# plumbing help



## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Hey everyone I hope I have this in the right spot.

We have low pressure and flow in our house. The primary reason best I can figure is our dirty well water. I am constantly changing, and cleaning the filters. We've flushed the well twice and will do it again before winter sets in. Our well is set to cut on at 40-45psi and cutoff about 60-65psi with the pressure tank buried underground at the well head. I recently bought a booster pump to install in the crawl space to crank up the pressure in between the filter sets. I was wondering if I had a 30-50 gallon pressure tank in the crawlspace along with the booster pump will help the main well pump not cycle as often and help fix our flow and pressure issues in the house. I've attached a picture of how I think the pressure tank should be plumbed in. Anyone have any advice or suggestions before I go buy the tank and plumb it all up, I'm all ears.


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## azrancher (Jan 30, 2014)

smaj100 said:


> I am constantly changing, and cleaning the filters. We've flushed the well twice and will do it again before winter sets in. Our well is set to cut on at 40-45psi and cutoff about 60-65psi with the pressure tank buried underground at the well head. I recently bought a booster pump to install in the crawl space to crank up the pressure in between the filter sets. I was wondering if I had a 30-50 gallon pressure tank in the crawlspace along with the booster pump will help the main well pump not cycle as often and help fix our flow and pressure issues in the house. I've attached a picture of how I think the pressure tank should be plumbed in. Anyone have any advice or suggestions before I go buy the tank and plumb it all up, I'm all ears.


http://www.pumpsandtanks.com

Check out this site, run by real pump and well people.

Don't believe what people at Terry Loves site tell you, they're are selling their product.

You have a pump and tank question, not a plumbing question.

Yes adding tanks will make your pump cycle less, I'm assuming you have a submersible well pump, flushing your well is probably not the answer. You can series your buried tank with the tanks at you house, the pressure switch should be at the tank, however with a distributed tank setup, I'm not sure. I am sure that you shouldn't have a filter before the first tank or before the booster pump, do you really have that much in the water you need to filter it out? Most well owners only filter their drinking water separate from their showers, sinks, washing machine.

*Rancher*


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

As rancher said, the more pressure tank capacity the better as the pump will start fewer times. When the pump starts it uses the most electricity which heats the motor causing wear and raising you electric bill. The number of tanks is immaterial it is the total capacity that matters.

I would put the pressure tank(s) after the pump. There is not an inlet and an outlet but only one opening. The tank sits on a Tee on your line. As pressure builds water flows into the tank and pushes up a rubber diaphragm. As pressure drops the diaphragm pushes the water back into the system. 

What are your pipes made out of. I'm wondering if they are the old galvanized water pipes that have all but disappeared. If so they will rust on the inside with the rust restricting the flow. I have seen them where the rust has closed off the pipe so much that you can't push a pencil through. Rust takes more space than steel so as it rusts it slowly closes. People switched to copper to avoid this and today they have switched again to Pex.

I see no need for two pumps. You could have pump that is going bad also. The screen on the foot valve could be plugged.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

curious, what are you filtering for, what is "dirty well water". Is it mud, sand, silt, or something else?

Also the turn off pressure seems very high at 65PSI.. I have 2 wells, one turns of at 35PSI and the other turns off at 45PSI.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

You have low pressure or low flow?

If low pressure I would suspect your water tank is water logged. You need air in the tank or if it is the new type the rubber bladder is defective.

Low Flow, than I would go with Caribou's thought about pipe internal corrosion blockage. 

Have you always had this problem or has it just been recently?


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

House is brand new construction, all pipe inside are 3/4 pex, outside from well to house is 1" pvc. We have a high soluable iron in the water, along with sediment. Some days when you turn the outside hoses on, the water is brown coming out from the sediment in the water. The well is new as well less than 2 years old, well was dug a few months before the house was built. I wash mud and silt off the filters every few weeks. I am 100% sure the flow restriction in the house is from the 3 - 4x20 big blue filters and iron removal filter in the house. Flow outside the house without filters is awesome as is pressure. We have several hoses with fireman type nozzles and they work. 

