What is a foot valve in a pump?

How do you determine if the foot valve is bad in a deep well pump or if there is a problem with the bladder tank?

• Answer:

  When the check valve failed to seat properly at the lower unit in our well, the reserve tank would drain down quickly and then the pump would run again and again and again, . . . If you have a valve between the pump outlet and the tank you can turn it off to check operation of the tank. Most likely your valve has failed. It did this very often until we had the entire mechanism in the well replaced and installed a submersible pump. No problems since and the submersible pump is hardly audible compared to the old pump motor which was mouted near the well head in the basement. Good luck. Bob Jarnutowski bobjarn (at) hotmail.com Ans 2 - A deep well pump does not have a'foot valve' -they are only on a jet pump. You have NOT told us the exact problem. If the bladder tank is not holding water then you may have a faulty check valve on top of your deep pump. Splits in the pumpdrop line down the well are also common. -The bladder in the tank can also be faulty. -You must tell us ALL symptoms , not just ask about two things you've heard names of. Best solution - call a well tech , NOT a plumber !