I have a water pump which short cycles. It is a jet pump which is suspended in the well (about 30 feet I think). I have the cut on set at 31# and the cutoff at 53#. My airbladder is set to 26#. It cycles at about a 20 second rate. Is this normal? What should the cycle rate be? Is my hysteresis to narrow? It seems like everything is good to me, but I think the cycle is too short. Any help would be appreciated. snipped-for-privacy@starband.net
Your cut-in and cut-out settings, and air pressure sound normal. You must be losing water somewhere.
Do a test. If you have a turn off valve at the pressure tank (that allows the water to go out of the tank and into your home plumbing system), turn it off. If not, just be sure that no water is turned on in your house.
Let the pressure build up to 53# max, then quickly shut off the electricity to the pump. If your pressure goes down noticeably in 5-10 minutes, then you clearly are losing water somewhere in the system.
I don't know about jet pumps, but I assume they have to have some sort of checkvalve. Either way, I would bet that you have a checkvalve somewhere in your system. I understand there is frequently a checkvalve right at the pressure tank.
If the pump checkvalve or a checkvalve at the pressure tank are bad, it will make your system contantly leak water, and cause the constant recycling that you are seeing.
I hope this helps. Let us know. There are plenty of people on here that know 100 times what I do about these things.
--James--
When I started reading this, I first thought 'water logged', then I read 'bladder'. Any possibility the bladder as a leak and has water in it???
How much water are you using when it cycles?? If you say 'none' probably you have a bad check valve and it's leaking back to the well.
It's been years since I was on a well/pressure tank system. Good luck.
Good advice James.
Short cycles -
When no water is being used = leak.
When water is being used = not enough air in tank. If the bladder is bad you can have the correct air pressure but insufficient volume.
When you get the problem fixed I would increase your precharge (with tank empty) to 29 psi. Won't make much difference but it is the standard setting, i.e., 2psi under cut-in. That just optimizes run time vs tank water volume.
Harry K
Thanks to everyone that responded. Put in a new holding tank today and now I have about 2.5 - 3 minute cycle. Woo-hoo!!
What response did you make to the following (unacknowledged) piece of advice ??
--james--
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Your cut-in and cut-out settings, and air pressure sound normal. You must be losing water somewhere.
Do a test. If you have a turn off valve at the pressure tank (that allows the water to go out of the tank and into your home plumbing system), turn it off. If not, just be sure that no water is turned on in your house.
Let the pressure build up to 53# max, then quickly shut off the electricity to the pump. If your pressure goes down noticeably in 5-10 minutes, then you clearly are losing water somewhere in the system.
I don't know about jet pumps, but I assume they have to have some sort of checkvalve. Either way, I would bet that you have a checkvalve somewhere in your system. I understand there is frequently a checkvalve right at the pressure tank.
If the pump checkvalve or a checkvalve at the pressure tank are bad, it will make your system contantly leak water, and cause the constant recycling that you are seeing.
I hope this helps. Let us know. There are plenty of people on here that know 100 times what I do about these things.
--James--
I didn't see all the replies regarding the fast cycling rate of your water pump, but I do not agree with the last two posts.
You probably don't need to change your tank. All you need to do is comletely drain all the water and air out of the tank, make sure you completely remove the air inlet valve to make sure all the air pressure is out to get a full drain. then close the outlet drain and close the air valve. Then let the pump run for about 30 seconds. then pump the tank up to the starting pressure (whatever it's set to, probably around 30 psi). The let the pump fill the tank.
Often what happens is that too much air gets into the tank, so the amount of water that is between 30psi and 60psi becomes really small, and you have a really short pump cycle. don't know how the air gets in there, but the only way to cure the problem is to re-set the system the way I described.
Paul
The 'only way' according to you is the wrong way. There have been enough explanations of the proper way already but here it is again. Completely draind the tank with the pump off, add air to 2 psi below cut-in, turn pump on. Short cycling is caused by not enough air in the tank (not too much) or a leak. Too much air can cause the pump not to come on at all if the pressure is above the cut-in.
Sine the OP has a better cycle rate now, it is probable that his main tank has little air in it, possibly a blown bladder. The surge tank is now acting as a normal pressure tank although very limited in capacity.
Harry K
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