Any well experts here?

[Matt Meiser]

I've got what at least for now is a minor issue with my well in that we are getting a little air out of the faucets. We get maybe a 1/2 second spit. I can hear air in the piping around the pressure thank when the pump (submersible) runs, including that I can hear bubbling that sounds like its coming from the line that comes in from the pump. Once the pump runs a little the air sound goes away. I'm pretty sure that means the pump isn't sucking air due to low water level. I can run a spigot that's right off a 3/4" line right by the tank for a few minutes and don't get starts/stops or anything like that. And in fact, it seems like it actually does it more the longer we go with no water use. I'm assuming air is somehow getting sucked into the system from somewhere.

Quick Internet research leads me to
a) issue with the pressure tank--air from the tank getting into the piping. But could that get into the piping that goes out to the pump? Or could that sound just be getting transmitted into that pipe?
b) a leak in the piping to the pump
c) a leak in the check valve at the pump
d) low water level, but I think the air should get worse the longer the pump runs in that case.

A I could easily fix myself if I can figure out how to diagnose it. I hate to replace the tank on a whim though. From the outside it appears to be in good condition. B and C I'd probably have to have someone out and it sounds like we'd have to dig down to the "pitless adapter" whatever that is so hopefully it could wait til spring. Having a well guy out can't be cheap.

Everything is 20 years old or newer since that's when the house was built. The tank is a typical bladder-style tank. At the tank there is what appears to be just a T with one leg going to the pump, one to the tank, and one to the rest of the house. Plumbing from the tank through the basement wall is a black plastic pipe and the fittings are plastic. I have no idea what is outside though.

Any suggestions?

[Joel Goodman]

Not an expert but I have had issues with the bladder tank on a submersible system -- didn't get the same issue as you however. I wonder if there's an easy way to test the that the bladder is intact? I am interested in hearing what the experts say!

[Dan Friedrichs]

Does the bladder have a schrader valve to add air? You could hold it open, and see if any water comes out (then fill back up with air again if it doesn't).

[Matt Meiser]

Yes but I know there is a specific way to do so and doing it wrong can overpressurize the tank when full.

[Mark Bolton]

Sounds to me like the check valve in the pump might be leaking by down in the well. This would allow water in the line to drain back to the well slightly. There is no need to dig down to the pitless adapter. The pitless is simply a way to break the line where it penetrates the well casing. You need a piece of 1" pipe with a threaded end and usually has a T handle on the end but a piece of pipe with a couple pairs of vise grips would suffice. You thread the pipe into the top of the pitless adapter (you will see it down in the casing when you remove the cap) and the pipe is basically just a handle to break the connection right there. It is a wedge fit joint with an oring. At that point you just hoist using the suspension rope.

The pitless could a a place where it sucks some air IF the check valve is infact leaking by. You may want to remove the well cap and listen for trickling water but a small hole in the line that is just weeping may not make much noise. If there IS a hole in the line down in the well you should be able to hear it spraying after the pump cycles.

Does your pressure drop over time?

Mark

[Jerry Bruette]

If your check valve was leaking then your tank would lose pressure and your pump would kick in while you're not using water in the house. If your bladder is leaking then you get water on the air side of the bladder. You should be able to check this by using the shrader valve. Once you get too much water on the air side of the bladder your system will short cycle when you use water in your house..it'll kick on and off rapidly while using water.

Your bladder tank should be charged with 2# of air less than your cut in switch. Cut in at 30psi bladder charged to 28psi. Of course you have to charge the tank when there is no water in it. Just turn off your pump, drain it out then recharge.

Jerry

[Larry Frank]

In my experience with my own well, a problem with the bladder usually causes a lot of cycling of the pump. This happens when there is not sufficient air in the bladder. You should be able to look up the directions to properly check and adjust the air pressure in the tank. If done wrong, it can damage the bladder.

I think that the comment about the check valve is a good suggestion.

