Well Pump Issue

Welcome to A2K. Without being there, it sounds like your pump is losing suction when your storage tank goes empty because air is getting into the system. With no air in the system, you should not have problems even if demand exceeds the pump's capability. (The pump would just pump what it could and you would get low flow.)

Is the well drilled into bedrock or is it a screened well in sand ? The reasons can vary based on the type of borehole you have..

Pump is in the bore hole, down I think close to 300 feet. It is plastic pipe from the well head to the house, another 100 - 125 feet. The expansion tank is in the crawl space under the house with the pressure switch and gauge.

In this part of NC we are mostly clay soil.
Being down close to 300 feet I would hope we went through some bedrock.

What is the output flow rate of the pump? If you don't know, you could test how long it takes to fill your tank. A couple of ideas:

1) your well is drying up so the amount of water available is limited. Over time, the pump fills up your tank and the well also fills up so that when you first turn it on, you get good flow. By the time you've emptied the storage tank, your well is mostly dry and slowly refilling, so you get very little water and it sounds like your pump is cavitating. Is your section of our beautiful state in a drought?

2) Your pump capacity is lower than your needs. This is made up by the storage tank, but if you use all of that, you have to live with what you have from just the well.

1) --- I don't think we are running dry so to speak --- We had no issue at all in 2007 when all the lakes were drying up. Remmember that nightmare?

2) --- Our Pump has way more than enough capacity, as we top off our pool with about 2000 gal of water every spring and it runs constantly for 1/2 hour at a time out of the same hose we now have a problem keeping flow for 15 seconds.

A) ==== I am more interested in how many new wells have been commisioned since 2007 as being the cause of possibly drying up the well... We have the certified well guy on schedule to check us out Thursday!!!
Mabe he can find out out issue, I have done all I can without a PRO.

Your well could be suffering from bacterial sliming which could clog up the feed fractures in the borehole. Whenever you go through droughts and the water table lowers, bacteria can build up long the upper water table and gradually extend downward. If you start your well pump and measure water drawdown with a drop tape, you can measure the specific capacity. Specific capacity is measured at some point *usually an hour) after starting the pump and you measure the total drawdown (from where the water table sat before the pump kicked on). You divide the GPM by the total drawdown and compare that number to the original specific cpacity on your permit. THAT will tell us whether your trouble is in the well or in the pump and risers. If your specific capacity (and the well pump delivery RAte) is about the same as when the well was installed (or at least the numbers fall on the original pump curve), then the problem is in the risers and tank. I f the specific capacity is much lower, then youve got a clogging borehole problem, or something more serious. If its a slime problem , it can be easily fixed by getting a well driller to slosh a mixture of Calgon in the well bore, and then pumping it out and shocking the well with Chlorine to stop the bacterial growth.

We have this problem with irrigation wells and it can be a minor pain in the ass. In the language of the driller, we have our well borehole "rehabilitated"

Post back and let us know what the pro said. I'm interested.

The water level in the well has fallen due to drought, more people with wells pulling the water table down or, you have a leak in the drop pipe or, there is something wrong with the pump. I suspect one or both of the last two possibilities.

If you have and can use an ohm meter/amp gauge, start here or any other page;
http://www.franklin-electric.com/business/WaterSystems/service/AIM/page-43.aspx

OK, Certified Well service Co. Out of Tarborro, NC came out looked over the system above ground and said the pump was bad. In a way I was hoping to see the thing out of the ground anyway. So they hooked it up to the wench and pulled 240' of water line, safety rope, electrical cord, oh ya and the 4" 1/2 HP Weber pump out of the 6" hole in the ground. Checked the level of the water 40'. So we agreed that after 24 years it was time for a new pump. So after a quick look at the pump curve I decided a 3/4 HP was a better fit at that depth. It should only add $150 or so more than the 1/2 HP pump price. Took them a total of 2 hours and they were gone. I thought they did a great job.

Any way with all that said we have water that does not cut out anymore.
I did a quick calculation on what I think the cost of the job will be and if you think about it over a 24 year life it comes to less than a dollar a day.

Thanks for all the help, have a good one...

Sorry folks that was less than a dollar a week,