Water Pump on All Day/night

[Andrew Dwyer]

As Lopburi 3 said, hard to tell the level of water in your photo but if in doubt give the screw a turn or two until it looks like this.

 

 

If that doesn’t resolve it then follow Artisi’s advice

Edited May 21, 2020 by Andrew Dwyer

[Andrew Dwyer]

I also lifted the flapper up in the bottom of tank and ran my fingers over where it seals, felt a bit gooey so gave it a wipe with one of those sponge/Brillo pad things.

Didn’t help me but you never know ????

[Neeranam]

24 minutes ago, Artisi said:

It means the rubber seal between the cistern and the bowl is leaking. 

Get Somchai the plumber in to replace the seal or the complete flush valve. 

Thanks. Could a small leak like this cause the pump to go on ever couple of minutes? 

[lopburi3]

9 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Thanks. Could a small leak like this cause the pump to go on ever couple of minutes? 

Yes as pump keeps pressure in a small tank and as that goes down by slight water usage the pump has to get back up to pressure again.

Edited May 21, 2020 by lopburi3

[BobBKK]

3 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I tried this and after a few hours the water in the bowl was red. 

What to do now? 

Yes it will be. A common problem with village water I'm sorry to say. Manganese.

Edited May 21, 2020 by BobBKK

[Crossy]

7 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

Yes it will be. A common problem with village water I'm sorry to say. Manganese.

 

Not the food colouring he put in the cistern then?

 

[BobBKK]

8 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Not the food colouring he put in the cistern then?

 

Huh? did i miss something?  I just came in and saw the red and as I have had many problems with red water in Chiang Mai maybe I didn't read the whole thread. I guess you're next going to tell me he put in water colouring to find the leak?  damn... sorry - feel free to delete my mistake

[Crossy]

Just now, BobBKK said:

Huh? did i miss something?  I just came in and saw the red and as I have had many problems with red water in Chiang Mai maybe I didn't read the whole thread. I guess you're next going to tell me he put in water colouring to find the leak?  damn... sorry - feel free to delete my mistake

 

No worries Bob, we all make mistakes. Yes he put dye in the tank to check for a dribbling flapper, seems that's what he has.

 

[Neeranam]

4 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Check the water level - is it at or near the top of the overflow pipe - normally that is the source of the leaking - water is not being shut off completely by the float ball valve.  Often just adjusting the screw to make water level stop a bit lower will work but if an actual leak will need replacement parts.  

 

If not high water levels it must be a bad seal by the flapper you pull up to flush and that would need replacement (probably best to have workman replace whole unit).

Thanks Lopburi!

 

The water level was very near the top of the tank. However now, it seems lower. I did pull the rubber tube out of the white plastic one.

[Neeranam]

I see some bubbles coming out of something. 

[lopburi3]

13 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I see some bubbles coming out of something. 

Likely the ballcock is not sealing properly and that is normally remove/replace the input water fixture - you can wait a bit and see if water level increases (leaking).  They have better units with a float rather than the ball (Fluidmaster) which take up less room and I found worked good but are a little more expensive.

[Neeranam]

So when the tank is filling up normally, would this cause the pump to switch on?

 

Timing how long this takes to fill right up. 

[lopburi3]

When tank filling pump will cycle on/off as it pumps water to keep pressure tank charged.  Once toilet full (and nothing else in use) pump should stop (unless a leak somewhere).  

[Neeranam]

So, I've set the ball lower.

 

Trying the colour test again. Damn, that food colouring doesn't come off the hands, but at least I smell like a nice cake(vanilla).

 

 

[steve73]

7 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

So, I've set the ball lower.

 

Trying the colour test again. Damn, that food colouring doesn't come off the hands, but at least I smell like a nice cake(vanilla).

 

 

Try lifting the ballcock to shut off the water when the flush tank is empty....  Use a loop of string tied to a small stick across the tank.

Does the water coming in stop?  If not the incoming cock valve could be passing (and the tank overflowing).

If the water definitely stops filling the tank, does the pump continue cycling..?  If so, there's a(nother) leak somewhere else.

Having set the ball lower, does the level rise as high as it did before - if so the cock-valve is passing/leaking.

 

You can test how much the leak is by opening any tap slowly, and see how much water comes out between pump cycles..  It's usually only a few cup-fulls, so over a few minutes, you'd hardly notice it.

Hope this makes sense to you...!

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

 

No worries Bob, we all make mistakes. Yes he put dye in the tank to check for a dribbling flapper, seems that's what he has.

 

If he has a dribbling flapper I think only surgery can cure that !!

 

sorry ????

[seajae]

our pump comes on for about 10 seconds every 15 seconds or so(its a german one, 2 years old), so we only turn it on to shower or do the laundry. Trouble is the town water pressure is extremely poor for most of the day and sometimes there is not enough pressure to even run out of the taps in the second floor, they laid new water pipes through the area 18 months ago and built a new pump station on the next street over, used to be a reasonable pressure with the old pipes and no pumping staion too so I guess they now turn the pressure pumps off for long periods to save(pocket) money. Will have to check the pump by turning off the valves either side and if it turns out to be under all the concrete will have to run new pipes externally

[Andrew Dwyer]

12 minutes ago, seajae said:

our pump comes on for about 10 seconds every 15 seconds or so(its a german one, 2 years old), so we only turn it on to shower or do the laundry. Trouble is the town water pressure is extremely poor for most of the day and sometimes there is not enough pressure to even run out of the taps in the second floor, they laid new water pipes through the area 18 months ago and built a new pump station on the next street over, used to be a reasonable pressure with the old pipes and no pumping staion too so I guess they now turn the pressure pumps off for long periods to save(pocket) money. Will have to check the pump by turning off the valves either side and if it turns out to be under all the concrete will have to run new pipes externally

Yes, when that pump starts kicking in on its own it’s a lottery as to whether it’s an easy fix , as Neeranam’s hopefully is, or a full repipe !!

