Help. Problems with airlock

Factual Questions
1

Don’t panic. In all my interstellar travels, I always have a good supply of air… and backups.

The background. I built my home in the country. The water is pumped from underground to a high place on the land and then by gravity gets to the house which lies well below.

The problem I suffer from is that if the tank goes empty, I am not always on top of the supply, then I have an airlock somewhere in the flow, really noticeable in the hot water line. It is a straight downhill course, but once it gets to the house it has some elbows and ups and downs perhaps. All in the walls.

I also have a parallel system with water from the town which comes with pressure. Many times when I switch over to this supply, its very pressure will open the air-flow, make the air pass, but sometimes it does not.

I have googled this and not found anything that works. I would like to learn some tricks to kill the airlock, to have the air pass out of the system.

2

I’ve never heard of this problem before. I think that every place I’ve lived, the water tank was much higher than anyone’s house, and always filled automatically to keep this from happening.

An obvious solution is to build your own water tower with its own refilling pump, in order to maintain a “head” on the water pressure. I suspect you’re looking for a solution less drastic (and less unsightly)

3

Here’s a diagnostic flowchart:

http://inspectapedia.com/water/Water_Pressure_Table.htm

4

Could you install a bleed valve(s) on some of the high elbows in your house? It sounds like that’s where the air is concentrating and killing the prime. If you could bleed air out until it’s just water again and then close it I suspect that would resolve your flow issues. The problem may be though that you need to build some access panel if they are indeed in your walls.

5

The water tank in “the high place” needs a valve that will cut of water flow just before the tank runs dry.

6

(post shortened)

I suspect that your gravity feed waterline needs a bleeder valve at, or near, the end of run. Fill the water tank, open the bleeder (or just open the last faucet connected to the line) to release the air, and let the water flow thru the line. You may notice some popping and gurgling but when the water flows uninterrupted for several minutes, shut the bleeder and you should be good to go.

You should also consider adding a float-type shutoff at the tank end to prevent air from entering your gravity feed waterline.