Over the last few months we have dealt with many problems with our water system. Solving each problem, one at a time. We never had any difficulties with water pressure or the on demand hot water system until we began the reno..

First we had the pressure tank issues which E was able to correct in the fall.

Then, we couldn’t get the hot water to come on correctly until we realized we hadn’t yet cut the vent into the utility cabinet above the tank so the sensor activated an automatic shut off process.

After storing eight hundred gallons in December, January,  we discovered in February that we had not been successfully pumping water into the tanks for who knows how long and they were again empty.. You have to understand the tanks are a long way from our house, to keep an eye on them takes a hike up a long hill and frankly we are busy….. (lazy?)

E pulled the pump and discovered a broken wire inside the pump.. Fixed that… We gained a few hundred gallons in the tank and carried on with our business..

Then, last week we had no water in the house.. Water in the tanks and half way down the hill at the tap by the studio.. but nothing at the house. Was the pipe clogged with muck  from the recently pumped water, was it broken? Before we began the ordeal of laying new pipe down the hill from the studio E had the brilliant idea to cut into the water supply at the bottom of the hill before the pipe went under the house. Water gushed out… A virtual Geiser shot up at the base of the path by the door.

Was the newly poured cement for our foundations pressing on the pipe or were the taps just old? I’m of the mind the pipes were crushed under the cement…E figures it was a problem with the old tap.. Not important who is right. I’m not petty like that… Me.

E installed a new pipe over the foundations and under the house. We had awesome water pressure in the house.. Tanks continued to fill. The kids were here for the weekend and we had no problems at all.. Showers all around.

After the kids left Sunday the water again stopped flowing. Nothing out of the taps. Checked the water tanks up the hill and again they were empty… The pump had stopped working, again, for who knows how many days. But we just been through all of the hassle of pulling the pump, fixing the wires and dropping the pump back in place..sigh..

So Tuesday, with great difficulty and a few friends we pulled the pump again…

It took forever.. the pipe down the well seemed to be caught up on something and was pinched.. It didn’t come out smoothly like the last time.. We checked its function and it was working fine in a big barrel of water.. We tidied the wires and zip strapped everything neatly.. and dropped it ever so gently back down the hole…. I think with all of our fussing and efforts over the previous 48 hours we had over pumped. When we went to get water up with the newly dropped pump there wasn’t any…. Was our well useless?  What is the darned problem now? We left it sit for 48 hours while gratefully accepting water from our neighbours well…

This morning we pumped. Thirty minutes with E at the top of the hill watching the inflow pipe to the tank… Water!!! Thirty minutes of water came into the tank.. We are going to very carefully now pump fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes in the evening. Every day while keeping a careful eye on what is going on up there..

so….. in summary

The pressure tank wasn’t working because the settings were wrong. The on demand hot water tank wasn’t working because we hadn’t yet installed the vent above the tank. There was coincidentally a broken wire within the water pump. We pinched a pipe under the house when we poured the new foundations and we kinked the well pipe when we dropped the pump too quickly down the well once we fixed the wire.

Good Flying Grief, ….That surely must be it with the water problems. Time will tell if we have had as many solutions as

we had problems