will a well tank drain down if you turn the power off?

[Travis Conner]

I swear I asked a well question on here already, but couldn't find it. Anyways, my well tank is waterlogged and I don't really know anything about wells. Mine is the older style with an air volume control valve, so no bladder. The pump is short cycling and also found out it would turn on for a couple seconds about every 15 minutes when no water has been used. I had someone scheduled to come out, but somehow I never got on their schedule even though I called and gave them the address.

Now with that being said, I've had the breaker shut off for a couple weeks now to keep the pump motor from turning on and off so much because the general consensus is it will burn the pump out. How? I have no idea, makes no sense to me. I can see a capacitor going bad on the motor, but the pump? Today I decided to turn the breaker back on because I needed to use the bathroom and it ran for about a minute when no water was even being used and I decided to shut it back off. Does this mean the tank drained back into the well? Or did pump lose prime now that I had the power off? Maybe it was just filling the tank back up, but it was running and the pressure gauge stayed at 0 so I thought maybe it lost prime and so I shut it back off.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Jerry Bruette]

Is it a shallow well or submersible pump?

If it's a shallow well pump you probably have a bad check valve and lost prime. Hope you didn't cook the mechanical seal by running it and not pumping water.

A pump that short cycles shouldn't hurt the pump itself but is hard on the motor and switches.

[Travis Conner]

No it's not shallow. The pump is on the top of the well head pipe. It could have been pumping water for all I know.

[Travis Conner]

The owner claimed it was 105ft. We're close to sea level here though.

[Jerry Bruette]

If the motor is outside the well casing it's not a submersible. It could be what's called jet pump. It doesn't matter if it's a jet pump or shallow well if you lost prime your check valve would be bad.

[Travis Conner]

So I should be able to cut the power to the well for couple weeks and still have water in the tank?

[Travis Conner]

Couldn't you just turn the pump on, then turn on a water faucet to bleed the air?

[Jerry Bruette]

So I should be able to cut the power to the well for couple weeks and still have water in the tank?

Maybe not, with a bad check valve the water may siphon out of the tank and back into the well.

[Jerry Bruette]

Couldn't you just turn the pump on, then turn on a water faucet to bleed the air?

Not if the pump has lost it's prime.

[Travis Conner]

How do I tell if it was pumping water just free wheeling? I guess I could have turned a faucet on to see if water was coming out.

[Bill Dufour]

Is it one or two pipes down the well? Do you also have city water. Any motor will burn up if it starts up too many times without cool down times. Something like 10-12 starts per hour is running on the edge. I would drain the tank by opening the drain valve at the bottom and open a faucet above the tank level to let in air. then close it up and see if it sounds like it is pumping water. If you never listened while it was working I do not know what to tell you to listen for. I agree you may have a stuck check valve. You could pump air into a faucet and see if the pressure leaks down. Listen for air bubbles down the well. If you can fill the pipe and pump with water it should work even if the check valve is bad. At least until you shut it off. But that will prove the pump and plumbing is good. A small air leak will prevent suction. It may pull enough to pull a small piece of crud out of the check valve and fix itself if you can get it to pump.
Good practice is to have a tee in the intake right near the pump with the upper end pointing up. That end should be capped or shut off with a valve. If needed you prime the pump from that point.

[Tom Stenzel]

****
Now with that being said, I've had the breaker shut off for a couple weeks now to keep the pump motor from turning on and off so much because the general consensus is it will burn the pump out. How? I have no idea, makes no sense to me. I can see a capacitor going bad on the motor, but the pump? Today I decided to turn the breaker back on because I needed to use the bathroom and it ran for about a minute when no water was even being used and I decided to shut it back off. Does this mean the tank drained back into the well? Or did pump lose prime now that I had the power off? Maybe it was just filling the tank back up, but it was running and the pressure gauge stayed at 0 so I thought maybe it lost prime and so I shut it back off.

Any help would be appreciated.

The typical rule of thumb is a motor takes 6 times the full load current when it starts. Frequent starts will get the motor toasty. If it's a capacitor start motor (likely) the capacitor and start winding will get a bit warm. The start winding switch will take a beating.

As far as the tank being flooded, instead of turning the pump off and hoping the tank will drain down, can you get a source of CLEAN compressed air or nitrogen and push that into the tank?

-Tom

[Tom M King]

The check valve at the bottom of the piping for that type of pump is called a "foot valve".

[Ron Citerone]

I have a 440' well at my cottage. Submersible pump. I turn it off and come back 2 weeks later and still have a tank full of water and presssure. (Unless I leave something dripping)

[Brian Elfert]

I shut my well off for a week at a time and I still have pressure in the tank after a week. I actually turn the pump off and have a ball valve after the tank for when I go out of town. I don't want the 30 gallons in the tank to cause a minor flood although it is better than water running for hours or days.

I have read that well pumps, submersibles at least, should run for at least a minute when they do run. I had a small well tank that was rusty when I bought my house. I put in a tank at least twice as large so the pump would run for more than a minute.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Drain tank completely, then shut off valve to house. Next turn on pump, and let it pressurize the tank to cut off point. Turn off electricity, and wait 15 minutes, then check pressure. If it's fallen, you have a leak between pump and foot valve. If it hasn't fallen, then your leak is between pump and house.

[Jerry Bruette]

Drain tank completely, then shut off valve to house. Next turn on pump, and let it pressurize the tank to cut off point. Turn off electricity, and wait 15 minutes, then check pressure. If it's fallen, you have a leak between pump and foot valve. If it hasn't fallen, then your leak is between pump and house.

Won't work if the foot valve/check valve is leaking and pump lost it's prime.

Won't work if there's a leak between pump and water level in well casing. The pump will suck air instead of water.

[Ole Anderson]

Wait!!! You said you had the pump off for weeks, then turned it on because you had to use the toilet??? Wow!

[Lee Schierer]

You need to supply more information. How big is your tank? Does your pump have one pipe or two going to the well?

I will say this for sure. If you turned off the power for as long as you said and no one used any water while the power was off, you have a leak in your system. The fact that your pump runs every 15 minutes when no water is used would confirm that.

Your first step should be to replace the air control valve if you are sure your tank is waterlogged. When you replace it drain at least half the water out of your tank. Then put everything back together. Let the pump run until it shuts off on it's own or at least as long as it would tank to fill the tank. A pressure gauge on the tank will tell you if the tank pressure is rising. If the pressure is going up the pump is working. Once the pump shuts off on it's own note the pressure. Go do something for 5-10 minutes, then check the pressure again. If it has dropped and there is no puddle anywhere in the house, your foot valve is leaking.

[Ronald Blue]

It sounds like a jet pump that has lost it's prime. It will not self prime. It's been a while since I messed with one but I believe that there should be a plug that you remove and pour water in to prime it. A jet pump is an alternative to a submersible. It allows you to draw water at much deeper depths than a regular pump. It works by circulating water and the water passing back up the return draws water in. A submersible would not be an issue losing prime. Is there not a Schrader valve on the pressure tank? If there is you can just add air to it after you get the pump primed again. It sounds like you have more than one problem. Leaking foot valves aren't unusual. Here is an illustration of what you likely have.

https://www.maximumoffgrid.com/images/water-pump/deep-well-jet-pump.jpg

[Travis Conner]

They drained it out and put a new air volume control valve on. It's been working fine now.