Low Water Pressure with Well?
#1
11-26-05, 08:13 AM
Low Water Pressure with Well?
Hello,
Stumbled across your forums while looking for some internet advice....great place!
Have a question (or many questions?).....
We purchased a house w/ a well. Previously we had town/city water...so we are "well-challenged".
It seems like the house has low water pressure. When you run the laundry, there is almost no flow on the upstairs shower.
I have cleaned the aerators at the faucets, it help a tiny bit. I recently replaced the water filter...it was a wrapped version and pretty crappy looking (caked w/ sediment).
While putting up Xmas decorations, i noticed the snow all melted around the well cap. For giggles i popped the well cap off. It was full of water right up to the top. So i'm thinking my well has enough water in it.
I checked out the water system today. We have an Amtrol WX202. The water pressure on the gauge read about 52#s. I ran the water down to see when the cutoff would happen. It happened at 38# (ish). The WX has a sticker on it that says it was factory set at 30#s. It was installed in 1990.
Not sure if the next 2 things are related, but....when you run the upstairs shower (same on mentioned before), the pipes "whistle" when running hot water. Also, the baseboard hot water registers just don't seem to produce enough heat. I've cleaned them out, but i'm wondering if these two problems are related to low water pressure or not.
Any thoughts, ideas, advice on what to do next would be most appreciated. First problem (of all the ones i mentioned above) would be to increase my water pressure somehow.
Thanks very much in advance.
jeff
Stumbled across your forums while looking for some internet advice....great place!
Have a question (or many questions?).....
We purchased a house w/ a well. Previously we had town/city water...so we are "well-challenged".
It seems like the house has low water pressure. When you run the laundry, there is almost no flow on the upstairs shower.
I have cleaned the aerators at the faucets, it help a tiny bit. I recently replaced the water filter...it was a wrapped version and pretty crappy looking (caked w/ sediment).
While putting up Xmas decorations, i noticed the snow all melted around the well cap. For giggles i popped the well cap off. It was full of water right up to the top. So i'm thinking my well has enough water in it.
I checked out the water system today. We have an Amtrol WX202. The water pressure on the gauge read about 52#s. I ran the water down to see when the cutoff would happen. It happened at 38# (ish). The WX has a sticker on it that says it was factory set at 30#s. It was installed in 1990.
Not sure if the next 2 things are related, but....when you run the upstairs shower (same on mentioned before), the pipes "whistle" when running hot water. Also, the baseboard hot water registers just don't seem to produce enough heat. I've cleaned them out, but i'm wondering if these two problems are related to low water pressure or not.
Any thoughts, ideas, advice on what to do next would be most appreciated. First problem (of all the ones i mentioned above) would be to increase my water pressure somehow.
Thanks very much in advance.
jeff
#2
11-26-05, 04:48 PM
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: north dakota/montana
Posts: 130
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes
on
0 Posts
To me that sounds like a good amount of pressure. A lot of times we mistake pressure for flow.
You could have enough pressure, but a pump that will not produce much water.
Have you ever seen pictures of the inside of old water mains? Sometimes a six inch main can be reduced to the size of your thumb. If this is an older house you could have a lot of buildup in the lines. This would reduce your flow area and cause a lot of pressure and flow loss.
How is that for a non-answer?
You could have enough pressure, but a pump that will not produce much water.
Have you ever seen pictures of the inside of old water mains? Sometimes a six inch main can be reduced to the size of your thumb. If this is an older house you could have a lot of buildup in the lines. This would reduce your flow area and cause a lot of pressure and flow loss.
How is that for a non-answer?
#3
11-27-05, 05:35 AM
RS,
Yes, you are right....i meant to say flow, not pressure....and to think i am a firefighter on the side....messing up my hydraulic terms...jeez...
Flow is bad, not pressure!
The house is relatively new....built in the early 90s. A "pre-fab" house. Not sure much more about the well (i just moved in).
I suppose the lines could be gunked up?
Don't even know how big the pipe between the well and the house is...but in the basement where it comes thru the wall it is pretty small. Like 1-2" pipe.
thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
Yes, you are right....i meant to say flow, not pressure....and to think i am a firefighter on the side....messing up my hydraulic terms...jeez...
Flow is bad, not pressure!
The house is relatively new....built in the early 90s. A "pre-fab" house. Not sure much more about the well (i just moved in).
I suppose the lines could be gunked up?
Don't even know how big the pipe between the well and the house is...but in the basement where it comes thru the wall it is pretty small. Like 1-2" pipe.
thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
#4
11-27-05, 08:38 AM
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: north dakota/montana
Posts: 130
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes
on
0 Posts
One inch service line is pretty common.
Do a flow test for fun. Run water into a bucket and time the fill up. Figure out how many gpm you are getting. While you are doing this have someone watch the pressure gauge. Also check the pressure gauge while the laundry machine is running. I would bet the pressure is dropping way down low. This would mean that your pump is doing as much as it can. The remedy to this situation would be a pump that can produce a higher flow at a similar pressure. Also, I grew up in a house with a limited flow well and we had an 80 gallon pressure tank. This large tank easily allowed cows to water, washing machines to run, and people to shower.
A constant pressure system would be a good solution for this type of problem. Check out the Franklin Electric Monodrive or the Grundfos SQ pump and CU301.
Do a flow test for fun. Run water into a bucket and time the fill up. Figure out how many gpm you are getting. While you are doing this have someone watch the pressure gauge. Also check the pressure gauge while the laundry machine is running. I would bet the pressure is dropping way down low. This would mean that your pump is doing as much as it can. The remedy to this situation would be a pump that can produce a higher flow at a similar pressure. Also, I grew up in a house with a limited flow well and we had an 80 gallon pressure tank. This large tank easily allowed cows to water, washing machines to run, and people to shower.
A constant pressure system would be a good solution for this type of problem. Check out the Franklin Electric Monodrive or the Grundfos SQ pump and CU301.
#6
11-27-05, 06:04 PM
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: north dakota/montana
Posts: 130
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes
on
0 Posts
