If I’d made a prediction about how my Wednesday would go, it would’ve been to not do much and to not go anywhere. Nothing was pressing. I anticipated an uneventful day.
It sure didn’t start that way.
Smudge gave me an extra 90 minutes’ sleep. I fed her, washed up, made a pot of coffee and ate breakfast. Right afterward, as usual, I stepped to the kitchen sink to rinse off my bowl and spoon.
No water came out of the faucet.
For the last several weeks, I’d noticed my water pressure go (gradually) from great to pretty good and then, if I ran the tap long enough (four or five minutes), it’d “sag” for an instant before coming back to full pressure. I called my well guy and described the symptoms.
“Sounds to me like you’ve got a leak between the well and the house,” he said.
That was not what I wanted to hear. The PVC supply pipe, over a hundred feet of it, is buried under the driveway, between 24 and 30 inches deep. I can’t afford what it’d cost to dig it up and look for a leak.
Knowing that there was a problem, it still was easy to work around the occasional sag in pressure. It didn’t affect my daily life, so I soldiered on while thinking about how to handle it.
Then, yesterday morning, suddenly I had no water at all.
I left my unrinsed dishes in the sink and began troubleshooting. I started with electric — no breakers were tripped. I turned the hydrant on — no water there, either.
Walking down the driveway to the well shed, I raised the hood and lifted the cover on the electrical box — those breakers were fine, too. I cycled power anyway.
Next, I opened the spigot at the well head, right below the pressure switch — full pressure. On the bright side, it meant that I had a functioning well. It also suggested that if there was a leak, it was buried under the driveway.
That’s when I heard the pump running. I shut off the spigot and waited. After a minute or so, the pressure switch clicked and the pump shut off.
Back up to the cabin. I opened the kitchen faucet.
My water was back, and at full pressure. I left it running. Five minutes later, it sagged momentarily but returned to full pressure.
It appeared that the immediate crisis had been averted. The periodic sag remained, however, so I hadn’t really fixed anything.
I wondered — was there anything else I could do to look for a potential leak?
Yes.
The fittings added to the supply line most recently are buried in a compact spot between the hydrant and the cabin. With temperatures in the mid-50s at that hour (about 7:15am), it’d be a great time to dig.
I grabbed my tools from the shed and got to work. It was slow going — I did virtually all of it with a trowel, cultivator and gloved hands. Eventually, I exposed the connection.
Within that six-inch run are five joints, five places where water under pressure could escape. I saw no water, no mud, nothing out of the ordinary.
I admitted to myself that I really didn’t know what to look for, exactly, nor was I completely sure how to troubleshoot the line. That’s when I decided to call my plumber-neighbor, who’d made the connection originally.
He was more than happy to help, walking me through the steps I needed to take to narrow down the source of the problem.
I definitely “got my steps in.” I chugged up and down the hill, opening and closing faucets and valves, checking the effect on system pressure of running water all three places (cabin, hydrant, well), as indicated on the gauge at the well.
The last test we did was to wait for the pump to run pressure up ’til it shut off (at 60psi) and then watch the gauge, which settled at 55psi. It held steady for five minutes. Then I ran the kitchen faucet for a minute, turned it off and came back down to the gauge — the needle sat at 50psi, and it stayed there for five minutes.
What that told us, to a virtual certainty, is that the buried supply line held pressure. In other words, there’s probably not a hidden leak.
The likely culprit, according to my neighbor, is the pressure switch.
I didn’t address that yesterday. Instead, I filled-in the hole I’d dug, put my tools away and went back inside.
Chasing the problem, beginning myself and later with my neighbor’s help, took less than two hours. I was “done” by 9am.
Next time I return to work on this, the first thing I’ll do is kill power, drain the system and check the air pressure in the tank, adjusting it if necessary. Then I’ll take a closer look at the points (contacts) and connections on the pressure switch.
I popped the cover and quickly glanced at it yesterday. The points appeared fine. A couple of the terminal connections on the service side looked sketchy.
If I have to replace the switch, which is a Pumptrol Square D 40/60, it’s within reach — less than 50 bucks. And I can do the work myself.
None of that was on my agenda yesterday, but I’m pleased to have made progress toward a solution. I have water. For now, that’ll do.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable