I have a 9000 gallon holding tank for potable water. This feeds water
to a 1/2 horse pump which pushes the water about 1500 feet to another
3/4 horse pump. How in the world could I be getting air in the water
line besides running the holding tank dry?

In article , (cass) wrote:
I have a 9000 gallon holding tank for potable water. This feeds water
to a 1/2 horse pump which pushes the water about 1500 feet to another
3/4 horse pump. How in the world could I be getting air in the water
line besides running the holding tank dry?

A leak.

On 19 May 2004 21:59:04 -0700, (cass) wrote:

I have a 9000 gallon holding tank for potable water. This feeds water
to a 1/2 horse pump which pushes the water about 1500 feet to another
3/4 horse pump. How in the world could I be getting air in the water
line besides running the holding tank dry?

A leak (crack or loose fitting, or a defective pump gasket) on the
suction side of either pump will suck in air. You may not even see any
moisture on the outside of the leak as long as the pump is running. It
might be best to shut everything down and quickly check all the
accessible areas for signs of water oozing out.

If you can't locate the leak easily, disconnect the first pump's
outlet and run it a while to see if that part of the system is the
culpret. If it's ok, then the problem is downstream. You can
systematically open the discharge pipes to isolate the area that is
drawing air.

Good luck on this one ;( I see a lot of work here, unless you are
lucky. I hope the pipes aren't buried.



John Davies
http://home.comcast.net/~johnedavies/
'96 Lexus LX450
'00 Audi A4 1.8T quattro
Spokane WA USA

"cass" wrote in message
om...
I have a 9000 gallon holding tank for potable water. This feeds water
to a 1/2 horse pump which pushes the water about 1500 feet to another
3/4 horse pump. How in the world could I be getting air in the water
line besides running the holding tank dry?

A 1/2hp for 1500' and then that feeding a (another?) 3/4 hp... any possibly
it isn't feeding the second pump all that well and your 3/4 hp is
cavitating? I think there's a possibility. Is this a new system or has it
been in operation some time and this problem just started?

Gary
Quality Water Associates
www.qualitywaterassociates.com
Bulletin Board www.qualitywaterassociates.com/phpBB2