i have a home with city water however we're at the end of the line and on top of a very high hill. i have installed a shallow well pump and pressure tank to boost my pressure in the house but the pump continues to cycle i believe due to the low pressure coming in. what type of back pressure valve will stop the pump from trying to bring the incoming pressure up to the 30/50 lb or the pressure desired in the home.

 

Welcome to the forums!

I also live atop a tall hill and have low water pressure. I have something similar to this https://www.lowes.com/pd/Watts-Backf...venter/3309172 but I didn't pay near that much for it although it has been about 10 yrs.

 

money doesn't seem to out of line if it will solve the problem. did you boost your pressure by using a shallow well pump? we have done this before without issues but this is the lowest incoming pressure i have seen

 

That makes no sense. Why would you add a booster pump if it didn't boost the pressure.
Only a larger pressure tank can reduce system cycling.

 

When I bought my place the previous owner had installed a bladder tank and pump but the pump had burned up from lack of water. I never replaced the pump but kept the tank until it rusted out a few yrs ago. Our water used to go out several times a week The water company up sized the water supply pipe on the main road which cut our water outages down to once or twice a month and occasionally not at all. I have recorded 50 psi spikes overnight but we average 25-30 psi and have learned to live with less pressure.

I installed a back flow valve to lower my water bill. Every time the water went out my pipes would drain causing the same water to go back and forth thru the meter making me pay for it multiple times. They say it doesn't work that way but the proof is in the pudding - the more times the water went out the higher my bill would be.

 

just an update. i purchased a check valve and installed it on my incoming line. problem solved and pressure is excellent. 30/50 pounds with no cycling problems

 

Thanks for the update, glad it worked out for you

 

Having the pump run dry is a volume problem as opposed to a pressure problem, and you are trying to jury rig around it.

In order for your pump to maintain a pressurized environment downstream (your house plumbing with pressure tank) it has to proactively suck from the water system (upstream). Continuously sucking will cause the upstream pressure to drop even more, possibly to zero which means zero flow.

To maintain pressure in your house you need to set up a buffering system, namely a two stage pump system of the same kind used with a low yielding well. You let city pressure fill a (non-pressurized) cistern at its leisure as stage 1 with a float valve similar to a toilet tank fill valve to stop the flow when the cistern is full. Your single pump draws from the cistern to use the downstream pressure tank as stage 2. Another float, in the bottom of the cistern, kills the pump power if the water level gets too low.

You still need the check valve in the city water line, whose purpose is to prevent the water from draining back should "the water system go out" The check valve's purpose is to prevent the water (and any air sucked back) from re-registering in the water meter when pressure however low resumes.