I recently noticed my pump is cycling with no water draw in the house. At night time last week it would cycle about once an hour now it is every 45 minutes. Yesterday I replaced the line from the top of the well and the foot valve and it still is cycling. I have already isolated the house so there are no leaks within the house. I am sure that the leak is between the pump and the top of the well. There are two 1" poly lines running from the pump area to the top of the well. 12 years ago I had a problem and switched from one line to the other. My jet pump uses one 1" line to draw. The existing lines are buried under concrete and are not accessible. What I am thinking of doing is to use the existing two 1" lines as a sleeve and feed 3/4" poly lines thru them from the pump to the well. At each end I would make up a fitting that would join them up and back up to the 1" size I need for connecting the pump to the well. Does anyone see a problem in doing this?
Thanks
Brian

 

That will not work. To fix anything down in the well, the pipe must be pulled out, and replace what is bad, be it the foot valve or pipe.

Putting poly inside like that will not do anything but waste your time. There is a foot valve in the well, and there is no way to attach to it with the poly inside.

 

Sorry but I am not running the 3/4" inside the well. I have replace the 1" and the foot valve in the well yesterday. What I am talking about is the line from the well cap at top of the well to the pump.
Brian

 

Hi.

That should work. So you have two 1" lines to the well head and you think they are both leaking? You want to run two 3/4 " lines in the 1" and connect them togetherat each end to retain the volume of water.

Sounds good to me.

But before I do that I would try to trouble shoot other things that may cause it.

What type of air tank do you have and have you checked the pressure?

The pump is losing pressure with everything off?

Have you shut the outlet valve off to the home, and does the pump build pressure? Can you watch the gauge and see the pressure drop?

Do you get air in the lines? Air would point to the line from the pump to the ft valve or the ft valve itself.

Did you change the ft valve or just a check valve that was in line to the well head?

Sorry for all the questions. It will help the people here on this site further help your issue.

Mikie NJ

 

Yes I have two 1" lines that are now both leakers...
WOW - see if I can cover the questions...
The air tank I have is a old 25 gallon bladderless tank. It has been drained and only the water pumped in to it to pressurize it. Been using it for 15 years.
The system setup is well to pump to pressure tank to valve to house. Turning off the valve isolates the house. Pressure drop happens with house disconnected by valve.
I do not get air in the lines.
The Foot valve was changed for a new brass one and the poly running to it inside the well was changed so the only vintage stuff is the line between the pump and the well cap.
Brian

 

Go for it.

The only thing is, if the line had a leak, I am almost positive you would be getting air in the lines. If your losing pressure air actually enters the line. Water does not leak out if there is a leak on the suction side.

Mike NJ

 

Understand what you are referring to but I am assuming a small crack somewhere that while the pressure buildup may force the crack to open to leak a suction may pull it closed. I do have enough 1" poly to run a line on the ground into the crawlspace to see if the feed line is indeed the problem. I guess my original question is if it would be possible to feed a 3/4 poly inside a 1' poly. The 1" inside diameter is larger than the 3/4" outside diameter - but not by much and I hope the 1" has not deformed so the 3/4 can not pass thru.
Brian

 

Forgot this part... the suction side is still under pressure when pump is off so water can leak out.

Brian

 

I would say no on that one. When my well had a crack in the check valve in the crawl, all it did was let in air. Never a drop of water. Took me a month to find it. Well kept losing pressure and sucking air. I forsure thoght it was the ft valve. I could not find it. By chance I grabbed the pipe in that area and heard the sucking in sound. Finally... And never a drop of water in the crawl.

That was with the pump off and a full 65 psi.


Mike NJ

 

Yes both sides will have pressure when the pump is off. that is just the nature of a jet pump.
Both lines can not be tied together. They serve different purposes.
A jet pump pumps water in a continuous loop, That is what makes them pull water up on a setup like you have.

