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We are relatively new to NC and I wasn't sure if all plumbers are trained and experienced in well troubleshooting and repair. We are on a well and over the last week we've started having problems with our water pressure. When you take a shower, you get about halfway through and the water goes completely off. Then after a few minutes it will come back on and run for a while, then go off again. With all the rain we've just had, I assume its not a lack of water, but rather a problem with the system. I did replace the whole house filter, as I was sure that was the cause, but its still doing it.
I'm not sure if people can recommend a plumber here... if so, I'd love to find one that is especially good with well troubleshooting as I'd imagine there could be some expensive components in this that an ill prepared plumber may have me pay for that don't fix the problem.
Any licensed plumber would be able to diagnose the problem. I'm not a plumber but, it sounds as if your well may be running dry - rainfall doesn't have an immediate effect on a well's quantity of water. A larger capacity pressure tank may be a short term solution.
We experienced a problem like that and here is what was found.
1. The deep well on our property only has a capacity of 20 minutes of full water pressure before it runts out. (Shower fast and hold off on the clothes washing please!)
2. The pressure tank had an internal leak which caused low water pressure and fluctuating water pressure.
Solution: Had the pressure tank replaced. ($250.00) And manage our showers and water use accordingly or to the minute maybe better stated.
More expensive solution: Add an above ground water storage tank or drill a new well and that is just to deep a subject to explore for us! (Unless hit the NC Lottery....$1 and a new Well for poppa?)
This was our first house on a private well so we had to learn the hard way, waterless a few times, before we figured it out.
Another warm piece of advise: Make sure your well head pipes are well insulated. Last year ours froze solid and we could not get a plumber as they were all busy checking other well owners frozen pipes. So yours truly learned more about wells and frozen pipes than a Polar Bear on an iceberg!
Good luck with your lack of water and welcome to the world of well water!
Thanks... that does give me some things to think about. We are learning to use the water in stages... 1. Get wet and then turn off the water. 2. Soap and scrub. 3. Turn water back on to rinse. Of course that doesn't work the greatest with the washing machine and dishwasher.
I don't think our well is going dry because I've not heard of any problems around our neighborhood, and water has been pretty plentiful in the past, but you never know I guess. One potential problem is that I don't think our pipes coming out of the well are insulated at all. They are just under a concrete cover, so that may be a problem since this started happening when it got cold. Perhaps something froze and broke.
toot68, I will send you a note about your recommended well servicer.
We had a problem with our water shutting off like that. We would wait a little while, then use the pressure switch to get the pressure back on.
A plumber came and replaced the pressure switch. I think he said the switch had been set wrong so that our pressure was too low, and when it got to a certain point it would just drop.
This is our first well, too, and we know the water is low (not a deep well), so we were quite relieved it was so simple and cheap.
sounds like great advice to start with (take a look at) the pressure tank. We just had our system evaluated and were told that a bad tank will probably cause the symptoms you described...
I agree. Sounds like a leaky bladder inside the pressure tank.
The pressure tank holds ~10 gal. of water. It tells the well pump when to turn on and off. Depending on the pressure switch setting (usually 40psi on/60psi off). The bladder puts pressure on the water inside the tank (the bladder usually has a pressure 2psi below the tank's "on" setting so in the usual case the bladder would have 38psi of air.). If the bladder loses it's pressure the pressure switch won't turn the pump on until the tank is completely empty.
This should explain why you loose water pressure when you shower. Most likely you have a "water saver" shower head which flows 2.5gpm. You are probably losing water after about 4 minutes. It's an easy fix if you know how to use a pair of slip-joint (commonly known as Channel Locks) pliers and a bicycle air pump.
Well we got things fixed with some great service from a local plumber (private message me if you want the name). They started under the house and found that the pump was cycling on but taking forever to fill the tank. They then went out to the well to check the pressure there, which was no small feat because the well is actually in the middle of a huge overgrown shrub (my bad). Once he pulled the cover off he found that a fitting there was leaking pretty badly. Upon replacing the fitting, the situation improved, but still not good. He was only getting about 20 pounds of pressure there and his thought was that the pump was shot from running all the time due to the leak. This is where a dishonest plumber could have taken me to the cleaners, but that didn't happen. It turns out that he found that water had been spraying on the non-water proof wiring box. He opened it up and it was all muddy and such in there, but more importantly one of the 3 wires for 240 had broken and was making intermittent contact... arcing. So basically the 240 pump was running on 120 much of the time... not to mention the potential shock hazard that was going on there. He repaired the wires and we were back in business. Now we can take full showers again and I didn't get hit with the bill for a new pump just yet... although I'm sure wasn't good for it to have the leak and wiring problem.
Thanks for all the good recommendations that I received. This is a great forum.
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