Clogged pressure switch pipe???

[mistyy]

Hello, new to the site, and in a bit of a bind and please forgive the terminology I use....

We have a well with the pressure switch to kick on at 40 psi and off at 60 psi. The pressure switch is mounted to a galvanized pipe (approx 3/8"?) which goes to a tee. One end of the tee goes to a pressure guage (also 3/8"?). The other end of the tee goes to a large pipe (approx 1.5"). It looks to be brass (is that a check valve?).

Dilema. Over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed that the pressure in the house is higher than normal. Last night, I went out to check the guage and it read 80 psi. I turned off the breaker and let the pressure run down with use until tonight when it was down to about 40 psi. I then took an airhose to the pressure switch and blew out and cleaned any bugs, etc. I turned the breaker back on and watched. Since the pressure was slightly above 40 psi, I manually pushed the contact switches together to make the pump cycle. I could hear the pump running and feel the pipe vibrating, but the pressure guage needle moved much slower than normal, but moved nonetheless. When the pressure guage needle reached about 55 psi, the pressure switch kicked off. I was amazed that the cleaning worked, but disappointed in the low pressure. While still staring at the guage, I noticed it was still slowly raising. No pump running and no water rushing through the pipes. Sure enough, over the next couple of minutes, the pressure went up to around 75 - 80 psi.

Any thoughts? Could the 3/8"? galvanized pipe from the brass pipe to the tee be clogged? If so, can I simply take the pieces apart, clean them, and put back together? Or is this not the problem and if not, what do you think. Thanks a bunch.

[nomind]

Hi Mistyy, where exactly did you " blow out and clean bugs etc "? IF this was under the plastic cover of the pressure switch , that's not a smart thing to do, as it may also blow out small springs and other delicate parts of the switch. - It also does nothing to improve the possible clogging of the switch. YES, the small pipes that the switch is mounted on frequently get clogged up in some systems. The inside of the switch diaphragm also gets similarly glogged. To fix this , first turn off the breaker, drain the water, check for current at the wires, then take off the pressure switch and check the inside of it as well as it's mounting pipe. The cost of all these parts is minimal and I wouldn't bother cleaning out just to save $20-25. The "cleaned" pipes will clog up much sooner next time and if your pressure switch is older than 5-6 years it's time for a new one anyway. :)

[jonfasch]

mistyy,
I had the same problem in the past twice. I have a short galvanized steel pipe connecting the water source coming into the house to the house PVC pipe plumbing. This section of metal piping consists of a shutoff valve, faucet, pressure switch, pressure gage and approximately 15 other tees, unions and other fittings.

After approximately 4-5 years this section of pipe becomes almost completely blocked because of corrosion and has to be completely replaced except for the switch and gage. It amazingly becomes about 90% blocked and causes wierd issues with pressure and flow which makes sense once you look inside this set of pipes.

Instead of cleaning them, I would take them apart and go either to a plumbing supply store, retail store, or plumber and purchase everything new. Ours cost about $40.00. Or for a permanent fix have a plumber replace the galvanized with something else. I've gone with just replacing them myself on a regular basis.

[nomind]

Hi Jonfasch, the real answer is replace all the fittings with brass. Slightly more expensive, but well worth it ( no pun intended :p ). Especially, try to do away with brass/galvanised fittings touching, - as we all know, metals have a galvanic reaction to each other.
Also, try to reduce the sheer amount of fittings and tees in this area, "approximately 15 other tees, unions and other fittings." - are you running an ocean liner there :rolleyes: ?

[mistyy]

We live in Northern California where the temps are fairly mild, but do have frosty mornings. We haven't had any frozen pipe issues (yet anyway) and was wondering if I go with brass, is that a "weaker" material? I have the setup of Galvanized to PVC (sch 80), with just a bit of sch 40 PVC beyond the last coupler to the house. BTW, I was in such a crunch that I cleaned out the pieces ... WOW, I don't know how any water got through. I do intend to change the sections of pipe, but am trying to decide what to go with. Thanks again to all.

[jonfasch]

Hi nomind, I completely agree with you to change to brass. But with my setup, the plumber after seeing my contraption after I took it out, said he would have to come to the house and rework it. So instead of paying the money for this, I was cheap and spent 40 dollars to replace the components myself.

I did have the well guy come out last night (other post) and he told me he would be replacing that whole contraption if he put an inside air tank in the house instead of the buried tank we currently have. So, I'm going to hold off on moving to brass until he does this as he would be changing that contraption out anyway.

I even asked the plumber a couple weeks ago, when I changed it out if we could make it any easier and use a lesser number of fittings, but he said no :( not without coming to the house.

Contraption - The plastic water supply supply comes into the house and goes into a nipple which connnects to a 4-way cross pipe, with the left side going to a reducer and a faucet, the top going to a reducer and a shutoff valve and then to plastic and the right side going to a couple reducers, a tee, 3 short pipes and the fittings to connect to a pressure switch and the gage. I'm sure I don't have the components all listed, but it is a contraption.

[nomind]

-That's quite a contraption allright, lol, sounds like one of those thing you just want to hack out 'en masse' then take down to Home depot and say " do you have one of these"? :p

[jonfasch]

Yup, that's pretty much what I did, but at the local plumbing contractors place of business. And they had nothing they could do to simplify it. Man, what a mess. :)