needs to operate properly with the switch.

Thanks for the pointers guys! I had a well guy out today. We pulled the pump, turned out to be that 3 of the 4 lengths of riser pipe had holes near the threads/couplers, the largest being the size of a pencil eraser. I guess steel pipe is notorious for that. Also the check valve was shot, spring was gone. Replaced all the well pipe with pvc, new valve, and the water pressure is better than it has ever been!! Just waiting for the bill now.

BIRDDOG