[Bruce King]

This should help figure it out.........

http://www.inspectapedia.com/water/Air_Discharge.htm

[Mark Bolton]

If your check valve was leaking then your tank would lose pressure and your pump would kick in while you're not using water in the house.
Jerry

Spot on,... flaked that the pressure switch would have long since kicked or tripped needing to be reset if it's a lever style. Hopefully it's not a drop in water level or failing pump.

Mark

[Scott T Smith]

This should help figure it out.........

http://www.inspectapedia.com/water/Air_Discharge.htm

That's a great link!

[Lee Schierer]

Matt, it may not be air. It is possible that it is gas. Capture some in a small jar or bottle and see if it burns.

[Matt Meiser]

Right now there's so little it would be impossible to catch because the purge is so short. Another oddity is that its only (from what I can tell) coming out of the bathroom faucets. Never notice it in the shower or kitchen faucet, never hear it in the toilets.

The t-fitting where the house plumbing, tank and line from the well come together appears to be purpose-made for a well. Its a brass fitting and has two ports for the pressure switch and a pressure gauge as well as one for a spigot for draining the system in addition to the main 3 legs. It doesn't look big enough to have an check valve in it. There's definitely not a check valve between there and where the lines go out of the basement wall. So it makes sense that if the foot valve was leaking that it should pull water from the tank. Unless there's a check valve somewhere outside.

I'm inclined to believe its not running out of water. I'd think that the more it runs the more air we'd get and the opposite is true, but we did have a really, really dry late summer and fall. I wouldn't be suprised to learn we are getting some kind of gas coming out of suspension in the water. Sulfur is common around here and I've heard of people getting sulfur gas but we don't have the associated smell so maybe not that.

Sounds like the next step should be to pull the cap off the well and give a look/listen while the pump runs. After that, the next step will probably be wait and see if there are any changes unless I see/hear something obvious.

[Lee Schierer]

Another possability is that when the pump runs during heavy demand that you are drawing your well down below some point of water entry and the water is splashing into the water below creating bubbles. These small bubbles could be getting sucked through the pump and they come out of suspension and accumulate in high places in the water line. One of which would be your pressure tank. Since the toilet runs more frequently than any other water source in your house it probably doesn't get a chance to accumulate any air.

If you have bladder type pressure tank. Turn off power to your pump and your hot water heater. Drain the house water system down until the water quits running out of the faucet or valve. You may get a significant amount of air out of your pressure tank at the tail end of it discharging. Only open one valve or faucet you don't want to drain teh whole house system. Once all flow has stopped, close the valve or faucet and turn your pump back on. This should remove any air that has accumulated on teh water side of the bladder. This will not harm your pressure tank in any way, but it will force it to fully expand and push out any accumulated air (gas) inside.

[Myk Rian]

Yes but I know there is a specific way to do so and doing it wrong can overpressurize the tank when full.
Here's what I do with my submersible with bladder tank.

Unplug the pump. Open a faucet and let the pressure bleed.
Close the house valve at the tank and fill the bladder to 50-60 psi.
Open the tank valve and let it drain the pressure.
Keep doing this until there is air flowing from the tank.
Close the valve and fill the tank to 27 psi.
Plug the pump back in, and when it shuts off open the house valve.
Open a cold water valve and let it run to get any sediment out of it. If you have a filter, bypass it until the water is clear.

I do this maybe twice a year.

My tank has a hose connection at the outlet faucet. It makes it easier to connect a garden hose and run it into a drain.

[Mark Bolton]

Right now there's so little it would be impossible to catch because the purge is so short. Another oddity is that its only (from what I can tell) coming out of the bathroom faucets. Never notice it in the shower or kitchen faucet, never hear it in the toilets.

I am sure many things could affect this, how the lines are run would have a big effect on where the air accumulates.



