Pump kicks on but very slow to reach cutoff

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kudzu

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The pump kicks on at 40psi but it takes an hour to reach 60psi. We have water and can run little things like toilet and faucet but not shower. What precipitated this was water conditioner ran last night and must have run well dry as this morning when I turned faucet on I got a burst of air before water came out. Things were fine before that. Is it possible to have some air-lock caused by well running dry?
 
Does your pressure switch have a low limit interrupter? (A little lever on the side of it)

Test the running amperage of the pump. A good running 1/2hp will run in the 5.5A to 8A. Any higher then that and I'd say the pump ran hot when the well went dry and damaged the motor and impellers.
 
I would be surprised if this hadn't happened before unless your new to the home. Sounds like a low yield well and your softener drew the water level down to the pumps inlet. Like Matt said, you may have nuked the impellers and/or motor. Hopefully the well makes enough water to keep the pump and motor cool enough.

I would recommend getting a Pumptec. This device will prevent this from happening again by turning the pump off the minute it runs dry. If you want to read up on them, go here: http://www.pumpsandtanks.com/shop/motor-protection/pumptec-protection-from-1-2hp-to-1-1-2-hp-motor/
 
Thanks for the replies. We are having a plumber come out and take a look. It is a low yield well and we have been very careful with consumption.

No on the pressure switch interruptor
 
That explains it! The Pumptec is the best thing I have found for preventing pump failure because of running dry.
 
I agree with speedbump.

Right now, your pump has 0 protection from over heating in a dry well. At the very least, a pressure switch with a low limit interrupter should be installed on all well pumps. When the pressure drops to 20psi, the switch will say "something's wrong here, why aren't I building pressure?" And disengage itself until you manually come down and re-set it. So with the switch you have now, it's just gonna keep running that pump until it burns up, which is what you are facing now.

The pumptec is the more expensive but is much better at protecting your pump, since it reads the running load in your pump. If the load is too light, it will stop. There's also a timer to say it will try again automatically in 30,60,90 mins or whatever it's set at to give the well a chance to make water, and will stop once the pressure switch is satisfied.

If you go with a pumptec control, I would still change the switch to a low limit interrupter. You're gonna want to protect that new pump.
 

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