# Well water, how to get enough pressure?



## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

We get our water from a well, not a city water system, so water pressure is not great, esp. upstairs where I give the dog a bath. Is there any equipment I can get that will boost the pressure? It takes too long to get all the shampoo out and she's a nervous girl about baths to begin with. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated!


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## digits mama (Jun 13, 2007)

If you have your own well..There should be a pressure gauge on it..

Mine has a air stem that you can get a compressor and build more pressure into the tank. Sometimes it gets waterlogged and loses pressure. Especially since i have water traveling above the tank (live up stairs)

my tank only holds 30 lbs max..some are different. Maybe you can call a well company and describe your tank to them and they can tell you what is the max pressure on yours.


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## pat_in_az (Jan 18, 2009)

There are pressure regulators that you can purchase at Home Depot or Lowes. All they do is restrict the volume of water coming out. In essense, you do get a higher pressure (the ability to push shampoo out through the dog's coat), but you will also have a decrease in the overall amount of water coming out of the head.


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

Talking to a plumber/well co. about it is a good idea. The irony? We had a plumber here for about 3.5 hours installing a new backup sump pump system on Friday and I could have asked him. Oh well. I'm thinking of having them come back to check on the system because it's a lot noisier than I thought it would be. He was an apprentice plumber and I'm a little nervous that he didn't know what he was doing.

Back to bathing the dog...I wonder if there isn't some kind of portable tank pet bathing system that would create enough pressure and hold enough water for a whole bath??


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## sparkle (Mar 3, 2009)

My husband says that there is a adjustment that you can make that controls the pressure shut off point of the pump. Also it is important to have the bladder pressure at the optimal PSI. I was also told that you can add on a aux pump in the water line outside of the well. Be sure to recheck all seals and valve stems as the higher pressure may results in leaks that does not occur at the lower pressures.


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

Ha! So there may be hope for a better bath after all. That's great news. Thank your husband for me. I will ask the folks who installed our well what they can do about it.


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## mostlymutts (Jan 10, 2009)

I am wondering what kind of set-up you have... I have a well also, and an installed shower unit. The shower is just big enough for me and the dogs to stand in. The shower head is a hose, and works really well.

Of course, I have to stick the filter from the shower head in vinegar every couple of months to remove any mineral build-up.


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

mostlymutts said:


> I am wondering what kind of set-up you have... I have a well also, and an installed shower unit. The shower is just big enough for me and the dogs to stand in. The shower head is a hose, and works really well.
> 
> Of course, I have to stick the filter from the shower head in vinegar every couple of months to remove any mineral build-up.


I installed a hand-held shower on a hose in our shower as well. It's brand-new so there shouldn't be any build-up (reminds me that I need to do that with our upstairs faucets, though). It just doesn't have enough pressure to get the shampoo out easily.


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

You could have someone pressurize your holding tank, that's what we always did on the ranch when the pressure started to suck. The well was about 1/4 of a mile from the house so you really noticed it. Sometimes they need new tanks or bladders (not sure if they still use bladders)


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

Ok, now I'm really out of my depth here! I believe it is pressurized. At least there's a little gauge on it. I was told to check it occasionally and make sure it's in the 50 lb range. I'm wondering if the problem is that it's not enough pressure to push water all the way across the house and up the stairs to a 2nd floor bathroom. The one head in the shower is ok for pressure. The handheld is not. The sinks are not (although the fixture screen just might need a cleaning to fix this).

Might also be a problem with the water softener, i.e. pressure might be fine off the well but it drops once it enters the softener system and is fed to the house??? I think I'm going to have to get a plumber back out. I will have them check the pressure for sure. Thanks!


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

Oh, could also be a leak in the pipe from the well to the house if pressurizing the tank and checking all the screens coming into the house doesn't work. Just a thought.

The house I live in now has sucky water pressure, we have his and hers sinks in the master bathroom and my sink has no pressure but the other one blasts water...same thing with the bathtub.


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

Leaks? Now there's a thought that'll fester....We have so much water in neighboring properties in little ponds. When it rains our sump runs 24/7, which is why we just spent a fortune putting in a back-up system. Hadn't thought about a leak in the well system. We don't need any more water in places it's not supposed to be.

