I’ve had a lot of air in my well water for weeks now. It spits and bubbles vigorously at the taps. My pressure tank sounds like the bladder is mostly full of air inside (I know it’s air on the outside of the bladder, I mean the inside is air too) and when my pump comes on the pressure tank sounds like there is a fountain inside. My theory is that there is a check valve in the pump that is leaking, letting the water column in the pipe leak back out of the pump into the well, and also some higher joint leaky enough to let air into the vacuum, perhaps the joint a few feet underground in the well casing (where we wouldn’t notice the water leaking out while pressure is high).
The plumber has postponed once already and wants to postpone again for tomorrow, though it takes a couple weeks or more to arrange to be at home to meet him. They are down two men with flu. Our usual plumber retired recently and I’ve had a hard time finding a replacement, but this company seems the best choice. I’m not sure I can find somebody to do the job reasonably soon.
But the other day we found out Mrs. Napier needs surgery soon - it’s in 2.5 weeks and she will be stuck at home for at least several weeks after, maybe quite a few. I don’t think she can be dealing with no water. Or with plumbers.
If I knew for sure that the problem will remain confined to bubbles, it might make more sense to postpone service for 2 or 3 months. I could even make up some contraption to let a lot of the bubbles escape before sending them through the house, like an upside-down sand trap. But I can’t replace a well pump, which is my best guess as to what has to happen to fix this.
How safe am I putting this off? Is there any reason to expect this to really mess us up?
We have a well and when it requires service we deal with a drilling/well installation company, coincidentally the same company that did the original well. Just a thought.
When we had issues with our pump I called a well guy who came right out to look at it and give me an estimate. Perhaps that’s not an option where you live. I use plumbers for anything inside the house that’s not working.
I second this idea. In my state, a licensed plumber isn’t officially qualified to work on a well or pump unless additionally qualified, as of a state law a few years ago. It makes getting homes checked during a sale more difficult – I usually have to place an inspection order with two different firms.
I agree with the others, forget the plumber. Find a well specialist. Mine almost always calls within a day, usually the same day.
Hate to break it to you, but those pressure tanks fail at fairly reliable intervals. I hope it’s not that, but it could be. I replaced mine a few years ago and can’t remember what it cost… I have a vague notion that it wasn’t outrageous, but enough to make me wince.
It’s likely only a failing check valve. People regularly think a leak is required to get air into the system but that is not the case. If you try to hold water on vacuum for greater than 32ft you will get air, period no question.
How old the pump is, is a deciding factor on what to do about it. If a pump is over 10 years old I never want to put it back into a well. If it’s less than 10 years old I’d pull it up, add a check valve, and put it back in.
The integrated check valves of all the manufacturers suck. My standard installations include a FloMatic check valve on the pump discharge, FloMatics are more reliable than anything else out there. The result is my installations have 2 checks valves, and I never have to pull pumps for the reason you are seeing.
Leaving it as is, is a complete gamble. It may destroy the check at the tank, the air going through the system can shake things up, potentially causing breaks or putting unnecessary stress on treatment equipment. Air in the water can result in back-washing filters back-washing their filter media out. It could also continue with minimal impact till the pumps natural death.
One ‘fix’ that can be done to potentially buy more time is to remove the poppit on the check valve at pressure tank. This allows water to leak back instead of holding and resulting in air. The success is dependent on how the check in the well is doing. If it’s a slow leak it’ll result in a few more cycles a day, and you leave it like that till it gets worse or the pump dies. If it’s not holding at all and left like that it will cycle the pump to death in a much shorter time frame.
As well company, I’m an emergency based business to begin with. It’s kinda ridiculous they can’t accommodate your schedule for weeks. Evenings and weekends are a regular part of my schedule.
In my area there are plumbers and well companies. We overlap on pressure tanks, though I’d prefer plumbers limit themselves to replacing like with like as they are terrible at the engineering decisions. Plumbers don’t typically touch wells and pumps, the ones that do manage no better than most home owners.
