I recently moved my family in to a new (to us) home 1.5 months ago, and it's the first home I have had with well water. Though I consider myself a bit handy, I know little about wells, and even less about filtration/purification, but I'll save the purification/filtration/water tastes like dirt Q to another post.
Over the last few days, I have noticed that the flow at the kitchen tap, as well as the second floor shower taps slowly dwindles down, sometimes it recovers, sometimes I have filled the tub in the main bath a few inches deep and the flow was always pretty slow. I have gone down to check the pressure gage that's plumbed into what looks like a pressure switch, and it never reads below ~40 psi. Once it was down near 42 psi, I turned on the untility tub tap, and ran it full blast, flow looked pretty good. I watched the guage drop to about 40 psi, and the well pump kicked on. Over about 45 seconds, the line pressure went up to ~60 psi. The flow at the utility tub didn't change much, but it did seem to coming out at a higher pressure. As far as I can tell, that seems to be working as it should.
I am now starting to think I have some junk built up in the lines that is choking off flow. The changes in pressure might be the junk moving around in the line? In terms of plumbing routing, the kitchen, master and main 2nd floor bath are all on the same hot/cold main line (3/4" trunk line, 3/8" line to the kitchen sink, 1/2" going upstairs), with the kitchen being first branch in the line, the main bath, and the master bath last. Maybe with all the minerals in the water (I do have a softener, no idea how well it's working.. another post on that later too), the pipes are choked down?
I think the accumulator tank is working, I did a quick test to see if there was air pressure, but I did not check what the pressure was with a tire guage.. all the good tools are still at the old house.
Anybody have any thoughts?
Over the last few days, I have noticed that the flow at the kitchen tap, as well as the second floor shower taps slowly dwindles down, sometimes it recovers, sometimes I have filled the tub in the main bath a few inches deep and the flow was always pretty slow. I have gone down to check the pressure gage that's plumbed into what looks like a pressure switch, and it never reads below ~40 psi. Once it was down near 42 psi, I turned on the untility tub tap, and ran it full blast, flow looked pretty good. I watched the guage drop to about 40 psi, and the well pump kicked on. Over about 45 seconds, the line pressure went up to ~60 psi. The flow at the utility tub didn't change much, but it did seem to coming out at a higher pressure. As far as I can tell, that seems to be working as it should.
I am now starting to think I have some junk built up in the lines that is choking off flow. The changes in pressure might be the junk moving around in the line? In terms of plumbing routing, the kitchen, master and main 2nd floor bath are all on the same hot/cold main line (3/4" trunk line, 3/8" line to the kitchen sink, 1/2" going upstairs), with the kitchen being first branch in the line, the main bath, and the master bath last. Maybe with all the minerals in the water (I do have a softener, no idea how well it's working.. another post on that later too), the pipes are choked down?
I think the accumulator tank is working, I did a quick test to see if there was air pressure, but I did not check what the pressure was with a tire guage.. all the good tools are still at the old house.
Anybody have any thoughts?