When we first moved in the iron and sediment in the water was horrible until we started filtering it. You could fill a glass with water and watch over an hour or two and the sediment would sink to the bottom. The filters control all the iron and sediment.


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## phideaux (Nov 7, 2015)

smaj100,

questions.

How far from the well (in ft) is your house?

What micron size filters are you using

How deep is well and how many feet of water is pump sitting in?

My first filter , in line, is 20 micron, last filter is 5 micron.

Sounds like something has got your well stirred up and not letting it settle down.

Mine will get murky once a year or so, if We over use it and the pump actually pumps down the casing , which causes the well to stir up.

But it sounds like yours is stirred up all the time.



Jim


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

I don't believe you actually have sediment. You just have soluble iron which is changing when it comes into contact with oxygen. Iron in a water supply is very miserable to deal with. And expensive. Buy a new house or drill a new well is maybe the cheapest and best advise. 


> and iron removal filter in the house


What type of iron removal filter? Is it an air injection system? Does it use potassium permanganate? Is it an ozone system? Trying to remove iron with sediment filters is a losing proposition.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

well is about 150ft, hit water at 100-110 iirc. The well company came out last year and put a re-stricter valve on the well head to help reduce the sediment. That along with us flushing the well a 2nd time this summer for 10days straight as settled the water a lot, it runs clear more often than not now. But there is still enough sediment in the water to clog up the filters in 3 weeks at best. We are running 25, 5 and an paper iron filter. The pre-filter is 25 then into the house iron removal filter that's about the size of an oxygen tank on a torch then to the last 2 filters 5micron sediment, and a paper iron filter to catch any last remnants of iron in the water. The last 2 filters rarely get clogged the pre-filter is doing its job catching the sediment but the pressure drop and flow restriction is killing me. 

I already have the booster pump, and was just wondering about adding the pressure tank to the system in front of the filters or after.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

I would put the pressure tank after the filters. I always put pressure tanks after the last filter. The pressure tank will fill slowly as the water works through the filters but you will have a longer time to use water until the pressure drops. 

You might do better by pumping into a small cistern then using your second pump to provide pressure to the house. The cistern could be a settling tank and a floating pickup could be set up so you get your water from 3 or 4 inches below the surface. 

It sounds to me that you have one filter that is the problem. You currently have different filters in series. You might try adding filters, of the same size, in parallel with the one that is plugging up so quickly.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

caribou never thought of putting the filters in parallel.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

So you only have particulate filters? They would only remove iron in suspension not soluble iron. If you are getting sediment why isn't the well screen keeping it out?
caribou is certainly correct that putting the filters in parallel would increase the time before they would have to be cleaned or replaced. That WAS a good idea caribou.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

I had the same problem over the summer, our water started getting really rusty looking. I checked things out and my pump was running way to much so I aired up the pressure tank and tried to get by until I had the time to repair it. A week or so later the pump was cycling again an I had the time to install a new pressure tank. After that repair the water was perfectly clear. When I pulled the water logged tank out the water that drained out of it was horribly rusty looking. I know that old tank was contaminating our system with rust.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

smaj100 said:


> caribou never thought of putting the filters in parallel.


Different filters must be in series but if you need increased flow or extended maintenance cycles then larger filters, and/or identical filters in parallel, in that position could help.

Another option is building a green sand filter. You have a lot of options and I can't say that one is any better than another.

Hashbrown suggested that you may have problem other than just the well water and that is something to be considered. More than once I have tried to cure the wrong problem. When I had my heating business I always kept looking for problems. I would find a problem and fix it but I knew that by the time I got called it was unlikely that there was only one problem. If the thing only ran for a week or a month and they had to call again they were going to call someone else.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

I would measure the water level in the well casing, and then pump for 10 minutes and check the drop, If the drop isn't significant then you might consider raising the pump up higher in the casing, the water should be clearer.
I don't like restrictors, because of the extra load that they place on the pump, on top of the water column and head pressure.

If the crap will settle out, you may want to consider a drainable cistern that you can draw your household water off of the top.


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