I have a 35ft deep well and 1 hp well pump above ground. This morning we had no water and the pump was not running. We replaced everything few months ago from the foot valve, the pipe to the pump itself. The pump won't build pressure after we prime it. We shut off the valve going to our tank and the pump sometimes will build pressure up to 10 psi but not every time. The tank has pressure and the pump reservoir is filled or primed before we turn it on and it still won't build pressure. We open the reservoir up air comes out in we do it all over again. We checked the new line no holes and theres a new foot valve. So why are we not getting water? I hope you can help we are open to any suggestions, thank you.

 

Can you shoot a pic or two of your system and post them for us ?

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html

 

35ft. is quite shallow and sounds like an old dug well. It's possible there is no water in the well.

I am concerned why the pump was not running. Why was it not running? What did you do to get it running and attempt priming?

 

This is a old dug well its just a reservoir well and I will post pics here in a min. The pump is cutting on when we flip the breaker however it will not build pressure. Its like its not getting water from the well however my husband says there is water in the well and when he lowers the foot valve back down the well it is going into the water. He worked on it this morning and still can't get the pump to build pressure.

 

It sounds like you have an air leak between pump and the foot valve.

Can you break the line where it goes to the foot valve and see if that section holds water ?
You'd need to pour water down the pipe to see if you can fill it.

 

It's possible that it is losing prime. This can happen from a leak of some sort or also if air pockets get trapped in the line when you prime it. When you fill up the pump, give it 10 minutes or so and see if the water level reduces some more, before you put the plug back on the pump. The even better approach to priming a pump and line is if you have water in your pressure tank to release back into the pump and line under pressure. Air pockets get eliminated pretty quickly by pressurized water but can take a little while with water just poured into the pump. As that air pocket moves up toward the pump it creates a loss of prime and you are back to where you are now. No prime.

The other way to prime a pump with pressure is if you have a friendly neighbour close by. If you hook up their outside hose to your outside hose tap (will need a female to female hose connector for this) and turn on their water. Their water pressure should zap any air pockets fairly quickly. Again, give it a few minutes to deal with the air pockets and then shut off the hose tap and start your pump. If it was just an air pocket, your problem should be resolved.

 

 

The set up looks fine to me.

Maybe you could let us know what was happening before you lost prime. Obviously at some point you must have shut off the pump. What was happening that made you do that?

 

Ok my husband worked on the line to the well and turns out it had an air pocket. Once he got the air out of the line it worked and the pump begin to build pressure. It is working for now but my questions is why would our line get air in it or better how did it? We made sure the fittings are tight and we used teflon tape were needed. Also, we are new at having a well we don't understand much but we are learning and I would like to say thank you for all of your help.

Thanks!

 

We have lost pressure again, pump wants to build pressure but cant. How and why would we be losing pressure? If we go throughout the day not using the pump it loses pressure.

 

we think it was air in the line, we got it working this morning then about 20 mins ago it quit working after priming it again with a couple gals of water its back working again. We made sure all our seals are tight but we can't figure out why or how we are getting air in the line. If its not that we don't know why its doing it. My husband said that this morning what he did was fill the reservoir on the pump up and then he would turn it on go outside where he dug the line up and tapped on the line said not long after the pump started to build pressure to 50 psi. But we left when I got home around 4pm and didn't use the well again until tonight around 11pm thats when it started doing the same thing it did a few days ago. My husband wants to know us not using the well for so long has something to do with it getting air in the line? Hope you can help. Thanks!

 

You've got a two pipe jet system. Usually the second line will help it prime quicker.

After you get it to build up pressure and the pump shuts off...... does the system pressure (gauge) immediately start dropping ?

 

When you say you didn't use the well again for so many hours, was the pump turned on or was it off? PJ's question is very important here, does the line lose pressure when you are NOT using any water in the house or does the pressure hold. When I say hold, does it hold for 15 to 30 minutes without using water?

My other question is probably important. What was happening before that made you shut off the pump and of course lose prime.

 

The questions above are very important. I suspect you have a leak and you are also creating air pockets when you re-prime. Just so you understand where the air comes from. If you lost the water in your pump you also probably lost a lot of water in your line. If you have no water in the line, as soon as you open the pump to re-prime, that entire line is going to fill with air. Since you have a foot valve at the other end, ensuring no water or air gets pushed out the well side, the only place for the air to escape is out the pump priming holes. Since you are filling them with water, the air can easily get trapped. Since you have water in the pump, after priming, the pump works until that big air pocket shows up in the pump and presto, no more water and with the impellers turning in the pump, you might see 10 psi or so on the gauges. Don't matter. You are not going to get water this way since the prime is gone.

What you will need to do if you are priming the entire line is to add water and wait 15 minutes or so and verify that the water level in the pump does not change. If it lowers over that time, that is some of the air escaping up through the line. Just add some more water and do it again. As I said before, getting rid of air pockets is best done with pressure. I usually recommend one puts a shut off valve just before their pressure tanks. If you leave the house and shut off the pump you should also shut off the pressure tank. Not only does this prevent water from gushing out into your house if you spring a leak, since you have no pressure by shutting off the tank, but in this case all you would need to do is open up that valve and the water in your pressure tank would re-prime your pump with all the pressure required to blast those air pockets into insignificant bubbles. Kind of like soda water.

The other way that works great, if you currently do not have any water in your pressure tank and/or didn't install a shut off valve there, is to hook up a neighbours garden hose to your outside tap for your garden hose. Open up there pressurized water and let it prime your system. Give this 15 minutes to blast all those air pockets into soda water and turn off their water and turn on yours. Done. Doesn't get easier then that, but you do need a friendly neighbour, close by and a female to female garden hose connector.

 

Thank you we will try this, to answer the questions it use to have two lines now it is only one line, when we didn't use the water for a few hrs the pump had power we never turn it off unless we are getting no water to keep the pump from burning up, what has been happening is if we use no water for a few hrs we turn on our sink and water comes then a gust of air and then no water. And to answer the last question when the pump builds pressure it shuts off and holds its pressure. I think after talking to you all it is air in the line which means we have a leak somewhere, my husband looked at the line today and could not find a leak but as of right now the pump is holding pressure. Is there any other advise you all can give me? The more we learn the better we will be able to understand and fix our problem. Thank you all for your help. Oh also we have been leaving the sink dripping since yesterday so the we can try an avoid air getting in the line, this causes the pump to kick on every few hrs.

 

Now that I look closer at your pictures I see that you do only have one pipe connected to your well. I think your switching to a single pipe system is the problem. That type system is only intended for very shallow wells. Water can only be sucked uphill about 26 feet and that is the point where it stops working. As the water depth increases the pump can provide less and less flow. With your 35ft. deep well you should have stuck with the two pipe system which can pump water from a greater depth.