well water pressure drops to trickle when 2nd facet opened


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Old 02-12-14, 07:55 AM
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well water pressure drops to trickle when 2nd facet opened

I'm on well water & my pump is 13 years old at about 250 feet
I have high iron content so the town required a water softener & neutralizer
In the past we could have 2 or 3 showers running or a shower and a facet and not notice a significant drop in pressure. Recently the pressure dropped so much that if we were in the shower and turned on a facet the shower would slow to a trickle.
I went to check on the gauge and switch and replaced the pressure gauge since it rusted out & replaced the pressure switch and cleaned out the little switch connector pipe (full of red sediment). It seemed to help a little but not much. I have a 40/60 switch and seems to work fine. My well pump is not cycling - only turns on when it hits 40

What now? Why the drop in pressure - clogged pipes, clogged well pump, clogged softener & neutralizer?
 
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Old 02-12-14, 09:13 AM
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"clogged pipes, clogged well pump, clogged softener & neutralizer?"

Or all of the above. And maybe even clogged aerators on the faucets.

Work from one end, I suggest the tank, and when the pressure is down, that's where the clog is. You should have a valve and maybe a spigot after the tank, but before the softener. And then one after the softner, etc.

You may have to buy and install spigots, but if it is PVC pipe, that won't be hard to work with. You need them to clean out the system anyway.
 
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Old 02-12-14, 09:25 AM
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Does the house have a water filter to filter the water going to the house. Obviously my next question, if the answer is yes, is when was the last time it was changed.
 
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Old 02-12-14, 11:35 AM
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nope, we do not have a water filter to filter the water going to the house.
 
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Old 02-12-14, 11:39 AM
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Nope the aerators on the faucets are not clogged.
I was at the tank when I changed the pressure gauge & switch. I could see in the pips and they didn't seem to have gunk in them. There is a valve and a spigot after the tank. There is a bypass for the softener but not valve and spigot.

Should I run the water at the spigot?
 
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Old 02-12-14, 04:25 PM
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have you checked your pressure tank air pre - charge
 
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Old 02-12-14, 04:36 PM
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Also put all the filters on bypass temporally to see if the pressure increases... Possibly the media is clogged up...
 
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Old 02-12-14, 04:48 PM
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if you well has not been svcd in a while, a couple of things could be happening, well pipe plugged with rust, the red rust you seen at the pressure gauge is what they call living rust, treat well with clorine to kill rust, run water through system until you smell bleach, out side faucet 1st, you might also see black water and will cover the clorine smell might have to do a couple times until you can smell the bleach, don't uses excesse bleach if you haveent treated you well in a while otherwise you will plug the pump, then you have to pull the pump,But put filter/ sofener in bypass, also could have a hole in well pipe, if you took the well top off and listened down the well, you'll hear water running and you should not hear water, some wells have a double check valve and so the pressure tank does not loose pressure,
(happened to me)
 
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Old 02-13-14, 05:17 AM
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@Lawrosa - you win!! I hit the bypass valve and tested and yep, had pressure - like before. Thank you.
 
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Old 02-13-14, 05:36 AM
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Cool... Now you can try to treat with iron out and regenerate..

You may need to look into getting an iron filter.. And some type of sediment filter too....
 
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Old 02-13-14, 06:10 AM
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I thought he said that he didn't have any house filters in the house.
 
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Old 02-13-14, 08:34 AM
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I thought he said that he didn't have any house filters in the house.




I have high iron content so the town required a water softener & neutralizer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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Old 02-13-14, 09:52 AM
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The problem was the purge line froze so the system couldn't regenerate.
1. Took a blow dryer to the line
2. used a compressor to blow out the line.
3. Did a manual backwash for 15 min

Pressure back to normal.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
 

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