well water

[Boss Hog]

Anyone know what the air pressure is supposed to be?
It is a maroon tank from Menard's don't remember the brand
or required pressure. I'm at work, can get the brand tonite if necessary.
It's the cold water so the heater is not compounding the problem if it's trapped air.

About 35 lbs of air in the tank
David

[Lyle7289]

Pump in the well sucking air?

My thought too...

I know this post is old but I thought I would add my thoughts....
There has to be air getting in somewhere. Even with the pressure in the bladder at nothing the system should not spit at you. If your air pressure is low in the bladder the pump will kick on seconds after turning on the water in the house.

There are several causes to your system spitting. Intermittent "spitting" rules out several things such as a crack in the poly hose, air leak in your system, etc. The reason I say this is that if you had a small air leak, it would spit regularly (depending on frequent use). If it sat for a long while, and the air leak was past the check valve, you would lose prime.

My best guess without looking at your well and pump would be that there is air at your well point depending on the depth of you well and the age. How old is your well? Water levels change drastically and it sounds as if you are sucking small amount of air from time to time.

Just my 2 cents.
Lyle

[Clem]

Do you have a filter system? Filter needs changing or filter that you just replaced is the wrong one and is restricting the flow of water.

[flyawa]

We lived for a time at a place that had some dissolved methane and sulphur gas in the water. After sitting in the system for some time it would spit gas when the tap was turned on. The water was filtered and tasted and smelled OK. Apparently the gas came out of solution and came to the top of the system.

Don't know if the pressure tank issue took care of your problem. We put a "T" in the line with about a 2 foot vertical pipe and schrader valve to occasionally vent the gas and that took care of it.

[Merlin]

Sounds like a air intake leak before it reaches the pump. Drain the tank, put 20 lbs of air in the bladder. Go inside and turn on all the highest faucets, like shower, sinks etc.. If you have a pump that needs priming (mine don't, I have a flow well) turn the pump on, prime it until the water squirts everywhere and put the plug back in good and tight. Go inside and wait until all the faucets stop spitting air, turn off the lowest ones first until they are all off. If it still spits air, you have a leak "before" the water reaches the pump, of a busted bladder. As a point of information, I have a 5 gallon tank that takes care of all my water needs. As stated before though, I have a flow well that runs through my pump continuously unless I turn it off to service the pump.

[LiL' Red]

I was in error in my first post,just found the book for my air tank [Well Trol ] directions say to pressurize the tank to within 2 pounds of you cut-in pressure setting. So, if your cut in is 20 lbs, the air pressure should be 18. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

[Bigschuss]

anchova,

Not sure if you're still in need of a solution, but I just found this thread and completely agree that it sounds like air is getting into your line after the pump but before the tank. I just had this same problem with the same symptoms.

I had to pull the pump. We found that there were 2 different plastic connectors that were used. One connected the pump to the black plastic line. The other connected the black plastic line to a type of valve near the very top that is used to lower the water level in cold climates to reduce freezing.

Both of these were cracked. I replaced these, put the pump and line back in, and it solved the problem.

Best,
Blair

[KETCHAM]

I guess I'm lucky.I bought my house without testing the well.I do know a little about well water.The house did not have a filter of any kind or a softener.The water is soft enough,no need.I did put a filter [whole house]in the system.I clorinaded[?] the well a couple of weeks ago.5 to 1 is the ratio.IE 1 gallon of bleach,5 gallons of water.Took a 5 weeks and 2 filters.The water is real good now.I'm not cleaning the toliet hardly at all.Would rust stain in 3 days before.I hope this helps somebody out.Kevin

[schmibm]

I don't think the chlorine did anything to keep the rust out of the toilet. The filter must be doing that. Iron in the water will cause this. A water softener is the treatment unless it is real bad.

What you did with the chlorine was kill the bacteria in the system. Should be done every so often with a well.

[George Willer]

I don't think the chlorine did anything to keep the rust out of the toilet. The filter must be doing that. Iron in the water will cause this. A water softener is the treatment unless it is real bad.

What you did with the chlorine was kill the bacteria in the system. Should be done every so often with a well.

Chlorine is definitely a cure, or at least a help for rust in the toilet. It is even part of an advanced iron mitigating system to precipitate it out to be removed by a potassium permanganate filter. Chlorinating the well with chlorine bleach definitely helps eliminate rust stains.

Iron that has precipitated out of solution is harmful to the softener and should be avoided if possible. It coats the Zeolite and hinders the ion exchange. As I recall the upper limit for iron a softener can safely handle is one PPM.

You're on the right track, Kevin.

[schmibm]

Wow, I learned something today. Thanks George. Maybe I had best be chlorinating my well soon too.