Started about a week ago. With one shower going the pump cuts in and out roughly three times a minute and you can hear the pressure switch clacking from the kitchen. Pressure at the tap swings noticeably while it does it. The tank is a 44 gallon bladder type, maybe nine years old, and the switch is set 30/50. Nothing has changed in the house that I know of.
Before you buy anything, count the cycles at the shower with a watch. Three per minute is severe. If it turns out to be one per minute and only in the shower, I'd also look at whether the shower valve itself is restricting flow so much that the pump satisfies the tank between draws.
It does it on the outside hose bib too, wide open, so I don't think it's the shower valve.
Whatever you find, get it sorted this month. A short cycling system with a bad tank turns into a $1500 pump pull, and if the well is deep enough to need a rig on site it's worse than that. The tank is the cheap part.
The other candidate is a leaking check valve or foot valve letting the column drain back, which makes the pump cycle even with a healthy tank. But test the tank first, it's free and it's usually the answer.
@pumptest_pat · 2mo ago · 3 replies
Your tank has lost its air charge, or the bladder has failed. That's what short cycling means nine times out of ten and it will burn the pump motor out if you leave it, because starts are what kill submersibles, not run time.
Check it in this order. Knock on the tank from the top down with your knuckles. It should sound hollow for most of the height and solid only near the bottom. If it's solid nearly all the way up, it's waterlogged.
Then kill the breaker, open a tap and drain the system to zero, and put a tyre gauge on the schrader valve at the top of the tank. With no water pressure in it, it should read 2 psi below your cut-in, so 28 psi for a 30/50 switch. If it reads 10, pump it back up to 28 with a bicycle pump and you're done for a while.
If water squirts out of the schrader valve instead of air, the bladder is torn and the tank needs replacing. They don't get repaired.
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@handy_orla · 2mo ago
Water came out of the schrader. So it's a new tank. Is nine years about right for one to go?
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@pumptest_pat · 2mo ago
Bang on average. Eight to twelve is typical, less if the system cycles a lot. When you fit the new one, set the precharge before you put any water in it, and check that precharge every autumn with the pump off. Five minutes a year and you'll get the full life out of it.
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