Nice - good luck with your project!

thanks!

You must have a leak on the suction side. Sounds like a small leak, like a pin hole because if it was bigger you'd have a hard time achieving prime. When the pump sits for a while, air is introduced and water must run back down into the well (or to the pond) due to gravity. Also, I'm assuming you have a check valve or foot valve in the suction side of your piping - that may be faulty.

@@MrGTMan002 , and John, your foot valve might gone bad, at the bottom of the suction side if it's a shallow well pump. A "check value" might hold prime at the top, if it's a spear well, just some thoughts, i am by no means a professional well or water pump guy.

@@lendavidhart9710 Thanks for the comment. You are correct - most shallow well pump systems have either a foot valve (at the end of a pipe - usually has a screen) or a check valve. Which ever one you have, if it has failed, it can cause this symptom.

no - as long as the pump is clean (eg hasn't been used for some liquid other than water). The pump is not typically a contributor of any contamination.

Hey Pep Morgan, The tank below is normally added in to the piping circuit to act as a buffer, or pressurized storage tank. There is a rubber bladder inside the tank that separates an air chamber from the water in the tank. When the faucet is shut off, the pump keeps pumping water into the tank, compressing the air in the bladder. Once it reaches a certain pressure, the switch for the pump motor is deactivated, and the pump shuts off, but there is still water pressure instantly available due to the compressed air in the storage tank. There is an added benefit of having a tank in your system in that, the pump pressure switch doesn't go on and off rapidly which can cause your pump motor to have a shortened life. Generally water is non-compressible so if there is no pressure tank, then the pressure spikes up quickly if the faucet is shut off, or if your water use is less than what the pump is delivering. In the case of this demonstration, I did not have the tank plumbed in.

@@MrGTMan002 so can you have two pressure tanks in that one system. the small one that's under the motor and say a bigger one down the line somewhere?

You certainly could do that. I'm not sure why you would want a second larger tank down the line somewhere. Can you describe your system in more detail? The only reason that I could think of doing that would be to have your pump cycle on and off less, and you can't physically fit the larger tank at the pump location.

Thanks for watching! This was just a test. Had to use the parts I had available.