The t-fitting where the house plumbing, tank and line from the well come together appears to be purpose-made for a well. Its a brass fitting and has two ports for the pressure switch and a pressure gauge as well as one for a spigot for draining the system in addition to the main 3 legs. It doesn't look big enough to have an check valve in it. There's definitely not a check valve between there and where the lines go out of the basement wall. So it makes sense that if the foot valve was leaking that it should pull water from the tank. Unless there's a check valve somewhere outside.

A standard "Tank Tee" likely. Has 3/4" IPS female threads, 1" Male threads, long leg on the tee to reach under the tank threads into the tank elbow. The T has two 1/8" IPS ports for the gauge and pressure switch as you mention, and two 1/2" IPS ports for a boiler drain/draw off. There is no check in there its just a wide open tee.



I'm inclined to believe its not running out of water. I'd think that the more it runs the more air we'd get and the opposite is true, but we did have a really, really dry late summer and fall. I wouldn't be suprised to learn we are getting some kind of gas coming out of suspension in the water. Sulfur is common around here and I've heard of people getting sulfur gas but we don't have the associated smell so maybe not that.

That would make sense that if you opened several faucets you would likely pump the well down over a short period of time causing more air to enter the system or even have the pump start to run dry. You havent mentioned that you have been running out of water so as you say it would seem like there may be plenty of water in the well. Generally you have a fairly large column of water above the pump in reserve. Here, its common for the driller to drill 50, or 80' after they hit water to get their desired flow as well as give you a little reserve.




Sounds like the next step should be to pull the cap off the well and give a look/listen while the pump runs. After that, the next step will probably be wait and see if there are any changes unless I see/hear something obvious.

As has been stated, my mention of the check valve in the pump would require you to have lost all pressure for anything in a submersible system to pull air. This would mean you would have had to have a power outage or if you have a lever style pressure switch it would have tripped and you would have had to reset it. If the system is holding pressure any leaks which could "suck air" would only do so after the system had completely lost pressure. Unlikely as you didnt mention running out of water.

Where you havent been adding air to the tank (the only real way "you" could be introducing air into your pressurized system) it would seem you may need to look at the gas, a failing pump, or possibly the pump being very close to the top of the water column (possible but sounds unlikely).

Seems like you may be making headway at least where to start looking...


Mark

[Lee Schierer]

Here's what I do with my submersible with bladder tank.

Unplug the pump. Open a faucet and let the pressure bleed.
Close the house valve at the tank and fill the bladder to 50-60 psi.
Open the tank valve and let it drain the pressure.
Keep doing this until there is air flowing from the tank.
Close the valve and fill the tank to 27 psi.
Plug the pump back in, and when it shuts off open the house valve.
Open a cold water valve and let it run to get any sediment out of it. If you have a filter, bypass it until the water is clear.

I do this maybe twice a year.

My tank has a hose connection at the outlet faucet. It makes it easier to connect a garden hose and run it into a drain.

Note, the method above will not work with a captive air bladder type tank..........

[Bruce Koch]

Another possibility is a small hole in the pipe going from the pitless to the pump. It could of rubbed a hole in the pipe when the pump turns on and off. Their is a little torque when the pump starts and stops.

[Matt Meiser]

Its supposed to be reasonably warm tomorrow so I'm going to pull off the cap to look and listen at lunch time.

What were they usually using for the pipe from the pitless adapter to the pump in the early 90's? Is is metal? Plastic? Hose of some sort?

[Jerry Bruette]

From the pitless to the pump will be either plastic or metal. If you should decide to pull the pipe off the pitless be very careful. You don't want to drop your pump to the bottom of your well...for sure that'll be a call to a well guy.

[Matt Meiser]

I wouldn't even attempt it. If there's something going on down there, someone is getting paid.

