Keith Stelter wrote:

I got a new well put in about 3 years ago . It's down about 80 feet, and the
guy who put it in said that the water level was at about 65 feet at the time
(giving me 15 feet of water in the well). It has a submersible pump and I
have an 80 gallon bladder tank that I put in last year. Recently when the
pump kicks on there is air in the pipe that gets pushed up into the system
before the water starts pumping in. You can hear it for about 10 seconds,
and when you turn on faucets you get a blast of air before the water comes
out. As soon as the air purges out there is no problem until the pump runs
again. If I open several faucets to keep the pump running it will run water
with no air in it at all. I know that the only check valve in the system is
built into the pump at the bottom of the well, and I'm wondering if that
check valve failing could cause this problem. The bladder tank pre-charge is
set at 40 PSI, and the pump is set to turn on at 45 and off at 60 PSI. I
don't know if a hole in the bladder would cause this situation or not? I
drained the whole system down and the bladder tank still measured 40 PSI
with the pump off and the pressure all drained from the system.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


If there is truly only one check valve that is in the pump, then the
entire system above the pump will always be under pressure, even
if the check valve is leaky and any leaks, except to the bladder,
will leak out water and not leak in air.