aquafine iron filter causes pump to lose prime

Well (no, not that kind of well) I'm shocked. I think gus has become a negative influence on H20_Man. First they ventures off to S&R and now our staid, ever-diligent H20_Man jumps straight to this sort of display???? I blame gus.

I hope that andyinottawa comes back and gets his question resolved. Yesterday was Halloween. Gustav and H2O Man were playing halloween pranks.

oh yes I am back and waiting to see if this problem can be fixed

Welcome to A2K, andyinottawa.

(You will get accustomed to people like Gus after a while.)

thanks I hope someone can help soon though

whatkind of pump do you use? Is it a jet pump or a submersible?

its a submersible

I guess this isn't the right place to post a question like this , does anyone know of a site that might be knowledgeable in this area ?
thanks andy

Don't give up so quickly, Andy. We seem to be making strides here.

Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

well gus I just don't see any strides ? I haven't heard from anyone since h2oman

I think farmerman might have a few ideas.

I'm worried about H20_Man. It's not like him to stay away when there's a question out there. What'd you do to him, gus?

He was here and said he wasn't a well man. Remember?

Poor guy.

I just realized I made a mistake concerning farmerman and his expertise on this subject. He doesn't know jack **** about this kind of stuff.

I was thinking of formerman. Remember him? The plumber that had the sex-change operation.

I'll see if I can track him down.


Be patient, Andy.

There's a plumbing/home repair forum here

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=start&webtag=ab-homerepair

I was able to get help on a different issue on one of their forums.

But, you have to promise to come back and give us the answer if you get it, and then we'll know for the next guy.

You are beyond polite, J_B.

andy, you may have a leak at the foot valve in the sub pump. It allows water to stay in the pump bowls when its off. In a house sub pump these are usually like plastic hockey pucks with rubber rotors inside. The water system and the pump leak may have nothing to do with each other. Id go out and turn on the pump, disconnect the water line and aee whether the drainback is quick or whether it holds a column in the line. sub pump primes arent usually a problem unless theres a significant line leak, whereas jet pumps do have a problem with primes even with a tiny leak.

You could repack all the fittings up to your water tank and see whether that helps. Or, check and see whether your water tank isnt logged up. That would make the pump tyurn off and on..

farmerman I am not sure what the sub pump is ? there is no problem when run water all day long ( baths etc... ) or when the water softener backwashes , it only hapens when the iron filter backwashes and only after its backwashing for about a min or so then the backwash drain pipes start to hammer hard and I lose the prime on the well pump , I don't see any leeks what soever on any fitting from the pressure talnk to the water heater its dry as a bone not even sweating

andy

sub= submersible.

How does the iron system fit into the entire loop of water treatment,. Start with the pump riser. That should go to a splitter valve ? then theres a series of pipes that contact each treatment module. Then it goes to the pressure tank?.

I was wondering whether you coul;dnt isolate the iron system and use a foam leak detector or just re pack the therads with teflon.

Its gotta be an air break in there unless youre getting some crud backing down into the pump bowls. Then youd hgave to haul the pump out by the riser and cjheck it for crud . If youve got an iron system , Id imagine that your pH is low and the iron is a precipitate. A lot of iron bacteria can foul a pump by keeping bowls from being water tight.(turn off the entire system first)

How many stage pump is yours? is it a small 4 stage or larger?

It could be something simple, but I think I would refurbish the valve and possibly rebed that iron filter.
If that didn't work, I would install a brand new iron filter.

HTH ~