 

I dont know if I am misreading or you guys. He has a single line pump. It just so happens he has 2two 1" lines going to the well head. One must of been a put in as a back up.

My suction side pipe never leaked with a crack in it. It sucked in alot of air. Most pumps I know have built in checks. So I dont know if the suction line would leak water statement holds true.

The suction side of the pipe is like holding your finger on a straw with water in it.

Isnt it???????


Mike NJ

 

Nope, I was reading it wrong.

 

Another thing you can do is set up a pressure gauge and schrader valve on the suction line. Pump it up with 30 psi of air and see if it holds.

I installed a 1 1/2" clean out plug on my suction side. If I need to prime I dump water in there, instead of adding water to the little primer hole.

Plus now with the cleanout you can adapt a pressure gauge and schrader.



Mike NJ

 

i think i get this... maybe

if it is indeed a single pipe jet pump, then it somewhat makes sense.

no jet pumps that i know of have a built in check valve. in a 2"+ diameter well (with more than 25' of casing) and using a single pipe jet pump, the only check valve should be at the bottom of a drop pipe in the well. so its more like holding water in the straw with your finger on the bottom.. and the straw pressurized (straw being everything from the cutoff valve to the bottom of the drop pipe where the foot valve is). so pressure can leak out the suction pipe through a small crack in the suction line... when pressure drops and pump kicks on, apparenly the crack is small enough that the pump does not cavitate and will still build to desired pressure. while it probably does draw in some air, it likely goes without notice due to the non-bladder style tank. then again it could just be drawing back in the leaked out water, which might be why it doesnt pull enough air to lose prime... just trying to get it to make sense in my head.

what you are proposing does make sense. i'd be surprised if you could get the 3/4 all the way through the 1", and you will be cutting down on your volume... but i guess its worth a shot. i dont deal with poly so i dont know about the fit.

 

Justwater has it correct. I am not sure I can feed a 3/4 poly all the way thru the 1". That is about 22 ft long. As for the volume, using two 3/4" has more volume that a single 1" but the fittings may reduce it though.
Brian

 

didnt even occur to me that you would be running two 3/4 inside both 1" lines... just be very particular as you have double the possibility of suction leaks.

as far as the 22' run... its easier to pull something through rather than push it. maybe you can run a string or something through the 1" and pull the 3/4 through. i've seen people hook a vacuum to the other side of a line to pull the string through. just an idea.

 

This is gonna sound weird but I will give is a try this weekend. 12 years ago my neighbour, Bob, who is a plumber and a contractor fixed my well problem. Unfortuneatly the well problem developed the same day I had to bury my dad so I never did see what the problem was and he does not recall what he did. I do recall that the pump would cycle on, stop, and then I could hear a whoosh as the water flowed back and then the pump would cycle again. From what I recall Bob did replace the foot valve, and the hose inside the well. I now assume he also saw the second 1" line and swapped them as a just in case. So I am now thinking that the whoosh was a failed foot valve and not a crack in the hose leading to the well. The original 1" line that was used may still be OK. Wish the well tops weren't so heavy.
Brian

 

Instead of doing all that un-necessary work why don't you install a cut off valve between the pump and drop line. Let it pump up/cycle off, and then block in the valve and make sure there isn't a leak going back into the well. I would think that if the suction line was leaking then you would see evidence of a leak. I think you're not going to be able to get that 3/4 all the way through and spend a lot of time finding that out.

 

I don't believe there is a leak from the head of the well to the foot valve. Before I replaced the hose and foot valve the pump would cycle every 45 mins. After I replaced these pieces the pump still cycles every 45 mins so I believe I can rule out anything inside the well. As for seeing evidence of a leak, 3/4 of the hose is buried under concrete. I am not sure if I will be able to feed a 3/4" poly thru the 1" but if I can it will be a lot cheaper than digging up the landscape and a concrete slap patio to dig a trench 5 feet down. I may have to though.