I drew the short straw, but 15 x 4m lengths of pvc, a box full of elbows, tees, pipe clips, etc and the air blue with obscenities !!, am happy to say all is done and dusted.

 

Wish you luck .

[SAFETY FIRST]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:37 PM, Neeranam said:

I recently got  a water pump and tank

I would get the guy back who installed it.

Any DIY you do may void any guarantee/warranty

[Road Warrior]

you sure have a leak   good luck !!!

[Seeall]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:50 PM, Artisi said:

What frequency is it on / off and how long does it run after switching on -- this will give you an idea of the nature of the leak - is it every 5 minutes or once an hour? 

First thing to check is leaking taps, followed by leaking toilet cisterns.

Sufficient to get started on .....

turn all wall taps off if installed... and work from that

[ehs818]

I had a similar problem, more than once, and one did involve a leak in the pipe in my kitchen area. I heard the leak, that's how profound it was. I got a guy to dig it up, replace that section of pipe, and all was fine. HOWEVER, usually the problem is not actually a leak per se, but the system not being a completely closed one. There can be a leak in your intake pipe from your tank into the water plump itself. In my case that piece of pipe had not been properly glued and there was an airleak, forcing the pump to constantly try to pressurize itself. A little glue fixed that. Another problem could be that your pump is not properly primed, in that the bottom section of the pump, a big water storage area, is not full, and the only way to fix that is to close off the valves on the intake and outflow pipes, open the pump from the top and pour water in. Again, instantly repaired the problem. Good luck. It's a frustrating thing!

[Metropolitian]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:47 PM, Thomas J said:

, I would certainly think you would see it. 

 

Or smell..

 

I had a leak inside home in the ceiling which can't be seen as the water was dripping down all the way under the pipe (slope) and going into the cavity (where the drain and pipes are) straight to underground.

But when i made a 'service hole' outside we found out about the leak because of the pungent wet concrete smell.

The hole was made because the dogs went crazy from the noises and we suspected rats which it was.

[donmuang37]

We had a similar problem, but we didn't have a leak.  A plumber fixed the problem by tweaking the internal adjustments in our Mitsubishi pump.  Note that not all plumbers have the skill and knowledge to do this. Good luck!

[cauldlad]

I would definitely recommend a manual pump with an on/off switch as opposed to an automatic one.

 

A few years ago we had an automatic pump. One day the water company turned the water off but ''forgot" to tell anyone!!

 

We had gone out for the day and the pump was trying to pump water from the mains that was not there. After a few hours the pump burnt out. Luckily the next door neighbour could smell the burning and leaned over our wall to pull the plug out!!

 

Now i just turn the manual pump on as necessary.

[The Theory]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:37 PM, Neeranam said:

I recently got  a water pump and tank.

If you did not notice any problem before installing the new ones, then it could be either “one way valve” inside the tank or the new pump not holding pressure. 

 

[lopburi3]

7 minutes ago, cauldlad said:

I would definitely recommend a manual pump with an on/off switch as opposed to an automatic one.

 

A few years ago we had an automatic pump. One day the water company turned the water off but ''forgot" to tell anyone!!

 

We had gone out for the day and the pump was trying to pump water from the mains that was not there. After a few hours the pump burnt out. Luckily the next door neighbour could smell the burning and leaned over our wall to pull the plug out!!

 

Now i just turn the manual pump on as necessary.

Almost everyone has automatic pumps and the vast majority do not have such issues are they have thermal overload protection which will stop pump once it heats up.  Everything can fail occasionally however.

[Andrew Dwyer]

12 minutes ago, cauldlad said:

I would definitely recommend a manual pump with an on/off switch as opposed to an automatic one.

 

A few years ago we had an automatic pump. One day the water company turned the water off but ''forgot" to tell anyone!!

 

We had gone out for the day and the pump was trying to pump water from the mains that was not there. After a few hours the pump burnt out. Luckily the next door neighbour could smell the burning and leaned over our wall to pull the plug out!!

 

Now i just turn the manual pump on as necessary.

Get a tank, either upright tucked in a corner somewhere or underground if desired.

 

You shouldn’t be pumping water directly from the mains as when it is low pressure you will suck all sorts of khrap into your shower, taps etc.

 

Plus I have read on a few threads on here it is illegal ,how true that is I’m not sure but it is certainly not good practice.

[cauldlad]

I have two tanks and the water is pumped to those first and then through a filter so no problem with the water quality.

 

The guy who fitted it had to buy the connections from the water company itself so doubt it is illegal.

[The Old Bull]

If your pump has a foot valve it may be leaking back. Put in a check valve above it ,the kind with the spring not the flapper.