At the back of my sink is a big goofy-looking water pressure gauge, a gift from Big Brother several years ago, which can tell me when the water tank at the top of the ridge is not filling.
And this morning, probably some days late because I haven’t paid enough attention, it did exactly that.
The pressure is slightly higher when it’s cold out; this time of year before the sun beats on the dark plastic of the tank, the gauge should read about 18 1/2 psi. Instead it read 17. Not a lot of difference, which is why the gauge needs to be so big, so it’s noticeable. But it announced either an active leak or a low level in the water tank.
And unfortunately…
…the level was quite low.
IS quite low, I should say. You might remember that in early spring I deliberately let the tank go empty so I could work on the plumbing. Getting running water back when the tank is empty can take days after the tank starts re-filling. So unless I want to go without running water, I have a short time to find and fix the problem. In the meantime certain privileged activities like showers and…
…the washing machine are verboten.
Two things could be causing the problem: The pump isn’t pumping or the water is leaking somewhere. Being the simplest and most likely cause, I went looking for a leak. Couldn’t find one. I’d been wondering how things were going on inside the big vault the plumbing company put in for Ian’s pump and pressure tank…
The lid is deliberately made heavy and lipped: If it were easy to move, the wind would do it. But I’m not quite so decrepit that I can’t get it done.
But what I couldn’t do at first was see what was happening on the vault floor. I had to go back to the cabin and get that nice bright Fenix light that Commander Zero gave me for my 70th birthday…
And it was dry and dusty in there. Good news. Sort of. If bad things were going on in there I might have to fall back on a local contractor, and this particular one is not exactly a pillar I prefer to lean on.
So I couldn’t find any leak. That meant maybe there’s a problem with the supply. Tobie and I went up to the wellhouse…
The sky was clear but the sun wasn’t terribly high so I didn’t know if I should expect to hear the well pump running…
…it was in fact running. Which was not definitely good news because it’s possible for the pump to be running but not pumping – which is what it did last time. It’s been more than ten years since last time, which means it’s due.
Problem: How do I determine whether the pump is pumping? A third possibility is that everything’s really working fine and we’re just getting less sun for the pump’s solar panel, and the problem is that I’ve been using too much water. I do enjoy that long daily shower, and October was so mild I’ve still been doing it. Yesterday I used a bunch of water to flush out my sink’s drainpipe. Wish I hadn’t done that. Note to self: Go back to Ian’s place and unplug the water softener so it doesn’t automatically flush itself.
There’s only one way to find out: Strictly ration water usage to necessities, and measure the tank’s water level over days. I have a length of old PVC I mark with a felt pen: I’ll go back tomorrow morning and see if the level is rising or falling.
IF the pump isn’t pumping, in theory I could still be okay. I’d rather have it happen in November than December. I have a spare pump. And last time this happened I reconfigged the wellhouse with a pulley bar to allow the pump to be pulled by a single person. The pump has failed twice before: The first time, it wasn’t the pump’s fault: the flexible hose had kinked. The second time the pump itself failed, which is when Ian bought a spare. And that time I did get the pump in and out by myself. That was well over ten years ago, so I’ve been expecting water trouble at some point. It failed once due to corrosion, no reason it shouldn’t happen again. So that’s what I expect to find this time.
But it would be nice if everything is really working normally and the problem turns out to be that I need to cut back on water use for the winter, which I normally do anyway. Wish I’d caught the problem earlier, then I’d have more time before the tank’s empty.
