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Hi!
I am a new home-owner in a 1950 ranch built on a concrete slab with a well. I have a couple of plumbing issues and since I've never owned a house before and never lived with a well before and never lived in a place w/o a basement I was hoping soemone could give me an idea of where to start diagnosing and troubleshooting.
1. I have very weak water pressure in the kitchen sink, where there is a new-ish Moen faucet. Possibly related to that, it takes a very long time (sometimes 10 minutes) for the water to get hot, despite being about 15 feet from the water heater. When I need hot water, I turn on the tap, make lunch, clean the kitchen and then the water is finally the right temp.
2. The well pump seems to turn on when the pressure is below 35 and turn off around 50. The kitchen water pressure slightly increases when the pump is on, but still is not strong enough to keep the spray nozzle working, if that makes sense.
3. However, the hose outside which is directly behind the kitchen sink has fabulous water pressure all the time. In general the pressure in the house is on the low side, but the kitchen sink is hardly more than a trickle.
4. The well water is a little hard, but much less so than the munciple city water, and I haven't had problems with that in the apartments I have lived in.
I have been researching, and it seems like there are a number of possibilties: a water-saver switch on the faucet and the low volume is responsible for the long time to get hot; a valve not being all the way open, same issue; small diameter pipes, same suppply issue; some issue with the well pump; mineral build-up; etc.
What I'm wondering is where, as a novice, I should start in trying to narrow down the problem and what special techniques I may need to use given that some of the pipes are embedded in the slab. Thanks for any advice!
I am a new home-owner in a 1950 ranch built on a concrete slab with a well. I have a couple of plumbing issues and since I've never owned a house before and never lived with a well before and never lived in a place w/o a basement I was hoping soemone could give me an idea of where to start diagnosing and troubleshooting.
1. I have very weak water pressure in the kitchen sink, where there is a new-ish Moen faucet. Possibly related to that, it takes a very long time (sometimes 10 minutes) for the water to get hot, despite being about 15 feet from the water heater. When I need hot water, I turn on the tap, make lunch, clean the kitchen and then the water is finally the right temp.
2. The well pump seems to turn on when the pressure is below 35 and turn off around 50. The kitchen water pressure slightly increases when the pump is on, but still is not strong enough to keep the spray nozzle working, if that makes sense.
3. However, the hose outside which is directly behind the kitchen sink has fabulous water pressure all the time. In general the pressure in the house is on the low side, but the kitchen sink is hardly more than a trickle.
4. The well water is a little hard, but much less so than the munciple city water, and I haven't had problems with that in the apartments I have lived in.
I have been researching, and it seems like there are a number of possibilties: a water-saver switch on the faucet and the low volume is responsible for the long time to get hot; a valve not being all the way open, same issue; small diameter pipes, same suppply issue; some issue with the well pump; mineral build-up; etc.
What I'm wondering is where, as a novice, I should start in trying to narrow down the problem and what special techniques I may need to use given that some of the pipes are embedded in the slab. Thanks for any advice!
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