Should have pushed more on the inspector before we moved in. This seems like something he should have pointed out to us so that we could investigate before we signed on the dotted line. Oh well (sic). Live and learn.


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## mostlymutts (Jan 10, 2009)

Good grief. I hope it is NOT a leak.

OT--Could you send some of that water this way? We are near dried-up and close to blowing away.


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

Gladly! The water is up nearly over the ditches - our whole street is a giant water handling system with deep ditches and burms to channel the water away from the houses. We had so much snow this winter and with the ground still pretty frozen the water has nowhere to go as it melts. Doesn't help that it just rained for two days.

Here's me scratching a little channel to your house...scratch, scratch, scratch. Poca, come on girl! DIG!!


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## mostlymutts (Jan 10, 2009)

Okay! Shelby could dig a ditch to China. We are on our way!

(umm, should I head out North or South? lol)


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## echo8287 (Jul 5, 2007)

Everyone is wrong about adding pressure to their bladder tank with an air compressor>Don't do that. 
Your water pressure is provided by your well pump, that is regulated by your pressure switch. The size of bladder tank you have is determined by how much available water is in your well and the volume of water your pump can provide. Your bladder tank actually holds 1/3 in volume of water of the size bladder tank is in gallons. If the label says its a 30 gallon tank it will actually hold 10 gallons of water. The bladder tank does not provide any pressure to the system. It is a holding tank that gives the system a constant flow even when the pump kicks in.
The only way to increase pressure is adjusting your pressure switch>or you might have to replace your pressure switch. They commonly come in the following ranges. They have springs on the switch that correspond to the following ranges. The lower pressure is when the pump kicks on and the higher pressure is when the pump kicks off.
20/40psi
30/50psi
40/60psi
The pressure in your bladder tank should be SET AT 2 psi below the lower pressure and NOT changed. IE for a 40/60 switch the bladder pressure should be set at 38psi. Hope this helps, been a plumber for 30 years and teach plumbing,electronics, and electrical wiring at the local technical college. David


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

echo8287 said:


> Everyone is wrong about adding pressure to their bladder tank with an air compressor>Don't do that.
> Your water pressure is provided by your well pump, that is regulated by your pressure switch. The size of bladder tank you have is determined by how much available water is in your well and the volume of water your pump can provide. Your bladder tank actually holds 1/3 in volume of water of the size bladder tank is in gallons. If the label says its a 30 gallon tank it will actually hold 10 gallons of water. The bladder tank does not provide any pressure to the system. It is a holding tank that gives the system a constant flow even when the pump kicks in.
> The only way to increase pressure is adjusting your pressure switch>or you might have to replace your pressure switch. They commonly come in the following ranges. They have springs on the switch that correspond to the following ranges. The lower pressure is when the pump kicks on and the higher pressure is when the pump kicks off.
> 20/40psi
> ...


Aha! An expert. Here's a dumb question: a 20/40 switch would provide greater pressure than a 40/60? Or do I have that backwards?


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

That's interesting to know, considering that the local well guy back home used to pressurize it with a compressor when we lost water pressure on our commercial well. (Yeah, watering 30 horses and a house off of it, so it's got a big pump)

So why's that wrong to do? Do I need to kick somebodies butt?! lol


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## echo8287 (Jul 5, 2007)

The 20psi side is the low side and the 40 psi is the high side. In other words when the pressure starts getting low down to 20psi the pump kicks on and pumps the pressure up to 40psi.
The 40/60 would thus provide greater pressure than the 20/40. This is assuming your pump CAN pump up to 60.
Submersible pumps will do it (these are deep well pumps>drilled wells). If you have a bored well(shallow well with a centrifugal pump) they MIGHT be able to get 50 psi.
To A Cambell. That depends on the type of tank you have. If you have a newer version that has a rubber bladder in it, it does NOT have to be re-pressurized. If you had an old galvanized steel tank with air volume control over time (since there is no bladder between the water and the air on top)the air can be absorbed into the water, if the air volume control is not working properly the tank can become water logged(full of water>no air). In that situation you would have to add air to the top of the tank.
I've worked on a lot of well systems up to about 30 horsepower. Many of them large dairy farms,community well systems and the occasional small rural city water system, also homeowner water systems. David


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