All sort of issues here - while there's a short list of things that one normally looks for with extreme short cycling (such as a blown bladder in the pressure tank) that doesn't touch the 90 PSI issue...
If, in fact, water is going back down the well, the check valve in the pump (there is pretty much always one built into deep well pumps) is bad. Depending how your system is set up, there may or may not be another one inside the house, which would also have to be bad. My own system, after considerable reading and opinion-gathering, has only the check valve on the pump 300 feet down my well. When it goes, it's pump-pulling time. That would be the case even if there were others, and others might actually cause that to happen sooner according to a number of experienced well folks, which is why the other one I bought is still sitting in a box, not installed. In another few years I'll put a new pump on the shelf for when this one dies, so it's not a panic buy when (not if) I need it.
80-90 PSI is VERY high and almost certainly indicates a problem with the pressure switch. Certainly on my well the emergency relief valve lets go at 100PSI. On 40 off 60 is usually the upper range of domestic well pump "common settings" (30/50 and 20/40 being the other two commonly seen.) Ideally you'd know what your setting usually is or it may be recorded on a sticker somewhere on the system. You mention it going to the very high pressure when first switched on after being off for a while - what was it cycling between when you found it?
You could TRY hooking up a garden hose and opening that valve, then turning the pump on to flush out the crud that's been stirred up. It's possible-but-not-likely that this MIGHT clear a bit of crud that is jamming the check valve open. If nothing else it will get the stirred-up crud out of the well before the pump is repaired or replaced.
If your well is prone to throwing dirt, you may want to add a "spin-down filter" (I put mine after the relief, but before the rest of the system - this was contrary to the manufacturers instructions - they suggested after the pressure tank - but in line with the whole point of having it.)
I had a similar situation as of lately. There are usually only a few things it can be.
1) Cracked pipe and that usually occurs outside from the well to the house.
2) The pump is bad or giving out.
3) Well is running low and pump needs to be lowered or redrilled.
4) There is too much air pressure in the tank and it needs to be released.
I do not think it is 1 or 3 because you said no sediments in the water.
The the noise you hear is probably the well kicking on and off which points to 2, 3 or 4.
In my case it was initially too much air.. after time it was pump need to be lowered. Next, will be drilling lower. Cheers
Best Answer
Something is not right with your pressure tank/pressure switch.
The most likely (there are several less likely options) is that you may have a failed bladder, assuming the usual modern case of having a bladder type tank (where a membrane or bladder is supposed to prevent contact between the air in the pressure tank and the water in the pressure tank.)
Typically the most cost effective way to solve that is a new pressure tank.
But.
There are small odds that things are just horribly mal-adjusted. A properly installed well-pump system will have a pressure gauge you can see somewhere near the pressure tank - you should abserve that while water is running, and pay attention to where the pressure is when it switches the pump on and off.
You can check by turning off the pump and draining the water; then check the air pressure on the tank (there should be a tire valve, usually on/near the top, sometimes under a cover - use a tire gauge to read that pressure.) If it's zero ( with the water side drained & at zero), you almost certainly have a failed bladder, but try pumping it up (with a tire pump - there should be air in there) if it does not hold pressure, you definitely have a failed bladder. If it will hold pressure, it should be adjusted to about 2-3 PSI below where the pump turns on (so if the pump starts at 40 PSI, 37-38 PSI)
Depending what type of pump you have, restarting the pump may be more or less difficult - if it's in the well (submersible) it's generally no work at all - if it's a pump in the house you may need to prime it, and thus you might not even want to start the "turn things off and drain the system" checks until you have an understanding of how to prime and restart the pump, or you won't have ANY water until you do.
To help you understand the (most likely) problem, the pressure tank acts to store water under pressure by compressing an air bubble. The tank and resulting air bubble are typically supposed to be sized to allow for 1 or 2 minutes of pump operation (which results in a certain volume of water) each time the system cycles. If the air bubble is not the right size, much less water is stored, and the pump cycles more frequently. In the "properly adjusted" state, the 2-3 PSI below the pump turn-on (also known as cut-in) pressure prevents any noticeable loss of pressure (the tank is still supplying water as the pump starts to replenish it), and the pressure simply varies between 40 & 60 PSI, or 30 & 50, or 20 & 40, or possibly other values.
A "much rarer these days" case would be a non-bladder type pressure tank - those have contact between the air and water, and the air gradually dissolves into the water, so it needs to be replenished. Those systems typically have valves that are supposed to suck in air as the water is pumped, but they may malfunction, and the typical solution until they are fixed (or the whole thing is replaced with a bladder tank) is to pump air into the tank manually if a valve is provided for that, or to drain all the water out of the tank, which provides a tank-full of air when you restart the pump.