I was hoping someone could help me out. I am having an issue where my water pressure quickly drops to zero under heavier use. The problem started shortly after I changed the whole house filter and my thought is I trapped air in the pressure tank. The issue has been sporadic for the past 3 months when I changed the filter, but now getting into summer it is becoming more problematic. We normally have our water pressure set fairly high with the pump kicking on at about 43# and shutting off at about 65#. I depressurized the system and the pressure tank has about 40# of air in it.

Under normal use, the pressure is maintained correctly, but if the hose is running and someone turns on the water there are times that the pressure will almost instantly drop from the low 40’s to zero pounds. At that point it looks like it is trying to supply the hose directly out of the pump. If I leave the water draw high it will bounce up and down at minimal pressure and then ultimately jump back up into the normal operating range.

I changed the filter again today which is when I re-checked all my pressures. I purged the air out of the filter before restarting the pump, but the problem remains. My normal method of changing the filter is to shut off the valve between the pressure tank and the house, turn off the pump, and then drain the pressure tank to keep from making a mess when I open up the filter cartridge.

Prior to three months ago when I changed that filter, our system appeared to be operating normally. Does anyone have any ideas of how to fix this? I recently lost my job and really can’t afford to call someone in to fix this.

Thanks in advance for the help!
Ken

 

Is your well equipped with a foot valve or back-flow preventer ?

 

Welcome to the forums.

What type of well system do you have ?
It sounds like the problem is between the pump and the well.

Could you be low on water ?

 

I don't have any sort of back pressure prevention inside the house, but I'm not sure what is at the other end.

 

That is actually what I am starting to suspect. I have been trying to figure this out all day and have some more observations. As I indicated before, the normal pressures are about 43# to 65#. What I’m seeing when I am having issues the water pressure drops to about 35# works its way slowly down to 30#, then quickly drops to 20# for about a second and then to zero. The pump sounds to be running the whole time and then I hear what sounds like bubbles rushing through the system. I think I might be drawing the water column down in the well pipe too quickly and am drawing in air.

Does this sound like what is going on?

 

Yes.

I was going to ask you about air in the system. Since you mentioned it.... it definitely sounds like your water level in the well is dropping.