[Mark Bolton]

All you should see when you pull the cap is the power lead, a suspension rope, and when you look down in you will see the top of the pitiless adapter which will be brass and you will see a 1" female pipe thread there to thread a handle into. I have personally never pulled a deep well pump that had metal pipe (not that your pulling it up). A hoist/winch of some sort would be a must. Most commonly nowadays it's Poly well pipe (black comes in roll) or PVC joined pipe (10' joints w/mpt one end fpt the other). In our area I haven't seen a pump installed in a long time with the PVC.

Mark

[Matt Meiser]

There's black plastic pipe like what you describe coming into the house so that's probably what's down there too.

[Matt Meiser]

Well (pun intended,) its bad. I purged the air caught in the water part of the tank and it seemed to go away, including the gurgling on the incoming pipe so I didn't have someone come out. Mistake!

Late last week while showering I noticed a pressure drop like we normally get when the washing machine is filling. It quickly came back and I didn't think anything of it.

Over the weekend my wife experienced the same but no one was using any water which was concerning.

Monday we didn't notice anything unusual all day, but in the evening I heard the dishwasher making a funny noise. I opened it and it was dry inside. Went downstairs and the gauge read 0. No water. If I isolated the house and just opened the valve at the tank I could get a pencil size stream of water. My wife ran to Kroger and got several gallons of drinking water and we drained what was in the washing machine which also stalled its cycle because it didn't quite fill the drum to use for flushing toilets.

Tuesday morning there was no change. Mid-morning the well guys got here and couldn't pull the pump due to it being cemented in by iron deposits. Our casing is 4" steel and the pump only has 1/8" clearance. They dumped some acid pellets down and had me dump 5gal of water down every 6 hours. I set up a way to collect the groundwater from our sump pump (of which there is plenty due to the thaw) so we could use that for flushing toilets.

Today they came out and the first try the crossbar that sits at the top of the casing broke. I also called the health department to find out the depth which turned out to be only 36', which, while not uncommon around here is still pretty shallow and they are seeing a lot of 30-60' wells going dry around here in the last couple months. This was done 20 years ago and today they go deeper. The left and brought back a 450gal tank with a pump and pressure tank to serve as a temporary water source. Then they used a special tap to thread into the pipe the crossbar was on since the threads on the outside were screwed up. After much grunting and a several scary minutes, they broke through the iron deposits and got the pump up.

They are one their way back to my house as I type with the drilling rig to go down 80-120' which is a common depth today for our area. The frost laws in our county go into effect tomorrow morning and the rig has to be in Ohio for a job later this week before tonight so they plan to be done tonight though they may not be able to finish up the plumbing until tomorrow. They can't move the rig without a permit from the road commission after tonight so they were hustling when they left.

And I thought the John Deere dealer was expensive...


Edit:

They brought the drilling rig in shortly after I posted. A few hours later we have a 90' well with a new pump. The pump is going to run about 24 hours to clear the water up then tomorrow they'll redo some stuff inside to meet current code (health dept. requires the tank be raised off the floor now) and we'll be back in business.

[Jerry Bruette]

Glad you got this resolved, sorry it's costing a pile of money. Hope you have good quality water.

Jerry

[Matt Meiser]

Jerry, its not cheap, but not as bad as I had feared. He's hoping to come in right about $3k. I'd feared it could be $15k, but that number was the number I had stuck in my head for well + septic when we looked at building a house 7 years ago. Still, having just had a major bill on a tractor repair this hurts. Especially since I bought a J/P machine right before that!

On water quality, my biggest fear was that we'd get sulfur which is common just to the west of us. Initial indications are that's not the case but we'll have to see once it gets stored since I think sometimes the smell doesn't show up for a while. Its still too cloudy to taste and see if it taste like iron which we had before and was reasonably controlled with iron-out salt. Our softener guy is going to come out Friday afternoon and do an initial check on it to see what adjustments might need to be made and then we'll probably have to have him back in a few weeks once things settle down. If the iron goes above what the salt can control or there's sulfur we'll have to invest some cash in additional treatment equipment.

