Surging Water Pressure: Any Plumbers Here?

I have a well. Over the past week, I have noticed that the water pressure has been surging over a five second cycle, rather than remaining constant. I can hear it more than can I see or feel it, but it is certainly happening. It happens regardless of whether I am using cold only, hot only or mixed and it happens throughout the house.

Right now, it's more annoying than troublesome, but I'm wondering what's causing it. I have always had excellent water supply to the well, so I have no suspicion of it running dry.

Any suggestions from those who plumb?

Three things I can think of:

The diaphragm in your pressure tank is shot. Pressure tanks do have a limited lifespan. Most likely cause- you'd only have good pressure when the pump was actually on, because you can't compress water.

The return valve on the pump is shot and gravity is taking your water back. If this were happening, the pump would cycle on and off quite often and your pressure needle would be bouncing up and down.

Gremlins.

What does your pressure gauge say?

That sounds logical. I did not know that there was a diaphragm in there until a few minutes ago. I did see the gauge go from 38 psi, to 60.

It's a twelve year old fiberglass tank and doesn't appear to be serviceable.

In the bad old days pressure tanks didnt have a diaphragm, you just kept the air column in the tnak topped off. I think there was some sort of device that was supposed to keep it aired up, but they always failed, hence the modern bladder tank. Look for a schrader valve and pump it up to 60 psi or so.

Ah-ha...possible serviceability. I just found a schraeder valve.

Wow, I have the same problem. Its only been an annoyance so we've just been living with it - for about a year. I noticed a Schrader valve on the side of my tank, so I put a couple extra pounds of air in but that didn't seem to matter. No water came out when I measured the pressure, so I don't think my bladder is shot.

My pump clicks on at about 30 PSI and off around 56. It stops wherever it is in the middle when the draw from the house stops, but seems to slowly bleed off.

Tanks are "cheap" and available at LowesDepot. The pump issue however sounds expensive. None of this helps you, of course, but at least we can commiserate.

I suppose that this check valve could also be the culprit.

I have identical pressure readings at the schraeder valve at the top and at the gauge on the bottom.

Not sure what this means with regards to the bladder.

When the water is running and you can feel the pressure surge, what's happening at the tank pressure wise?
My other thought is whether this is happening only when the pump is running or when it's using pressure stored in the tank or both.

Woody wrote: I have identical pressure readings at the schraeder valve at the top and at the gauge on the bottom. Not sure what this means with regards to the bladder.

Bladder on gas side has a pinhole and has equalized pressure? Does any liquid come out of the schrader valve if you bleed it?

Both gauges were reading 58 when I checked.

When running water, pump clicks on, brings pressure quickly up to 60 psi and turns off. Then pressure drops immediately to 35 and pump kicks on again. The cycle continues. Can't be good for the pump.

I haven't tried to bleed the schraeder, but it didn't spit water when I checked it with my tire gauge.

The tank should hold an air bubble at the top inside the bladder that sould be roughly half the pump cutoff pressure.Pull the schrader out if you can and let the pump cycle to pressure, see how much water comes out. Your submarine may have a leak.

I gave the valve a quick push and no water came out, so I guess the bladder is intact (?).

The tag says that the bladder is pressurized to 40 psi from the factory. I imagine that I'd have to completely drain the tank to confirm that it has the proper pressure(?).

I'm really starting to suspect that check valve, though.

I have had similar problems and it was a build up in the pipe going to the pressure regulator restricting the flow to the regulator. Shut off your water and undo the regulator and see if it's clogged.

If the bladder is leaking you may not get fluid until you fully compress the bladder.. You may have a pinhole that has consumed the bladders volume with liquid?

Your air bladder is dead. Turn the pump off and get the tank pressure down to 25 or 30 by opening the tap. Then fill the tank with air to get it to 60 psi. It won't fix the bladder but it will give you a semi functional air cushion until you replace the tank. You're right, its not good for the pump to do the on off dance, that's why we have pressure tanks in the first place.

mazdeuce wrote: Your air bladder is dead. Turn the pump off and get the tank pressure down to 25 or 30 by opening the tap. Then fill the tank with air to get it to 60 psi. It won't fix the bladder but it will give you a semi functional air cushion until you replace the tank. You're right, its not good for the pump to do the on off dance, that's why we have pressure tanks in the first place.

Ding ding. Had the exact same symptoms and did this. It fixed the problem for now but I know I need to pick up a new pressure tank. At least this takes the strain off the pump.

Datsun1500 wrote: Turn off the before the pressure tank. Drain the system after the tank. The pressure tank reading is taken/adjusted with no water in it. It should be set to two pounds less than the switch for the well pump. Most well pump switches are 30-50 or 40-60. That means it turns on at 30, off at 50, etc. if you set your tank to the correct pressure and after turning the water back on you still have the surging, your tank is shot. They fail after about 10 years.

This tank is 12 years old.

Woody wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: Turn off the before the pressure tank. Drain the system after the tank. The pressure tank reading is taken/adjusted with no water in it. It should be set to two pounds less than the switch for the well pump. Most well pump switches are 30-50 or 40-60. That means it turns on at 30, off at 50, etc. if you set your tank to the correct pressure and after turning the water back on you still have the surging, your tank is shot. They fail after about 10 years.

This tank is 12 years old.

Mine is at least 30 years old. Don't imagine the next one will last near as long.

Also, this is a 60 gallon tank. HomeDepot.com lists their 62 gallon tank as "Online Only" and for some reason Lowes has it but it's a hundred bucks more.

All the bladder tanks are shown as "Online Only". I even tried changing stores, but they all come up the same way.

I tried draining the tank a bit and adding air, but it seems to have made no difference.