Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any experienced water well trouble shooters here?

I THINK I know what is wrong, but my signature line is appropriate here.

I live in the country on a private 4" well. While doing a load of laundry the washer (2 years old and too dad-burned costly) just.......stopped. Light's blinking. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Scratching my head a bit and looking for the manual on it I thought I might as well make some coffee..........this was gonna take a bit, I just know it.

No water. Rut Roh.

Not knowing what was what I checked the breaker for the well. Nope. Not tripped and resetting it did zip.
Wondering if the well pump was miscomboobulating I shut the breaker OFF.........JIC.

Wondering if the breaker was bad, I called a local young fella to see if he could double check and make sure current was going through it. He had moved.............to Wyoming. Arghhh.

Always knowing what to do in a crisis, I went to town and bought coffee, lol (and 10 gallons of water)

Coming home I thought I'd give it the old non-college try and flipped the breaker back on..........my overhead light flickered just a bit. After waiting a few minutes I checked........yep, I had water. Good pressure too. (huh)

The next day (after flushing the stool multiple times, making coffee etc).........dang.......NO WATER! Off went the breaker for another wait just to test THAT out again. An hour later.........water, but not good pressure. Half or so.

So, the current process is use what water I require, wait 5 minutes or so, and shut the breaker off again. I left it off all night and when on I about blew the glass out of my hand turning on the faucet (I took off the aerator).

MY thinking is, considering I'm on the high side of the property and all the grass and soil around the house is dryer than a pop-corn fart.......I think my well is "drying up" or just flat isn't deep enough. Not sure if it makes SENSE but I'm wondering if the "off" time doesn't allow for water to seep into whatever pocket the pump is in..........or what, but it's working. This is NOT however, how I'd prefer to get water. LOL

Nope, no dirt or excess crap in my filter on the softener either. I checked. All seems to be status quo.........except I run out of water.
No spitting and sputtering. Good clear water.........I'm stymied.

Thoughts? Experiences? Something I'm missing?

All insights, experiences, suggested things to check out........are appreciated.

I'M POOR..........calling a "well guy" .......is LAST resort.

God Bless
Steve

You probably need a new pressure control switch.

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...664954604705&utm_content=Catch%20All

Check the air pressure in your pressure tank while you are at it.

It should be somewhere around 28PSI.

I had thoughts about the pressure tank............that I have NO idea where the rip it is.

Crawlspace and NO WHERE CLOSE to an opening I COULD squeeze though.....without a winch to drag me back out.

Breaker box is on the West side of the house. Well is on the East side of the house. I'm assuming, since ALL water use is on the well side of the house, the tank is too............and that's also on the opposite side from the crawl space opening.

Thanks gang
God bless

What probably happened is the the pressure tank has leaked down and you are just running off the pump. After time the constant on/off wears out the pressure switch. It’s also hard on the pump. The same thing happened to my cousin. I replaced the switch and pressure tank and all is fine now. Good luck, Dave Ps any leaks will magnify the problem.

I don't know much about it, but my brother in-law had a problem with his breaker popping off. He pulled the pump, all 350 feet of it. It turned out that when the pump kicked on and off, it would torque back and forth. The power wire was rubbing on some stone or the casing and rubbed a hole in the wire and shorted it out.

Did you check your pressure tank? Sometimes the bladder will get water logged. But usually when that happens, the pump kicks on every time you use water. Check the pressure with a tire gauge. You can pump it back up with air. Turn the pump off, open a faucet and pump it up to the recommended pressure.

I had a house that only had a well that was 75 feet deep. If we ran too much water it would start pulling a lot of mud before it went dry. It never blew the breaker, it just didn't have any water to pump. Not sure how deep yours is though.

If it were me, I'd bite the bullet and call a well pump guy. Sorry I couldn't help.

How long is a well rope? ( Old timers will understand the question)

Sounds like your well pump is running out of water..Maybe the water table is dropping in your area.Or your well has low permeability and the water can't flow into the well bore as fast as you are pumping it out. When a well pump loses water to pump the amperage will drop off.

It could also bve that your breaker box is no good, we had similar problems with different appliaces and the internals of our breaker box (I forget the name of the part) was fried, with bad conections.

You might be right about the well running out of water, but the first thing you need to do is locate the pressure tank and pressure switch. Also the type of pump, submersible or jet. The pressure tank and plumbing would have to be somewhere that would be protected from freezing. Doubtful that it would be in a crawl space. You should be able trace back along your pipes.


Jerry

Your pressure tank may be buried close to the well. I've seen that.

I know you are hesitant to call a water well guy. But that may indeed be the cheapest thing you can do. He'll be able to tell which link of the chain is broken pretty quick.

You should also have a disconnect, along with the breaker. The tank, pressure switch and disconnect will be close together. Do you have a well pit? It's all in it, if so.....

So far..........going with the pressure switch.
Oldest son coming out.......whenever to get down and take a look.

The tank holds pressure fine. Once I wait five minutes or less after using water and closing the breaker, I have water to flush, make coffee, wash my hands even 12 hours later.

Breaker is on the main panel. All other circuits are functioning as expected.

Might swap out a breaker too.

I can guarantee you.........the tank is under the house. . All lines had been replaced with the new kind (red and blue) .......no tank found. I've looked in every cubbyhole. ALL the water lines run under the house, room to room, not in the walls.

I'm betting its about 8 feet inside the crawl space opening (it had to go IN somewhere) but..........facing both knees being replaced here soon (trying to drag it out till after season) so I'M not kneeling down there to look. Yeah........they are "less than 100 percent" LOL.

Thanks guys. Something to check out. Hoping its the switch. The other would be............yeah, let's not think about that.

God Bless

Are you running out of water after using less than your storage tank holds? If so, your tank has an issue. If more, then it could be the pump, or well production rate. I’ve installed many systems, but it’s been quite a few years.

I have an OLD well pit..........the opposite side from the new well. Pump there is disconnected. Have to open it to see if they reused the old tank but dang Thats 35 feet from the well in use on the opposite side of the house. Seems a bit of a stretch but we will look

God Bless.

My son, hopefully, will be out tonight. Anything found will be added.
Many thanks

What Jerry says, however around here they do live in crawl spaces.

It "could" be lots of things.

If you live in a sandy area, your well may have "sanded in", and clogged the intake at the pump to the point water flow is restricted, thus the wait time to gain water pressure.

It could be the pump is going out too.

Hopefully not either, or the water table.

Good luck.

My pressure tank is inside my shop, about 50' from the well itself. The pressure tank can literally be anywhere. Distance is only limited to how far your well pump can pump water to your pressure tank.

I’m not a water well guy, but don’t you have to drain the tank every now and then or it gets water logged. Isn’t it supposed to have an air cushion at the top. If this is a stupid question, I apologize.

Pump starter or pressure switch, just assuming due to the related electrical oddities you mention. If all else fails get a good electrician out there first, they can be less expensive than calling the well drilling guy.