[David G Baker]

Matt,
I had to have my water tested by the State to see if the water was bacteria free. It took a couple of tests and a couple of weeks before I could use my new well, this was okay because I still had my old well working until the new one passed. You don't have that option. My well is 121 feet deep and is loaded with iron and has a nasty smell and taste even after it runs through my water softener so I drink bottled water most of the time.

[Matt Meiser]

They just finished everything up about an hour ago. They chlorinated it overnight, then I'm supposed to flush it in the morning until the water runs clear and chlorine odor free. Then I'm supposed to call the county health dept. for an inspection and test.

[Matt Meiser]

After chlorination and much flushing we've got usable water again other than for drinking--have to wait for the health dept. on that. They are coming Tuesday morning for an inspection and water sample. One of our toilets and the slop sink in the garage both wouldn't shut off after this whole ordeal probably due to a chunk of limestone in the valves that couldn't be disassembled. I got the worst of the debris washed off the house--well is only 8' from the front and we had a nice wind the day they drilled.

Our softener company came out and tested the new water. Our iron and hardness are actually lower than before.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Matt,

Sure sorry to follow you as you have had to deal with this. I am sure it got expensive very quickly. Good luck with the health department tests!

[Art Mulder]

The frost laws in our county go into effect tomorrow morning and the rig has to be in Ohio for a job later this week before tonight so they plan to be done tonight though they may not be able to finish up the plumbing until tomorrow. They can't move the rig without a permit from the road commission after tonight so they were hustling when they left.

Sorry to hear about your unwell well...:o

But could you enlighten me please? What are "Frost laws"? And why would they need a permit to move their truck after that date? How is moving that truck any different than moving some other truck down the road? :confused:

So do you have a UV system?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Art,

A lot of states have laws preventing the movement of heavy equipment during periods of time when the weather is freezing and thawing to prevent damage to roads.

My Dad worked on oil rigs and it paid well when he worked but....in spring and late fall/early winter he was often out of work because they wouldn't allow them to move the rig to prevent damage to the roads.

[Matt Meiser]

I think we are going to come in around $3500 which isn't as bad as I'd feared. He had estimated about $3000 but then found the pressure tank was starting to rust on the bottom, and that there was water on the wrong side of the bladder so that was replaced too. My second biggest fear after the cost was how long it would take to get the work done. These guys did an amazing job for us.

No UV system. The water around here is generally not an issue from a microbiological standpoint. Some combination of iron, lime, and sulfur on the other hand are quite common. We have a softener system and use the iron-removal salt which worked pretty good except the iron level seemed to climb the last year or so. Its significantly lower now though.

We only have the frost laws in the spring here, at least as far as I know. Usually in the fall its not real wet which I'd guess is why. I wouldnt' be surprised if it doesn't last long this spring. Last year late summer and fall were REALLY dry and the snow melt last week got sucked right into the ground. We only had a little standing water in our side yard which is very unusual, and some of that is probably some of the 15-20K gallons of water pumped from our new well to flush it.

[Art Mulder]

A lot of states have laws preventing the movement of heavy equipment during periods of time when the weather is freezing and thawing to prevent damage to roads.

Still not quite getting it... do you mean unpaved gravel roads in the back country? Surely you don't mean regular paved roads?

[Rick Moyer]

We don't have "frost laws" per se around here, but many secondary (paved) roads have posted 10 ton weight limits for Feb-Mar-Apr. The rest of the year they are good to go. Dept of Transportation doesn't want heavy vehicles on those roads when potential thawing can happen as they will damage the asphalt. Also with the influx of a lot of heavy equipment here lately with the Marcellus shale gas drilling industry, most townships have posted most of their roads as 10 ton weight limits full time. This makes the gas companies bond the roads if they want to use them for access.

