Help with Finding Reliable Plumber in Santiago

Have you checked the toilets to make sure the water is stopping completely?

Look at the back edge of the water in the bowl, there should be no movement of the water at that point if the toilets are working properly.

Perhaps a bad check valve letting the water drain backwards though the pump?


Don

Serious plumber = oxymoron = army intelligence & giant shrimp

What you might dois go over to Coraasan and ask if they have a plumber/inspector that could "help" you with a problem, maybe with a slight gesture of thumb and forefinger rubbing together (be subtle)...Theyhave a lot of guys there. If that does not work, let me know and I will call one of my students that used to work with them (Coraasan) and knows a lot of these guys.

HB

Is there a check valve anywwhere in the system? If there is no apparent leak, that would be the first place to check. From what I'm reading you have a pump pressurizing a tank from a resevoir and the tank is losing pressure. There should be a check valve between the pump and the tank. If you can PM me a photo or sketch, I can prob be of some help. The first thing would be to figure out if the system is losing pressure before or after the tank. It would only take a bit of grit in the check valve to make it leak in a backwash. See if closing various valves one at a time will stop the pressure loss. The valves themselves can also be no good which can make diagnosing it harder. Use ball valves whenever possible. Gate valves fail.

This is a cutaway of some checkvalve types:





Most nowadays look like this:



It will have an arrow on the outside to indicate the direction of flow.

Gets my vote as one of the best darn posts of the last 12 months!!!

hb

If you can remove the check valve, see if you can blow into it against the direction of flow. If it is airtight, it should be watertight. Just the act of removing it may also dislodge any grit that is causing the problem.

PeterInBrat said:

If you can remove the check valve, see if you can blow into it against the direction of flow. If it is airtight, it should be watertight. Just the act of removing it may also dislodge any grit that is causing the problem.

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Oh before you do that, be sure to turn the valve off to the pressure tank. It's bad to let a pressure tank drain out.

There are so many poor plumbers that a good plumber can't make a living: all the poor ones would be undercutting his prices.

HB

Question does this pressure tank have an inside bladder or is it an old style pressure tank?
If this is an old style tank its possible that its saturated, and needs to be bleed. Normally via a drain about half way down the tank, open it let the water drain out to that level, and replace the drain stop. this needs to be done about every 2 months on the old style non bladder tanks.

If it's not forget this post as the bladder should keep this from happening, as long as it don't have a hole in it.

bienamor said:

Question does this pressure tank have an inside bladder or is it an old style pressure tank?
If this is an old style tank its possible that its saturated, and needs to be bleed. Normally via a drain about half way down the tank, open it let the water drain out to that level, and replace the drain stop. this needs to be done about every 2 months on the old style non bladder tanks.

If it's not forget this post as the bladder should keep this from happening, as long as it don't have a hole in it.

Click to expand...

My old tank, no bladder, lasted 11 years before rusting out and I never did any draining.
The replacement tank has been in place 2 years and no draining.
Same with the water heater tank.

No draining, no bladders on either of them.

jlw919 said:

...... Have checked the 5 toilet stools/sinks/showers/tubs/kitchen sink,refer ice maker, water filters, laundry room sinks, et and have no noticeable leaks. .....

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With all that you need a full time live-in plumber! lol

Don