Plumbing question -tapping into house line

[jpcjguy]

Hi all,

So I am about ready to tap into the plumbing line in the house. I am on a well and we have a water softener and booster pump in the garage.
Luckily the line from the well is on the garage side! If you look at the pictures, you can see the line (appears to be 1", measured at 1.33" around) coming out of the ground from the well and there is a splice before the pressure tank.
I thought I could take the splice out and put in my Tee. Then from the Tee go into a ball valve and then the backflow preventer and then another Tee for another ball valve (so I can drain the line).
Also in the pic you can just make out in the back the black 1" poly that goes to the garage. Looks like I will need a 90 degree elbow to join the lines.

This *appears* to be the optimal place to Tee into the house line. Is that acceptable regarding the pressure tank and the booster pump being further down the line? I guess I will also not have softened water out there.
The softener is on the other end of the house in the garage....

Thoughts? Concerns? I am thinking that once I take that splice apart, I will probably have to cut back a little toward the well and then replace the 2 foot section to the pressure tank with a new line (I have plenty of the 1" poly).

Thanks!

 

[jpcjguy]

Attached is a pic of the connections at the house. I can isolated the house and drain the line if needed.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, It looks like it would work.

 

[rburke65]

Not a plumber.....it appears to me that it would function as planned.

 

[Crfdell]

You need to take the water from after the pressure tank. The system will not work properly and you risk damage to the pump.

 

[jpcjguy]

You need to take the water from after the pressure tank. The system will not work properly and you risk damage to the pump.

Interesting. Can you elaborate? Trying to learn here. Thanks!

 

[56Mark]

You need to take the water from after the pressure tank. The system will not work properly and you risk damage to the pump.

I think I agree....maybe. If you have water flowing to the garage, do you risk the flow to the booster pump being low enough to cavitate it? Cavitation will ruin a pump impeller and I have seen that many times at work. However, if it is just an occasional , low flow usage at the garage like wash hands, flush a toilet, etc and the well pressure is enough to supply that you will probably never harm the booster pump. If you are going to be using a lot of water at the garage, I think after the pressure tank would definitely be better.

Just tell the wife no water use while you are in the garage!

Edit: I assumed the booster pump is downstream, after the tee you are proposing. If that is wrong and the booster pump is before the tee, I think that would be fine but you may see some water pressure fluctuation because of the tank pressure surging based on garage flow.

 

[jpcjguy]

I think I agree....maybe. If you have water flowing to the garage, do you risk the flow to the booster pump being low enough to cavitate it? Cavitation will ruin a pump impeller and I have seen that many times at work. However, if it is just an occasional , low flow usage at the garage like wash hands, flush a toilet, etc and the well pressure is enough to supply that you will probably never harm the booster pump. If you are going to be using a lot of water at the garage, I think after the pressure tank would definitely be better.

Just tell the wife no water use while you are in the garage!

Ok - that makes logical sense. So if I am tapping after the pressure tank, the pipe size is smaller than the 1" - guess that is fine? I wonder if at this point it would make sense to go to the other side of the crawlspace and tap in after the booster pumper and water softener? (more belly crawling -yeah!)

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

The well pump will pressurize the tank and line as one single vessel. It does not care if water is taken from before or after the tank, it is purely extra storage capacity for the pump cycle.

Drawing off before the tank will work, however don't ask for a permit as it is normally not allowed

I have a yard hydrant in my system between the well and tank and it works perfectly fine.

Not a well guy or plumber, but been in the pump business for 30+ years.

 

[56Mark]

You have a well pump feeding a pressure tank and after the pressure tank is a booster pump? The booster pump feeds the house and softener system? If the well pump has the volume to feed the the garage and booster pump I agree with NWOhioChevyGuy (prize for longest name). Again, I think the only issue would be if you had high volume usage off of the new line.

 

[jpcjguy]

The booster pump (under yellow tank in pic), along with the water softener and soda ash, is after the pressure tank. All that is located in the garage on the other side of the house.
See pic

 

[jpcjguy]

So could I add another backflow preventer before the pressure tank? Then I will have two. One before the tank for the house and then one right after the ball valve for the garage. This isolates both lines (house and garage) from each other from a back flow perspective and prevents anything from going down the well...

 

[jpcjguy]

Anyone have any more thoughts on this? Don't want to risk damaging anything and want to do it right. Even if the option of pre or post softened water is up to me (meaning connecting in on the other side of the house)

 

[jpcjguy]

So I just got off the phone with Amtrol - the maker of the pressure tank and the technical support said I need to tap in after the pressure tank. Glad I have confirmation there!

(kind of funny that when I called the local well and company, the technician said I can tap in anywhere!)

So since I am tapping into after the pressure tank, the lines are much smaller, I assume the reduced resistance of the bigger 1" line will help maintain pressure in the garage 250 feet away?

 

[dcg9381]

I'm not following all of this, but a large line is needed for a 250' span... I have a 300' span and used 2' pipe...

 

[fitter30]

Confused do you want soften or not water and what gpm are you looking for. What controls
the well pump and is there a bladder tank for that pump and what pressure does it run at. Type of pipe your going to run to the garage and still 1" ? Any check valves between well pump and booster pump other than the well casing?

Sent from my KFDOWI using Tapatalk

 

[jpcjguy]

Sorry for the rambling.
Just went under the house again and looked at the lines. I have 3/4" CPVC after the pressure tank. Rather than tie into the 1" PVC going into the pressure tank, I can tap into the CPVC in either of the two yellow arrows in the below pic. One is before the water softener, soda ash, booster pump, etc. and the other is before. I did see that my outside spigots on the house (2) are both after the softener, etc.
So I guess the decision is mine.....