Last week my water stopped working in a trailor i just purchased, when i turn the sink on water slowly comes out for about a minute then completely stops, i checked the shallow well and it has water in it, so i called a plumber who came and spent about 5 hours here and charged me 900 bucks and didnt help the problem what so ever, the pump i have on my water tank is a utilitech deep well convertable jet pump, 1/2 hp 720 gph. Any help here would be greatly appreciated

 

Why did you pay him?

Whats the psi on the well tank read?

Does it make no pressure at all?

Its a two line system?

You may have to pull the ejector up...... Could be a few things.... More info and pics help a lot.

 

The psi doesnt go above 15, and its a single pump, sorry im pretty new to all this, never had to deal with this type of problem in the past,

 

I turned the pump and stuff on and checked the pipes by the shallow well and their wasnt any pressure going through so could it possibly be a clog? If so is a snake the only way i can fix it, if so ill go buy one tomorrow and try it

 

Do you have one pipe or two pipes coming out of the well?

If you have a single pipe going to your well you will not find "pressure" in the pipe between the well and pump. It is a suction line so it is not under pressure. If you have two pipes leading to the well you will have some pressure when the pump is running.

Do not put a plumbing snake down your well water line.

 

Alright, the plumber that i had here put one down from the pipe inside the trailor, i honestly dont think he knew what he was doing, and over charged me for nothing, their is only one pipe, also was wondering theirs a metal piece thats connected into my well jet pump and he said that usually its connect into the other end of the pipe, ima upload pictures so you can get mroe out of it, but should their be any type of suction to bring the water in cause when i turned it on their was no suction to go into the pump/tank whatever, anyways im going to upload pictures, is their any specific format i should use?

 

Sounds like a leak in the suction line somewhere. The piece connected to the well is probably a check valve. Possibly the ejector/venturi in the pump is clogged also..Impeller melted? Foot valve bad? But the check valve should compensate for that. I ran without a ft valve for 8 years of so.....

I suggest you call a competent plumber/well guy out if your not going to try to DIY....

 

Give this this thread a quick look over regarding photo upload; http://www.doityourself.com/forum/we...your-post.html

You mentioned it won't go past 15PSI. does it maintain this 15PSI or does it struggle to maintain this when you turn on a tap?

The two possible issues I'm thinking it could be is the foot is plugged (if the pump can only get to 15PSI and struggles to maintain it) or the plump lost it's prime (which may or may not be possible with your model).
I'm not confidently familiar with shallow wells, so I can't walk you through things.

 

I hope this diagram will explain a bit about what does what in your system.



The foot valve down in the well is basically a one way check valve. When the pump shuts off the foot valve prevents all the water above in the pipe from flowing back into the well. If it's leaking the pump has to suck all the air out of the line before you get any water and if your pump is not self priming then it means no water and you have to go prime the pump. Often if the foot valve leaks a check valve will be installed somewhere above ground. It works but it's a band-aid fix instead of fixing the real problem.

Like Lawrosa mentioned there could also be a problem with the pump or a leak in the suction line. If there is a leak in the suction line it really kills performance. Air is much easier to move so a tiny leak can let in a lot of air... and the more air the less water and pressure you get in the house.

 

A) B) C) D)


Bear with me here, i am new to all this, in pic c, the plumber said that piece should of been connected to the other side, but it worked when i moved in i havent done anything different, the plumber did try a snake but didnt do anything, i see now that he shouldnt of tried that? anyways also in pic c should that piece be sucking in the water cause their is no suckage at all going into it, i checked it and nothing, also i cleaned the end of the hose going from the shallow well as it was dirty, but still no help what so ever. When i turn it all of and turn it back on water comes through for a minute or so then slows to a complete stop. Also tryed priming it and still nothing, also the jet pump that is connected is brand new. Its 100 % a single and not double, the shallow well is above ground. Just trying to give a little more info of what i know sorry if it isnt much if anymore pics or anything is needed just let me know, hoping to get this fixed without another 900 dollar bill :/

 

Come to think of it I believe you have a point. If the guy tried to snake the line it could be why...

The point may be clogged....

Hmmm old things that were done in the past and not recommended at all.

Pour crystal Drano down the galv pipe. The Drano dissolves the crude clogging the point. Other was shoot a 22 down there a couple times... We had a few ricochet back though when I watched an old timer do it....

Please do not do either of these. This is just for example what the old timers used to do.

If you have a point your best puitting in a new point 5 ft away of the old one.

 

Do you have a well head outside? Not typical on shallow well and may be buried 4 ft down.

Here is a point.




Well head if someone extended it and put a pitless adapter. I doubt you have this.



Additionally does the plastic pipe from the pump exit the house, or does it turn into galvanized?

 

The plastic pipe exits the house, was trying to get more info from the guy i got it off of but he hasnt reply'd or anything. Wish i could give out more info but cant :/ Also why shouldnt you put a plumbers snake down it just being curious? Also my brother put a 5.5 hp shop vac into it and tryed to see if water or anything would pull through (not the brightest idea i know) But nothing pulled through at all

 

Took a small hose and connected one to the pump and the other end to a bucket full of water and turned on the pump and none of the water got sucked through.

 

I believe your problem is simply a loss of prime. If the line in the well has emptied, either by a leak or by opening it up and snaking it or whatever, and you prime your pump, if you have a check valve it will prevent that water from priming the line in the well. Unless you primed the line as well, as soon as you turn on the pump, it will fire some water out for a minute or so, like you said, and then very little after that as the air in the line hits the pump. The pump will still read pressures in the 10 to 15 psi range. Not sure why this is, but it does.

Anyway, all you need to do is prime the pump and also prime the line going into the well. Turn it on and it should work. Have you tried that?

 

Sorry i havent had much activity on here been working and stuff alot lately, anyways in the time i had i went up and checked the pipe and found a kink so i cut it and replaced it, found a leak in the foot valve which im thinking the plumber may have caused by using a air thing to push air through my pumps to try to find the "breather" or whatever it is called, anyways i went and replaced that, filled the hose up with water to prime it (which for some reason is roughly 400 feet from my house, filled it up and turned it on, the pressure gauge would shoot up from 20-40 psi's in like 5 seconds so i checked the pressure in the tank and the plumber put 40 psi's of air into the tank which its only 20-40 psi gauge, so i turned it down to 18 and finally have water flowing steady into the house, i want to thank all you guys for the help and info, it helped out alot. I was also wondering is their somethin i can do for the plumbing bill cause he did more damage then good in this situation, if not ill pay it no problem but i think i need to look into a better plumber in this area.

 

Shane not trying to be picky but in the above I assume you mean 20-40 switch? not gauge? The reason I say that is because it seems to me that guy was really sloppy if he set the tank to 40. Seems like that would be 2 mistakes: assuming it was a 40-60 pressure switch, and then setting it to 40 rather than 38 anyway?

The guys hanging around on this forum know their stuff, I have done a lot with my well system but I don’t know much. But I think that it is well systems 101 to make sure that the tank air pressure is 2 psi below the switch cut-in. That guy should give you some money back! IMHO.

Good luck!

(Oh and if that really isn’t a pressure switch then ….never mind! LOL)

 

So it worked for a day or two, then i realized the pump wasnt pulling anything through and the pressure thing is staying at 25 and just bouncing back and forth from 24-26 and not going anywhere else, what could this be? I looked it up and seen people sayin possibly a clog in the check valve but i checked it and it seems to be fine (brand new piece also same for the foot valve), any ideas?