How risky? First, your water is probably contaminated now. Second, the bubbles in the water could be coming from one or more problems, among them the pump itself. If the water bladder tank is damaged, as you suspect it is, it could be causing the pump to turn on and off very frequently. That could mean early pump death.
I don’t think the water bladder tank is damaged, I just think bubbles have been accumulating in the bladder. They have a way in but no way out until the water level reaches the bottom of the tank. I think as the tank cycles the water level goes down to the outlet and then up to whatever the cycle volume of the tank is. I do confess that I haven’t checked the air pressure lately (meaning the compressed air outside of the bladder).
If I had it to do over I would call a well guy. But I am waiting for the plumber to show up any minute. If he doesn’t, I will call a well guy.
Wow. Thank you for one of the most useful and informative posts I’ve seen on ANY subject.
I completely understand what you mean about disabling the upper check valve, and how that could either cycle a little more or way way more depending on how leaky the lower check valve is. By the way, the upper check valve turns out to be a FloMatic.
I have no backwashing filters, but I have to admit the bubbles do sound like they’re shaking things up a bit.
My pump is 11 years old. The previous one lasted 25 years, but I don’t feel too jilted about only getting 11 years out of this one. I am curious now whether the first one might have had a second check valve on top, and assuming the pump gets replaced, I will request one on the new one.
It’s easy to imagine a check valve getting leaky. My water has a lot of larger chunks of minerals in it, sometimes 2 or 3 millimeters, that look like mica or dark somewhat crumbly stone or a combination. One of those getting trapped as the valve closes could certainly cause a slow or moderate leak. The water doesn’t look cloudy unless I draw a couple hundred gallons out within a half hour or so. I wonder how those large chunks are getting to the pump, because they sink very rapidly; I think I could not catch some of them if I were swimming downward in a deep pool chasing after them. My pump is 153 feet down into a 220 foot well so it should have 67 feet of water in a six inch casing below it - how in the world can I be sucking water up a six inch wide straw fast enough to lift 3 millimeter pebbles? Could this mean my well has filled up with fine gravel to nearly the bottom of the pump?
The deed is done. Plumber replaced pump. He said it rained down a large quantity of water while being pulled from the well, telling him its check valve was very leaky. Nothing else appears to be malfunctioning, so we left it at that. $990.
With Mrs. Napier needing surgery it’s best you got it done and out of the way. $990 sounds in line with what I’ve heard from others who needed a pump replaced, kind of low maybe.
In regards to sediment, the water can be feeding in from varying levels. If any of the upper viens produce sediment the pump can pick it up as it falls past, rather than pulling it up from the bottom.
In some cases we install a ‘shroud’ or sand-seperator to cut down on the amount of sediment. A shroud is a length of 4" pipe over the pump so sediment has to fall past the pump to get pulled in. Typically it’s a 20ft shroud, so for the sediment to get pulled in it would have to be lifted 20ft to get to the intake. We also use them if the motor has cooling issues due to a top feeding well. It forces the path of the water over the motor. A sand seperator is a fancer option that also uses centrifugal force to spit out sediment before getting to the intake. They can cost almost as much as a pump.
I primarily install Goulds pumps. Thier top of the line GS series uses a stainless steel plate, no spring, as the check valve. They are very suceptable to sediment stopping the plate from seating, thus leaking. Pro is it never fails completely and can’t block flow. The grade below the GS that use a spring check. Less suseptable to sediment but the plastic poppit can break loose and block flow. So it can be a pick your poison kinda thing.
$1k for a pump replacement far less than the going rate in my area.
I’m going to usually quoting complete replacement of all parts at $2k for a 1/2hp at 200ft. After we get it up we decide what can be reused, so the price can come down if we aren’t replacing wire, pipe and fittings. I’d rather quote high and not get the job.
Oldest submersible I’ve pulled out was a Sumo installed in 1954, that was 2014.
Oldest one my company has in service is a Goulds from 1952. It’s still the original pump as far as we know and still running. Just waiting to see what happens