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, even secondary paved roads are included. For good reason--they are falling apart. Yesterday's surprise was a low tire on LOML's Focus. I refilled it, then today did the brakes and when I took that one off I found a severely bent rim. Got REALLY lucky and found a complete set of wheels and nearly new tires (he said 10K miles but they look better than that to me) on CL for $500. Called the guy and offered him $300--he thought about 1/2 second and said yes. Still, this is getting old...

[Von Bickley]

Matt,
Sorry about all those expenses....... When it rains, it pours.

Does your new well have metal casing or PVC?

Around here, all the well casings are PVC now. 4" PVC for sand wells and 6" PVC for rock wells.

A lot of people that have old 6" rock wells with metal casings have problems with iron deposits in their water and have to have a PVC sleeve inserted down the metal casing.

Did the well people hit a pretty good stream (GPM) and what size pump did you put in?

Hope you have many good years of service with the new well and pump......

[Matt Meiser]

They went down the 20 year old steel casing so no changes there. The casing has to go into bedrock here (which is < 30' here) so they don't have to do anything with it when deepening a relatively modern well like ours. They got great flow and with the flushing that was done we pumped a LOT of water in a pretty short time--I figure 15-20,000 gal in 36 hours. I'm actually not even sure what size pump they used in HP--just went with the pump they recommended which is an all stainless steel 3" Grundfos pump. The guys who did it do a huge percentage of the wells in our area and have a good reputation. They cleaned out my parents' well 30 years ago and put in a modern pump and tank system for them.

[Art Mulder]

For good reason--they are falling apart.

In 2008 I was in a charity fund raising bike tour that crossed MI/ON/NY/PA/NJ and it was fascinating to see how the roads differed from state to state. And yes, MI had bad roads. NY had awesome roads. PA had roads that were even worse than MI.

[David G Baker]

Art,
Michigan roads vary in condition from county to county. In some areas they are considering tearing up the black top and going back to dirt roads because they can't afford to maintain the blacktop roads.
Matt,
Sounds like you are close to being back to normal in the water department, now if everything else settles down to normal with no more surprises you will be doing good. My well puts out 10 gallons a minute with the pump set-up that I have but my well is capable of supplying a lot more. No water table problems here yet.

[David G Baker]

This post makes my 3000th post and my 67th birthday is today. Yea, I made it this far, never thought I would.

[Bob Turkovich]

PA had roads that were even worse than MI.

Not possible. If they were worse than MI, you can't call them roads. Only 28 more days (give or take a few) until the blossoming orange barrels of spring arrive.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

This post makes my 3000th post and my 67th birthday is today. Yea, I made it this far, never thought I would.

Happy Birthday David!

[David G Baker]

Thanks Ken.

[Bob Turkovich]

Matt,

On top of all your problems, how bad did you get hit with the ice storm yesterday? We had 10" snow in the NW suburbs of Detroit- add the Presidents Day holiday (no road crews) and the roads are terrible (Thank God for 4WD). Monroe & Lenawee counties supposedly got hit hard with some thick ice.

Hope you're survivin'.....

[Matt Meiser]

We got a few inches of slushy snow, then ice. Now all that is frozen solid. Looks like we lost 1 tree, maybe a second--both pines that lost a lot of branches and probably will never look right. Still have power knock on wood. We went to my parents' house normally 10 minutes away yesterday afternoon. On the way out I debated whether we should be going but it seemed to be improving. Took a turn for the worse while we were there and it took us close to an hour to get home. At times I wondered if we'd make it.

[David G Baker]

We had between 8 and 12 inches overnight. It was very cold so it was powder and it drifted pretty bad in places. Took around 2 hours to clear the 300 foot driveway.

[Matt Meiser]

Update: About an hour ago a large branch fell and pulled the phone lines between the pole across the street and our pole down. Seeing as how I work from home, that's a problem!

