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Well loses prime
Recently purchased a home with an irrigation system. Brand new pump installed by the sellers "handyman." after finding and repairing the broken lines and heads we discovered a little issue. The well had been removed from the system (previous owner disconnected the well PVC fittings). I have replaced the plumbing to the well with a new check valve and what not. Primed the suction line from the pump and tried to draw off the well. I had success, and thinking I had achieved victory I turned off the system (after 30 minutes of watering) and went to bed. 2 days later I discovered the well had lost prime and upon firing up the pump I had no water. Checked all fittings on the suction line and they appear fine. Not sure what else to do. Any advise would be great! Thanks so much in advance.
-George-
So you rebuilt the entire sprinkler line from the bottom of the well with a new check valve to the pump? What kind of check valve was it? A Foot Valve?
Have you re-primed this yet and had the same issue?
Somewhere you have a leak in your line that's causing it to de-prime
Yea I rebuilt the plumbing at the wellhead. I did not however run any plumbing down the well. I used the existing pipe. Still having the same problem.
why would you assume the plumbing in the well itself needs no attention?
Well I wasn't sure if it did or not. When I was able to run it for 30
Min or so with no issues (after fixing the broken pipes) I figured the problem was fixed... Then it lost prime so I'm not sure what else to do. I'm in central fl so my well lines go down through mostly soft earth.
If you have a well point, then there isn't anything more you can do on the suction side. If you have a well shaft, with a pipe dropping into it, then there would likely be a foot valve at its end. The foot valve would cause loss of prime, if it isn't 100 percent effective at holding back water. Are there any other check valves at the pump?
You'll have to forgive me I'm not the most knowledgable about this. The well head is a metal T fitting with a cap on one end, the suction line on the other, and the well shaft on the last. As far as I can tell the metal pipe extends down and there are no other pipes inside the metal one.
bring back some photos - there has to be a check valve somewhere
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Pump loses prime
(Jun 8th 2011, 10:47pm)