Cistern questions

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Jul 1, 2013
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Ottumwa, Iowa
So my house was built in 1970. It has had rural water probably since the late 80s or early 90s. I have used the cistern for water to settle the dirt from the septic system install when we bought the house in 2012. The cistern is two round concrete tanks with a three foot wide access above ground with concrete covers. It has another tank or culvert that is filled with rock and sand next to it that had the rain spout going into it at one time. The pump works but only makes enough pressure to trip the switch some times. The big issue I am having is that it isn't flowing enough to run an impact sprinkler hard enough to oscillate. If I pinch the hose off and let it build pressure and let it go again it will keep up for a half hour or so till it stops moving. A lot of sediment came out when I kicked it on as I haven't used it in a few years but cleared up. I had the tank run dry a few years ago and looked in it but I don't remember if I could see the pump intake or not.

Does anyone have any experience with a setup like this? I don't know if the intake to the pump is through that sand filter. If it is I would bet it has a bunch of sediment around it cutting down flow. I have poked the bottom of the tanks before and they didn't appear to have much sediment on the bottom.
 
My in laws have massive concrete cisterns under their house in the islands. Like the equivalent of if one dug out a basement under a house. Must be ten thousand gallons or more because their house is pretty big.

They collect water from the gutters/roof to use for the bathroom/wash/etc. it fills and overflows outside if it gets full, which can happen.

I don’t really understand your explanations. I don’t get the correlation between septic and cistern, or what the filter setup is.

Essentially theirs is cistern-pump-bladder-domestic water system. The bladder keeps the pressure up, but the pump is always running. If one turns on a faucet you can hear the pump kick on pretty quickly.

I’d suspect your bladder is bad or the pump isn’t strong enough.
 
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My in laws have massive concrete cisterns under their house in the islands. Like the equivalent of if one dig out a basement under a house. Must be ten thousand gallons or more because their house is pretty big.

They collect water from the gutters/roof to use for the bathroom/wash/etc. it fills and overflows outside if it gets full, which can happen.

I don’t really understand your explanations. I don’t get the correlation between septic and cistern, or what the filter setup is.

Essentially theirs is cistern-pump-bladder-domestic water system. The bladder keeps the pressure up, but the pump is always running. If one turns on a faucet you can hear the pump kick on pretty quickly.

I’d suspect your bladder is bad or the pump isn’t strong enough.


This. I have a similar setup at my house overseas. Rainwater goes into a large tank. A pump pumps the water up to a stainless steel tank on a tower that provides pressure to the house.

It sounds like you don’t have enough pressure to accomplish the task. A pressure tank like ones used for wells should work along with a pump.
 
My in laws have massive concrete cisterns under their house in the islands. Like the equivalent of if one dug out a basement under a house. Must be ten thousand gallons or more because their house is pretty big.

They collect water from the gutters/roof to use for the bathroom/wash/etc. it fills and overflows outside if it gets full, which can happen.

I don’t really understand your explanations. I don’t get the correlation between septic and cistern, or what the filter setup is.

Essentially theirs is cistern-pump-bladder-domestic water system. The bladder keeps the pressure up, but the pump is always running. If one turns on a faucet you can hear the pump kick on pretty quickly.

I’d suspect your bladder is bad or the pump isn’t strong enough.
The septic system was replaced in a very dry year so to settle the dirt that was dug up I used the water in the cistern instead of waiting for rain to take its course or pay the rural water bill. I guess the point was that it hasn't just been sitting idle filling with sediment for 30 years.

The pressure tank is most likely bad if it even is a pressure tank. It doesn't appear to have a way to fill a bladder and is oddly shaped. It is one of those combined units with the pump on top. The Pressure tank is domed top with a flat or inverted bottom and the water goes in the top with another bung on the side down low.

I think I might have figured it out. I put one of those screened washers on the sprinkler connection and it was full of sand. That leads me to question more how the pump inlet is done. It would be logical for it to be off the bottom of main tank.
 
So, so, many, many, words, words to say "I'm not getting much pressure from my water pump."

A jet pump does that when the jet is clogged. Builds about 25 psi but no more. Also, running the pump dry or with no flow can melt plastic parts inside, killing performance.
 
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