[Matt Meiser]

So we got word yesterday that the water sample they took Monday tested positive for e-coli. I'm told its not uncommon but it means another chlorination cycle and no water use until tomorrow morning, then another several hours of flushing the system and a re-test next week. Should be a fun morning tomorrow since we are expecting up to 8" of snow by morning on top of the ice.

Got the bill yesterday too. Just under $4400. I'm sure we'll be charged for coming out to chlorinate too.

Edit, just talked to the actual guy from the health dept. that came out. The person who called me yesterday told me backwards--negative for ecoli, positive for coliform which isn't nearly as big a concern--not that you want it but not as bad an indicator of issues. He said it can be as simple as the sample tap was contaminated so he asked me to be sure to flush some chlorine through that too and wipe it down with bleach.

[Matt Jutte]

Not real sure where you live - Rural likely but is there any construction going on around? I have dried up wells over night and when we started dewatering in the morning we had people coming out of house yelling because we are stealing their water! just an off chance since MI is mostly sands and there is a lot of dewatering done there for deep excavations for underground utitlties.

But likely at the pitless or the check valve!

[Matt Meiser]

There's no big construction project and certainly nothing close by deep as our well was--just a couple houses (shocking, I know) and for those around here they typically put only about 1/2 the basement in the ground then fill around it.

Anyone here use a UV disinfection system? I talking to the guy handling our permit from the county health department, he says they are a good idea. Looks like I can buy one locally for about $850 installed, or the same one online for about $500. Installation looks very simple so I'm considering going that route.

[Art Mulder]

Matt,

TrojanUV (http://www.trojanuvmax.com/) is headquartered right here in London, and I know a couple of folks from church who work there. I have no direct experience myself, but know it is a good company. My friend in the country has one of those systems on their well and are satisfied. They get an annual service call, and I don't know how often the light bulb is supposed to be changed.

[Matt Meiser]

The one I'm leaning toward is by Sterilight, but turns out that's the same company as Trojan. The reason I'm considering that one is because that's what the local place sells, meaning I can buy the annual bulb locally. But buying the unit online is about a $300 savings.

[Matt Meiser]

Just drank the first glass of water from my own faucet in 2-1/2 weeks--the health dept. called this morning to say that our well is officially approved.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Matt - I guess congrats are in order? it's been a long road...you must be pretty thirsty by now ;)

[Matt Meiser]

Nah, I drank a $4500 glass of water so now I'm good.

[David Epperson]

Sounds to me like you might have a leak in the piping between the pump and check valve, and the check valve is above the water line of the well - possibly because of the dry spell. So when your pump is not running, it's leaking back into the well and accumulating air in the line. I would also suspect that the faucets spitting air are the first to tap off the main line, allowing the air pumped in to accumulate in them first.

[Leigh Costello]

Matt,
I hope your problem has been resolved. We had a problem just before Thanksgiving with the well constantly cycling. The well guy came out and re-set the pressure ing the bladder tank and all was fine. Until Thanksgiving evening. Then we had to have him come back because the water pressure had fallen so low. Turns out there was a hole in the pipe at about 90 ft (our well is 200 ft deep with water being hit at 120 ft). Needless to say, creative banking on a holiday weekend was a real hassle. But now we have new piping in the ground and a new pump.

[sarah schell]

Are you hearing any thumping or hammering sounds when you run the water? We were hearing that and just had to replace the underground diaphragm tank. Hope this is not the case for you--it required a backhoe and about $750.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Matt,

The one my boss has is a Sterilight. I sent you a pm. Any specific questions?

[Matt Meiser]

Hi Matt,

The one my boss has is a Sterilight. I sent you a pm. Any specific questions?

Sorry Charles, yes, I got your PM, but forgot to reply. We aren't going to get the UV system after looking into it some more and talking to one of the dealers in our area who said we'd probably literally be the only ones in a several mile radius who had one--he said they just aren't necessary in our area, as much as he'd like to sell us one.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Matt,

Glad you got an honest salesman. I hope that is the end of your water problems.