# One thing after another



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Started to get some air in one of the lines in the house. Line comes from the bladder tank, has a tee at the water softener, water goes down to the softener and every thing hooked to that doesn't have any air, the line that goes up from the tee has the air, that line feeds the tap water faucet at the kitchen sink and the refrigerator. I had an extra Autovent sitting around so I installed a tee in the line and place it there at the highest point before the faucet and refrigerator as a temp fix.

Check valve seems to be fine in the basement, well starts and is fine then you'll hear a small amount of air then it's fine again. Do submersible pumps have check valves built into them as well? Other thing I thought is maybe with the last week of heat the cows are drinking enough and if the screen is starting to get plugged maybe the water can't get in the pipe quick enough? 4" well that was installed around 25 years ago.

Don't really think it's a plugged screen, we widened the driveway at the road by 15' so the truck drivers will hopefully keep their d*mn trailers on the drive instead of five foot into the yard. (yah right, wishful thinking) I ran a lot of water to wet the fill while we were packing it down then a lot more to get the grass seed and straw watered down, never noticed a bit of air out of the garden hose and it's the first thing off the bladder tank.

Any ideals? I'm thinking maybe a check valve either in the pump itself or at the pump?


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I have a check valve in the line to the house about 20' up from the top of the spring well house. The pipe rusted through a couple of years ago on the house side of the valve.

Ralph


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

All plastic, from well to house, house check valve is just inside the basement wall.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

We have a 4" drilled well, as well...lol A dinosaur. Not many drillers today run 4" rigs.

We are down125 feet which is quite deep around here... Most submersibles have a check valve built into the top, my Red Jacket does and it's replaceable.

First thing I'd do is pull it (you have a pitless wellhead I presume)... Shut off the juice, pull the cap and pull the pump and pipe. and check to see how much standing water you have in the hole with a string and weight. You should know the drilled depth so you can see how much there is in the hole. Rule of my thumb is I want my pump to be about 5 foot off the bottom of the hole but at least 10 feet in the water. I have a standing head of almost 50 feet so I'm way off the bottom.

Even if you don't know the drilled depth you can lower the string/weight to the bottom and measure the line.

I went dry about 20 years ago and had the drillers go as feep as my saving account would stand.

You could be sucking air because your standing head isn't far enough above the pump and you are pulling the head below the pump body, which is a big no because the pump motors are cooled with water, but the only way to check it, is pull it. Just make sure when you put it back in the pitless rubber seal rides the wedge in the casing. Thats how it seals.

Finally, dropping the pump can change your water quality. You get different levels of quality at different strata. We have a tinge of sulfur where I have it set now but if I drop it even 10 feet, the SO2 goes up.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

The housing was cracked where the check valve seats in the pump body.


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