Last week I posted in the wrong forum and got no help. Forgot about this one. My error!!! Anyway I had 70lbs of water pressure and as low as 10lbs of pressure in my home. In ground well system. I did not know what the problem was. Was it the pressure switch or something with the pressure tank? I turned it off and checked the air pressure in the tank and it was good. I then replaced the pressure switch and all was good again. It's back to 30-50lbs.

What crazy pressure. I was watering my lawn and the water was going almost 100ft. That was when I noticed the problem. Wish I could have it that way all the time. LoL

Just very sorry I forgot about this forum as I'm sure I would have gotten the help I needed.

Thanks for listening and I will Bookmark this forum for the future.

Rick

 

Hi Rick,

No, this isn't really the correct forum for questions about water wells either... we're all about water and steam based heating systems.

I don't know where you posted before, but I'm moving you to the water well forum...

 

Thanks for moving to the correct forum...

 

The same rules apply to charging a well tank as do a boiler tank (presuming that you have a bladder type tank on your well and not one of the large tanks with a 'snifter valve' on it).

You MUST depressurize the water system before checking the tank pressure. If you don't, you will not get an accurate read of the tank's air charge.

Also, you probably know that the pressure tank should be set a few PSI BELOW the 'cut in' pressure of the switch. You do NOT want the tank to completely drain before the pump kicks on. Setting the tank pressure a few PSI below the cut-in of the pump will assure that there is always a residual of water in the tank when the pump comes on.

If the tank is above the pressure of the cut-in, the tank will drain completely and you will have an abrupt pressure spike occur in the split second between the tank draining and the pump coming on. Pressure spikes are not good!

The same rule also applies that you should check the tank at least bi-annually.

Even if you do so, the tank could still have issue with torn membrane.

Sounds as if you did in fact have a bad pressure switch.

Those switches CAN be adjusted to higher pressure by the way... but some well pumps, especially if they are 'aging', can't reach the higher pressure being called for. Sounds like yours can though...

 

How can I increase the water pressure? The switch has 2 nuts on mine.

 

It's been a while since I fooled with those switches, so can't tell you which is which, but can say that one is the high pressure and the other is the 'differential'.

I don't think I would try to get 70 PSI out of it, but 40-60 should be do-able.

What is the make/model of the pressure switch?

You got a new switch, didn't it come with adjustment instructions?

 

If you recently installed the pressure switch do you still have the paperwork that came with it? Some switches can be adjusted and some cannot. Keep in mind you still have not told us what switch you have but if yours is adjustable one nut adjusts both the cut in and off pressures while the other adjusts the cut off pressure only.

 

I have to lower the quality of my pics to post here. This is one that looks exactly like mine.

 

To increase the cut-off and cut-on pressure, turn large center nut clockwise. The rate of increase is 2-1/2 PSI for every complete turn of the nut. Do not adjust the little nut as that is the differential. The above adjustments maintain a 20 PSI differential between cut-on and cut-off pressures, which is best for pressure tank performance. Very few applications will need to adjust the little nut.


(To raise only the cut-off pressure , turn small nut clockwise.)
.
NOTICE: The switch should never be adjusted to cut-on below 20 PSI, or cut-off above 60 PSI.

 

Make sure you turn off the circuit before trying to adjust. Those contacts right next to the adjustments are hot 240 and can ruin a wrench and scare the begezzes out of you if you bump into them.

 

You should see my screw driver that I used to manually turn on the switch to make it work for my wife to shower. It got stuck on the switch for second. I got too close to the metal part on it. It was too late to get to a store and she needed that shower...

 

Rick, now yer scarin' me! and I don't scare easy!

Be safe!

 

After that stupid move I was VERY careful.

 

Nothing like that bright blue flash, loud "pop", shower of sparks and the smell of ozone and burnt metal.

 

You've been there haven't you...

 

And I've got the burned pock mark in my wrench to prove it.

 

The spread between pump start pressure and pump stop pressure is a compromise taking into account perceived uniformity in pressure while you are taking a shower versus pressure tank size versus how often the pump has to cycle on.

Usually a 40-60 PSI or 35-50 PSI pair of settings is used. Most pumps cannot handle 70 PSI. This typically results in the pressure tank being nearly empty up to 1/3 full.

More water will go into the pressure tank (and the pump will cycle less often all other things being equal) if you use pressures such as 20-50 or 20-60 but you will feel the water getting sluggish.

If your irrigation system needs more pressure you may need to use pressures such as 50-60 but the pump will cycle quite often and relatively little water will go into the pressure tank during each cycle. Installing a second pressure tank will lengthen the pump cycle again.

If you really want to store water then you may install additional tanks. Each must be pressurized in the same manner as the "main" pressure tank. If the air cushion is too small then much of the water will not come out of the "storage" tank.