On The Level: Improving water pressure might require only a few adjustments

I live in a 3 story home that is 12 years old. Water is drawn from a well. I have no problem with my well but I have always been troubled by the mediocre water pressure throughout the house. It's not that I don't get water but it just seems adequate and nothing more. It is even evident in the summer when I try to run a lawn sprinkler.

Sometimes the pressure is not enough to make the sprinkler pivot and rotate. What can I do to safely up the internal water pressure? Is there an adjustment to the well pump and or holding tank I can make, or is this issue something that should be reviewed and adjusted by a plumber.

You sound like some one who has had the good fortune to have lived on a city or county water supply long enough to be spoiled by the convenience of good water pressure. You should achieve tolerable water pressure on your system with a few adjustments before you'd have to go to more drastic measures.

I'll bet you have a water softener/conditioning system on your well water supply. Most well systems around here have them. At 12 years old your well system will probably have been drilled down to the Magothy Aquifer which is both fairly deep and the water from that aquifer really needs treatment.

If my treatment system goes down the water starts to look like iced-tea. It stains fixtures like toilets and sinks and you wouldn't even attempt a load of laundry - all the whites come out a light beige and can't be bleached back to the original, so I've learned.

A conditioning system can present some resistance to water flow and that can be part of the problem.

The first thing you want to do it to determine that your pressure tank isn't water-bound. That's a condition that occurs when the bladder inside the pressure tank fails over time and the air that's in the pressure tank slowly gets absorbed by being in contact with the water and the ratio of air to water in the tank gets way out of whack.

When a plumbing fixture is turned on the pressure in the tank suddenly drops then the well pump cycles on and the pressure rapidly rises to the shut off pressure, then rapidly drops again and the cycle repeats over and over. That's called "short cycling."

Over time the condition can wear out the well pump so in addition to being in a situation of having to replace the pressure tank you'll also be looking at buying a new well pump - which together can be between two and three thousand dollars.

If you are a fairly sophisticated do-it-yourself you can attempt the following. Locate your pressure tank. Most modern pressure tanks are a bright, shiny blue color and stand about 21/2 feet high. Down near the bottom where the pipe exits is a pressure gauge. Look at the gauge and have someone run some water to watch where the settings are.

Most pressure tank's controls are set to turn the well pump on at 35psig (pounds per foot on the gauge) and to cycle off at about 55psig.

Make sure that's happening and also check to see if it is doing that gradually and not in three to five second intervals. If not then locate the pressure control box. This will be a small gray box mounted on the pipe near the gauge that the pump wires connect to. Then turnoff the power to the well at the breaker box.

Pull the cover off the pressure switch and you will see two spring loaded bolts secured with nuts. A tall bolt and a short one. To increase the cut in pressure, turn the nut on the tall bolt down. To increase the turn off pressure, (that's the one that will give you more pressure) turn the nut on the short bolt down.

Turn a revolution at a time and turn things back on to see how much the pressure has increased. Check the operation of the fixtures to see if they begin to perform better. If you think you need professional help a plumber or a well water specialist - of which there are many of both around here - can help you.

One other factor that can affect the sense of water pressure at a faucet or a showerhead is the cleanliness of the fixture itself.

Frequently when I get a complaint about low pressure at a showerhead I'll unscrew the head and turn on the water to see how fast it then comes out. Usually it flies out of the pipe. The same goes for faucets with aerators. Then I show the folks the screen in the back of the showerhead all gunked up with minor bits of dirt from the well water.

If you are on a well and want to really know what the water's like pull the lid of a toilet and take look. That'll show you.

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Keep the mail coming. If you've got a question, tip, or comment let me know. Write "On The Level," c/o The Capital, PO Box 3407, Annapolis, MD 21403 or e-mail me at jimrooney@jimrooneyonthelevel.com or inspektor@aol.com.