Hi,
I'm on a private water supply. I have a water pump and 60L pressure vessel with a particle filter and UV treatment system in line (before the pump obviously).
The setup was installed when I bought the house and I've always thought the pump running wasn't right. It seemed to run a long time including when there were no taps on in the house. I know the pump compresses air behind a membrane in the vessel so it will keep running to 'recharge' even when there's no water being drawn but sometimes it would run for 10-15 minutes? The pressure gauge always seemed to read either 80 or 20 psi which is way outside the 35/50 that has been written on the side of the tank so I thought the gauge was faulty.
Yesterday I filled a bucket and noticed the water coming out of the tap was hot. On checking the pump I found it to be really hot, almost too hot to touch. I ran off some more water and noticed that the gauge dropped slowly with the tap on - the first time I've noticed the gauge reading 'normally'. It got down to 20 psi then stopped dropping even though the water was still running and the pump didn't come on.
This morning I thought I'd have a go at adjusting the pump just in case a previous owner had fiddled with it without knowing what they were doing but turning the adjuster for the cut-out pressure and the difference had no effect. I watched the pressure gauge after turning on the pump and it quickly builds pressure up to about 50 then slows down and eventually gets to just over 80psi where the pressure stops rising but the pump keeps running and running.
I ran water off until it was back down to 20psi and to my horror the water I that came out was full of sediment. This is not the first time this has happened. I've had contamination in the past when my neighbour didn't fit the filter properly. I changed the filter and ran lots of water through and it has cleared a lot but there is still a small amount of sediment in there. However, I'm finding that if I run water off whilst the pump is running the water is clear but if I turn the pump off and just drain from the vessel it's contaminated.
Here's what I think has happened. The pressure switch has failed. The pump doesn't cut out when it should so just keeps running until it overheats. Sediment may have got in to the switch which is the reason for the failure. There is still some sediment stuck in the vessel which is why I'm only getting contamination when the pump isn't running.
Does that sound right? If so, any tips on flushing out the vessel? I suppose I'm going to have to drain the entire thing? There is a drain tap on the outlet of the vessel but oddly nothing comes out when I turn it on.
Any other thoughts welcome! This would happen on a bank holiday in the middle of an International crisis wouldn't it?!
I'm on a private water supply. I have a water pump and 60L pressure vessel with a particle filter and UV treatment system in line (before the pump obviously).
The setup was installed when I bought the house and I've always thought the pump running wasn't right. It seemed to run a long time including when there were no taps on in the house. I know the pump compresses air behind a membrane in the vessel so it will keep running to 'recharge' even when there's no water being drawn but sometimes it would run for 10-15 minutes? The pressure gauge always seemed to read either 80 or 20 psi which is way outside the 35/50 that has been written on the side of the tank so I thought the gauge was faulty.
Yesterday I filled a bucket and noticed the water coming out of the tap was hot. On checking the pump I found it to be really hot, almost too hot to touch. I ran off some more water and noticed that the gauge dropped slowly with the tap on - the first time I've noticed the gauge reading 'normally'. It got down to 20 psi then stopped dropping even though the water was still running and the pump didn't come on.
This morning I thought I'd have a go at adjusting the pump just in case a previous owner had fiddled with it without knowing what they were doing but turning the adjuster for the cut-out pressure and the difference had no effect. I watched the pressure gauge after turning on the pump and it quickly builds pressure up to about 50 then slows down and eventually gets to just over 80psi where the pressure stops rising but the pump keeps running and running.
I ran water off until it was back down to 20psi and to my horror the water I that came out was full of sediment. This is not the first time this has happened. I've had contamination in the past when my neighbour didn't fit the filter properly. I changed the filter and ran lots of water through and it has cleared a lot but there is still a small amount of sediment in there. However, I'm finding that if I run water off whilst the pump is running the water is clear but if I turn the pump off and just drain from the vessel it's contaminated.
Here's what I think has happened. The pressure switch has failed. The pump doesn't cut out when it should so just keeps running until it overheats. Sediment may have got in to the switch which is the reason for the failure. There is still some sediment stuck in the vessel which is why I'm only getting contamination when the pump isn't running.
Does that sound right? If so, any tips on flushing out the vessel? I suppose I'm going to have to drain the entire thing? There is a drain tap on the outlet of the vessel but oddly nothing comes out when I turn it on.
Any other thoughts welcome! This would happen on a bank holiday in the middle of an International crisis wouldn't it?!