Cold water supply problem

[Choochoo]

Hi everybody

A happy New Year to one and all.

Our water supply comes from an artesian well with a pump operated by a sort of float switch which sits on top of a large steel water cylinder.

Does anybody know anything about these sort of systems. They seem to be pretty common here. Ours cycles on and off much too quickly, if you ,say,flush the loo the pressure drops on the gauge and the relay clicks in,the pump operates for a second,the pressure shoots up and the relay clicks off. The pressure then drops fairly quickly and the above cycle is repeated, this cycling on and off can occur up to six or seven times before the loo cistern refills. If someone has a shower and there is a demand for cold water for the shower and to refill the chauffe d`eau the thing goes bananas and sounds like a machine gun ! Any advice would be appreciated. Also the names of the various components would be useful.

Many thanks to all

John & Sue (50)

[Nick Trollope]

Sounds like it is need of adjustment;

The pressure switch may be set too high, or there is not enough hysteresis. If set too high, then only a slight drop in pressure will start the pump. On the systems I have come across, the hysteresis is controlled by a air bladder in the accumulator tank, which is pressurised by the water, then expands as the water pressure drops, keeping the water pressure at a similar level (Boyle's law, I believe). Is there a tyre type valve on your accumulator tank? Are the on and off points on the pressure switch adjustable?

[Dick Smith]

When we were getting through a pump every few months we had a similar problem, as Nick has identified it was the rubber bladder which had split, so that the pressure container for the water was the steel tank, meaning that as there was no possible expansion the pump kept cycling. We think it may have frozen and split, or possibly perished due to the amount of iron in the water (our place is in 50, near Mortain).

In the end we paid a fortune (€6000) to get town water piped in and have never regretted it - but we also had the problem that our well was contaminated.

[Choochoo]

Thanks for all the advice

Sounds like it may be a split bladder (sounds nasty !)

It was on our list of renovation projects to renew the tank so I think now may be the time.I think I will renew the pressure switch at the same time.

We are only 15k from Mortain so we would have a similar iron problem.

Will let everyone know how it works out.Might be useful information for someone else.

Regards

[Ian 56]

I had this short-cycling problem at our previous house. There the reservoir did not have a bladder but an air pocket. From time to time I had to drain off excess water from the reservoir to replenish the air. It is a simple process if your set-up is similar.

ian

 

[Choochoo]

Thanks to all for replies.As the last poster describes ours has just an air pocket and a simple drain off of excess water did the trick.

Unfortunately for some reason the names of people does not come up,probably something to do with Norton again !

John & Sue (50)